Re: feedback as solicited by Guix manual (Section 7.1.5)

[Alex Kost]

Ludovic Courtès (2016-06-02 11:07 +0300) wrote:

> Alex Kost <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> Tomáš Čech (2016-06-01 07:53 +0300) wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 11:10:21PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>>>>Matthew Jordan <address@hidden> skribis:
>>>>
>>>>> mentions using ifconfig, correct me if I"m wrong but isn't ifconfig
>>>>> considered deprecated?
>>>>
>>>>This ifconfig (part of GNU Inetutils) is maintained, so I think it’s
>>>>fine.  :-)
>>>
>>> Yes, ifconfig is considered deprecated for more than decade. I'm not
>>> networking guy but colleague of mine who is told me that ifconfig is
>>> just ugly wrapper not reflecting how the kernel is handling it.
>>> http://serverfault.com/questions/633087/where-is-the-statement-of-deprecation-of-ifconfig-on-linux
>>>
>>> iproute2 is way to go.
>>
>> I would also prefer to see "ip" command instead of "ifconfig" in the
>> manual.  Alternatively both can be mentioned..
>
> I have a hard time leaving ifconfig/iwconfig. ;-)
>
> I was about to change the manual’s examples to ‘ip’, but then realized
> that this is Linux-specific and doesn’t buy us much for these simple
> cases.  So, what about this:

Wow, do you mean that ifconfig is not only for Linux kernel?

> diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
> index 6d47976..5fd4679 100644
> --- a/doc/guix.texi
> +++ b/doc/guix.texi
> @@ -5999,7 +5999,9 @@ more information.
>  
>  @subsubsection Networking
>  
> -Run the following command see what your network interfaces are called:
   Run the following command to see what your network interfaces are called:

BTW I think there is a typo here ↑, isn't it?

> +Run the following command see what your network interfaces are called
> +(on GNU/Linux, seasoned users may prefer the versatile @command{ip}
> +command over @command{ifconfig}):
>  
>  @example
>  ifconfig -a
>
> Dunno if it really helps, since “seasoned users” already know that ‘ip’
> is the thing.

If ifconfig is a general thing (suitable for Hurd) then I agree; we
should probably leave it as it is now.  Otherwise I would also add a
mention how to do it with "ip", like this:

@example
ifconfig -a
@end example

or

@example
ip a
@end example

-- 
Alex