what is /etc/network/interfaces and if.up and if.down?

[Pollywog <pollywog@shadypond.com>]

As if I were not confused enough, now I need to get rid of /etc/init.d/network
and use this new /etc/network/interfaces, but I cannot get it to work.
This is what I have done with it:

iface eth0 inet static
     address 192.168.1.1 
     network 192.168.1.0
     netmask 255.255.255.0  
#     broadcast 192.168.1.255
     up route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0
     down route del -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0  eth0

Do I really need the broadcast line?  I have always used one, but I wonder if
it is needed.

Is there documentation for this newfangled way of doing things?

tnx

--
Andrew