I think it would be better to keep it. The ifa based alias
interface emulation adds minor overhead (currently it's only a
few lines of code, assuming we need named if addresses for other
reasons too, which we do) and removing it it would break a lot of
configuration scripts etc., for no really good gain.
It's ugly and deceptive -- eth0:0 is _not_ a separate device to eth0,
so why pretend it is?
Yes, FIXING this wart will break stuff, that is part of the reason we
have development cycles. Applications that break need fixing anyhow,
as DaveM says BSD support multiple addresses per interface anyhow, so
perhaps not many applications will break at all -- I've not really
checked.
2.5.x seems like an excellent time to FIX this. I guess the final
decision is that of DaveM and Alexey.
--cw (These are mine opinions alone, but they should be everyones)
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