On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:48:06 +0100 (CET)
Jiri Benc [off-list ref] wrote:

The d80211 stack needs a network interface (called 'wmaster') used for
communication with the hardware (it has 802.11 qdisc attached which perform
MAC level QoS). This interface is not intended for users and it confuses
them.

As a short time solution, this patch allows net_device to be registered as
"invisible". This means it is not in the dev name hash list, its ifindex is
-1 and protocols are not notified about its registration/unregistration.

Signed-off-by: Jiri Benc <redacted>

Maybe code would be cleaner if you just could do:
	register_netdevice(mydev);

	cloak_netdevice(mydev);


And cloak_netdevice() just removed the network device from the 
name table.  I would rather keep it with a real ifindex and in the
device list, so that if the interface is miss used or the device
is referenced by other devices, we don't see unexpected surprises
like oops.

-- 
Stephen Hemminger [off-list ref]