.TH IFTAB 5 "September 9, 1994" "Apple Computer, Inc." .SH NAME iftab \- network interface configuration file .SH SYNOPSIS .B \/etc\/ftab .SH DESCRIPTION .I /etc/rc.net reads .I \/etc\/iftab to determine what configuration commands are to be applied to the machine's network interfaces. Each line in .I \/etc\/iftab is a rule that begins with an interface pattern, followed by a protocol/address family and then by a set of parameters passed either to \fI\/etc\/ifconfig\fR, or to the command line for execution. Each interface present on the machine will be matched against the interface patterns in this file and the first one found for each unique protocol/address familiy will be executed. .PP The interface name can use asterisks (*) to match any substring. The protocol\/address family can be any string. The rest of the line will be passed to \fI\/etc\/ifconfig\fR unless it is preceeded by an exclamation point (!). An excalmation point indicates that the rest of line will be executed as a command, and the variable \fI$if\fR refers to the interface name to be configured. .PP An interface name of ``-1-'' will match the primary interface. .PP An argument string of ``-HOSTCONFIG-'' will redirect .I /etc/rc.net to get the network configuration from the \fI/etc/hostconfig\fR file. .PP To disable an interface, enter a line with the name of the interface and an action of ``!false'' (or any command that is a no-op). .SH "SEE ALSO" hostconfig(8), ifconfig(8C), rc(8)