Sorry, my bad.
I agree w/ your recommendation then - 
1) stuff it in ifalias(or create a new alias if net_device::ifalias is
used for snmp etc).

But how do we consume it? 
   1.1) spit it out via sysfs? But Doc/sysfsrules.txt says "Accessing
/sys/class/net/eth0/device is a bug in the application"


Chetan

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Hemminger [mailto:shemminger@vyatta.com]
Sent: August 26, 2010 11:22 AM
To: Loke, Chetan
Cc: Matt Domsch; Narendra_K@Dell.com; netdev@vger.kernel.org;
Charles_Rose@Dell.com; Jordan_Hargrave@Dell.com; linux-
pci@vger.kernel.org; linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add firmware label support to iproute2

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:17:51 -0400
"Loke, Chetan" [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

What if we extend 'IFNAMSIZ'(beyond 16 chars. Older apps don't need

to

quoted

worry because they have been working w/ 16 chars anyways) and also

get

quoted

ifalias to work in udev(Or is ifalias a bad idea?)?

Chetan

That is  non-starter for the ioctl() style interface.

struct ifreq {
#define IFHWADDRLEN	6
	union
	{
		char	ifrn_name[IFNAMSIZ];		/* if name, e.g.

"en0"

*/
	} ifr_ifrn;

	union {
		struct	sockaddr ifru_addr;
		struct	sockaddr ifru_dstaddr;
		struct	sockaddr ifru_broadaddr;
		struct	sockaddr ifru_netmask;
		struct  sockaddr ifru_hwaddr;
		short	ifru_flags;
		int	ifru_ivalue;
		int	ifru_mtu;
		struct  ifmap ifru_map;
		char	ifru_slave[IFNAMSIZ];	/* Just fits the size */
		char	ifru_newname[IFNAMSIZ];
		void __user *	ifru_data;
		struct	if_settings ifru_settings;
	} ifr_ifru;
};

Applications do:
   	strncpy(ifr.ifr_name, "my name", IFNAMSIZ);
	ioctl(fd, SIOCGHWADDR, &ifr)