[illumos-Developer] making -a default for ifconfig?

[Alexey Zaytsev]

On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 01:21, Alasdair Lumsden <alasdairrr at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Alexy,
>
> On 29 May 2011, at 21:11, Alexey Zaytsev wrote:
>> Just a random proposal.
>> How about we make ifconfig display the plumbed interfaces by default,
>> instead of just showing the usage?
>> I know that it's been this way for ages, and it's the same in BSD, but
>> it's just something that's been bugging me in BSD, and now in illumos.
>> And we don't expect any scripts to break, right?
>
> +1
>
> Regarding scripts, what about checking to see if the parent process has a tty?

Not at all sure if this is needed. Why would a script call ifconfig
without args knowing it won't work?

>
> I'd say the same of "ping -s" being the default. I (and no doubt many others) often use ping as a quick way to simultaneously check if a host is up, and what its IP address is. Knowing whether its alive or not is not terribly useful, -s gives you that + more info.

This would also be nice, but that's a lot more complex and
controversial, compared to the trivial ifconfig change. If other
people want it, and Garrett agrees, this might be done.

Garrett, is your previous comment a NAK or what?