Rick Payne wrote:

--On Wednesday, July 30, 2003 7:44 pm +0100 Matthew Wilcox 
[off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

+       void    (*set_multicast_list)(struct net_device *dev);
+       int     (*set_mac_address)(struct net_device *dev, void *addr);

Talking of which - is there any appetite for a patch that allows 
multiple unicast mac addresses to be set on an ethernet interface? Its 
certainly much neater for things like VRRP and HA stuff if an ethernet 
device is able to continue accepting packets for its original MAC 
address, as well as the 'virtual MAC address'.

Obviously I'm not talking about generated packets (they will still take 
the MAC address from dev->dev_addr) - I'm talking about the hardware 
filter on the ethernet cards themselves. (In some cases, the software 
concerned may want to set_mac_address - thus updating dev->dev_addr, and 
then also add the original mac address to the 'unicast accept list' for 
instance).

This feature request comes up about once a year.  Search the archives 
for responses...

Hardware that filters N MAC addresses (unicast filtering) doesn't have a 
terribly standard interface, and the unicast filter must be adjusted at 
different times on different hardware.  Also, chip bugs lead one to 
think unicast filtering will work where it doesn't.  Also, chip limits 
for some of the more popular chips are unknown.  Also, the need for this 
feature is very uncommon, and can be achieved in other ways.

	Jeff