Re: solaris loopback

[Andrew Brown <atatat () atatdot net>]

> > i might buy that, except that /dev/hme and /dev/le (and presumably the
> > other network device sounding names) all work for snarfing traffic.
>
> Eh?
>
> What does whether they work for snarfing traffic have to do with whether
> they're clone devices?

my first impression on looking at the list of devices was that they
were all related somehow to networking.  that's why i tried using
tcpdiump on all of them.  i was wrong.

> Clone devices are a general mechanism used for things that aren't
> network devices or protocols, such as the pseudo-tty master device:
>
> >      crw-rw-rw-   1 root      11,  23 Mar  1  2000 ptmx

sure.

> > some of them have other purposes that i know of (eg, /dev/ip or
> > /dev/tcp) such as using them for controlling ndd (network device
> > diddler?) settings.  i think that major number 11 on solaris is just a
> > dumping ground for pseudo devices that do "stuff".
>
> Yes.  The "stuff" is called cloning.

right, so the major number indicates that it's a cloning device.  the
minor number, on the other hand, can be a device that has wildly
differing purposes from the others.  that's why i said "stuff".

-- 
|-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----|
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