NAME¶

nameif - name network interfaces based on MAC addresses

SYNOPSIS¶

nameif [-c configfile] [-s]
nameif [-c configfile] [-s] interface macaddress

DESCRIPTION¶

nameif renames network interfaces based on mac addresses. When no arguments are given /etc/mactab is read. Each line of it contains an interface name and a Ethernet MAC address. Comments are allowed starting with #. Otherwise the interfaces specified on the command line are processed. nameif looks for the interface with the given MAC address and renames it to the name given.

When the -s argument is given all error messages go to the syslog.

When the -c argument is given with a file name that file is read instead of /etc/mactab.

NOTES¶

nameif should be run before the interface is up, otherwise it'll fail.

FILES¶

/etc/mactab

BUGS¶

Only works for Ethernet hardware address types.

More modern alias name functions are available with the ip(8) command or management frameworks like udev(5) or netplan(5).

SEE AlSO¶

Homepage of the net-tools project: https://net-tools.sourceforge.io

ifconfig(8), ip(8)
netplan(5), udev(5)