ifconfig refactoring for FreeBSD

Dan writes "Based on Sam Leffer's suggestion, Bruce Simpson has been working on refactoring ifconfig(8). ifconfig is a FreeBSD unix utility used to assign an address to a network interface and/or configure network interface parameters. Bruce says that ifconfig has grown increasingly large and become unwieldy. Part of the effort has been to get a handle on all of the options that are currently supported so he has written a YACC grammar for it. He has uploaded some grammer, created a design document and also generated a PDF file you can view which shows you syntax diagrams for each part of the parse tree."

Comments

Re:Wondering what YACC is?

[Pathwalker]

You might want to consider swapping out rl0 for a better card - read /usr/src/sys/pci/if_rl.c for details.

The RealTek 8139 PCI NIC redefines the meaning of 'low end.' This is
probably the worst PCI ethernet controller ever made, with the possible
exception of the FEAST chip made by SMC. The 8139 supports bus-master
DMA, but it has a terrible interface that nullifies any performance
gains that bus-master DMA usually offers.

What ever happened to "Small is Beautiful"?

[JohnQPublic]

A yacc grammar? That makes it official, ifconfig is now a contender for the ls Memorial Too Damn Many Options award. Other known entrants include ld, most X applications, and the ever-popular gcc.

Re:GNU ifconfig - What?

[serial frame]

Let's not give the GNU guys any ideas. ;)