That all sounds very much like something which will hit us 
back some day. I'm not sure, if udev should publish such dead 
text files in /dev, it does not seem to fit the usual 
APIs/assumptions where /sys and /dev match, and libudev 
provides access to both. It all sounds more like a database 
for a possible netdevname library, which does not need to be 
public in /dev, right?

The char device nodes under /dev/netdev/ do seem to adhere to the
assumption of what is there under /sys and /dev match.

With regards,
Narendra K