Re: /etc/hostname and POINTOPOINT

From: James Carlson (james.d.carlson_at_sun.com)
Date: 07/25/05 

Date: 25 Jul 2005 07:45:16 -0400

Richard Harnden <richard.harnden@lineone.net> writes:
> I've two servers, both connected to each other with a cross-over cable
> on qfe3.
>
> What I'm currently doing, by hand, is:
>
> # ifconfig qfe3 plumb
> # ifconfig qfe3 inet 10.18.251.101 10.18.251.102 netmask 0xffffff00
> private up
>
> Which seems to work fine; traceroute complains about multiple
> interfaces, but chooses the right one - so I'm happy.
>
> I've created /etc/hostname.qfe3 files, but I'd like to know if its
> possible to do the pointopoint and private bits automagically.

Something looks confused here to me. Regardless of what the wiring
itself looks like, Ethernet itself (which qfe implements) is a
broadcast-type technology, not point-to-point. There's no supportable
way to configure it as point-to-point.

If you're willing to live on the margin, though, and potentially have
this configuration stop working in the future, you can do what you
suggest by putting your ifconfig options into the hostname file, like
this:

        # cat > /etc/hostname.qfe3 <<EOF
        10.18.251.101 10.18.251.102 netmask 0xffffff00 private
        up
        EOF

Yes, that's two lines of text intentionally. If there's just one
line, then the system adds "netmask + broadcast + up" to the
configuration, which you apparently don't want. 

-- 
James Carlson, KISS Network                    <james.d.carlson@sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive         71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677