2009/304 IP PROMISC Flag

[Garrett D'Amore]

+1.   Although I'm not sure how useful this change will be.  (Is there 
some consuming software that needs/wants this?)

    -- Garrett

James Carlson wrote:
> I'm sponsoring this fast-track request for Girish Moodalbail.  The
> timer is set to 05/22/2009.
>
>
> The release binding is "patch/micro" and consolidation is "ON".  The
> stability level of the ifconfig output with new interface flag is 
> "Committed".
>
> Problem Definition and Proposal:
> ---------------------------------
>
> Today the ifconfig(1m) output does not display the promiscuous state
> of an underlying physical interface.  The Solaris kernel has all the
> provisions to record the promiscuous state of the underlying physical
> interface in 'phyint_flags' member variable of struct phyint, but it
> does not expose that state using the existing (unused) IFF_PROMISC
> flag.
>
> Further, IFF_PROMISC is a standard flag that works on other Unix
> variants and we should support it for compatibility.
>
> Making IP subscribe to the DLPI DL_NOTE_PROMISC_ON/OFF_PHYS
> notifications and set/reset the IFF_PROMISC flag would fix the
> problem.  With this fix the ifconfig(1m) output would have a new
> interface flag 'PROMISC' displayed in the output.  (In fact, ifconfig
> already supports the flag, but hasn't yet displayed it due to a lack
> of kernel support.)
>
> For example:
>
> bash-3.2# ifconfig -a
> bge0: flags=1004943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4> 
> mtu 1500 index 2
>          inet 10.8.48.152 netmask ffffff80 broadcast 10.8.48.255
>          ether 0:3:ba:94:2f:56
> bge0: flags=2000941<UP,RUNNING,PROMISC,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2
>          inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe94:2f56/10
>          ether 0:3:ba:94:2f:56
> bge0:1: flags=2080941<UP,RUNNING,PROMISC,MULTICAST,ADDRCONF,IPv6> mtu 
> 1500 index 2
>          inet6 2002:a08:39f0:3:203:baff:fe94:2f56/64
>
> As shown above, all the IP interfaces defined on 'bge0' have PROMISC 
> interface flag set.
>
> Interface change:
>
> 	Name		Stability		Comments
> 	PROMISC		Committed		ifconfig(1M) flag
>
> The ifconfig(1M) man page will be updated to document the new
> interface flag.
>