[Toybox] complaining about 'ifconfig' - better use 'ip'

Bastian Bittorf bittorf at bluebottle.com
Wed Apr 3 11:50:56 PDT 2013


* Isaac Dunham <idunham at lavabit.com> [03.04.2013 20:18]:
> If you would read the first _four_ lines instead of the first three, you would see that your response fails to address what I was saying
> (NOTE: there's more information after this quote):

ofcourse i understand your arguments:
- you are not used to the syntax of 'ip'
- you are not used to the output of 'ip'

both arguments are valid and invalid, regarding
the point of view: a user which has experience
with 'ip' and is unfamiliar with 'ifconfig' has
the same problems: he needs help using this tool, but:

ifconfig/route/arp are 3 tools which are doing the same
(manipulating network) but have different commandlines
und concepts. 'ip' is a round figure where everything
fits together, so easier to understand:

ifconfig eth0 up
=
ip link set dev eth0 up

ifconfig
=
ip address show (or 'ip a', because you can always abbreviate)

maybe it hurts, but especially regarding IPv6 (it coming!)
you want to have CIDR-notation which ifconfig does not know.
and there are 999 examples more...

http://inai.de/2008/02/19
http://techblog.rosedu.org/ifconfig-vs-iproute.html
http://members.ferrara.linux.it/pioppo/howto/iproute2tunnel-en.html

again, think about it:
the ifconfig/route/arp-tools are totally obsolete and only
because the people know the syntax of 'sccs' nobody cares
about it, because there are better tools.

bye, bastian



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