why no network device file in linux?

[Shariq Ehsan]

hi,
could anyone tell me the exact reason of not having a network device file in linux and why an interface(e.g. eth0, eth1..).

thanks

[Ragu_3]

>> why no network device file in linux?

Maybe the device driver file is not available
and is missing. What is the name of the
interface device chipset/s?

Do give more info in a clear and concise manner.

[Matti_Kurkela]

Maybe because Linus (and other people designing the Linux networking layer) found it unnecessary to have device files for network interfaces?

If you want the exact technical reason, maybe you should ask the maintainers of the Linux network subsystem. To get the address of the network developers' mailing list, find a Linux kernel source package and read the MAINTAINERS file at the top directory of the source package.

MK

[Wouter Jagers]

From a Linux Journal article:

"Network interfaces don't fall in the device-file abstraction. Network interfaces are identified by means of a name (such as eth0 or plip1) but they are not mapped to the filesystem. It would be theoretically possible, but it is impractical from a programming and performance standpoint; a network interface can only transfer packets, and the file abstraction does not efficiently manage structured data like packets."

Hope that satisfies your curiousity. You did trigger mine ;-)

Cheers,
Wout