Re: [PATCH] ifconfig(8) flag to display IPv4 netmasks in dot-decimal format

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 04:11:27PM +0400, Sergey Vinogradov wrote:
>Hi,
>I've written a tiny-tiny patch, which adds the '-t' flag to
>ifconfig(8). It modifies the output to display IPv4 netmasks in dotted
>decimal notation:
>

Sorry but as much as I would like to see this happen and change the
display of the netmask I just cannot seem to come to a genuine consensus
that justifies adding a '-t' flag or any flag for that matter just to
modify the output of one field in the display of ifconfig(8)

In general flags to programs usually should carry some sort of meaning
to what they are meant to do and I dont really see that for '-t' and
netmask display.

What I feel would be a better approach to this is checking the
environ(7) for some sort of variable that can be specified on a per-user
basis or the system as a whole. As to what that variable would be called
I could only suggest in a naming convention to be ``HUMANIZE'' or
something similiar and then ifconfig(8) could be the first consumer of
that variable and probably shortly following du(1) & df(1).

This variable could also be one that acts as BLOCKSIZE does to df(1)
output and also be available for consumption by other utilities that may
need fine tuning without breaking existing interfaces.

</STRONG-OPINION>

-- 

Regards,

 J. Hellenthal