Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] UDEV - Add 'udevlom' command line param to start_udev

From: Rick Jones <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:32:28 -0800

>>I'm getting a lot of pushback from Dell customers on our
>>linux-poweredge mailing list (thread starts [1]) that the choice of
>>name "lomX" is poor, due to HP's extensive use of LOM meaning Lights
>>Out Management, rather than my intended meaning of "LAN on
>>Motherboard".  Gotta hate TLA collisions.

I think Sun (sorry, Oracle) push LOM for Lights-Out Management quite a lot - 
calling their service processor an iLOM IIRC.

>>So, I'm open to new ideas for naming these.  At LPC, Ted noted that
>>2- and 3-letter names are expected.  "nic[1234]" or "en[1234]" ?
> 
> [...]
> 
> I would suggest avoiding "nic" since some people use "NIC" to mean
> specifically an add-in card rather than LOM.  In addition there is some
> ambiguity with multi-port cards/controllers of whether NIC means a
> controller or a port.
> 
> Other options for the prefix:
> - "lan".  Maybe too generic.

yes and no - that is the prefix for "ethernet" network interface names in HP-UX, 
going back decades.  so, there is precedent for that, and given the way HP-UX 
device name persistence works, 99 times out of ten, the "built-in" or "core" LAN 
interfaces ended-up being enumerated starting from zero - lan0, lan1, etc. 
(There are exceptions relating to certain modles of systems and a full 
re-install of the OS with add-on cards present but that is a story for another 
thread).

> - "mbe" = MotherBoard Ethernet. Looks a bit like "GbE" as some OEMs put
> on the port labels.

Collides with Multi-Bit Error.

> - "eom" = Ethernet On Motherboard

Collides with End of Message.

If there is indeed *no* way to get then named eth[1-N], and "lan" doesn't 
resonate well-enough, then my contribution to the bikeshed would be "cor" simply 
because I don't know the TLA with which that collides :)

Are folks sufficently confident that using anything other than "eth" won't cause 
some unpleasant "our app always ass-u-me-d interfaces started with 'eth'" 
situations?

rick jones