IP-Aliasing: ============ IP-aliases are an obsolete way to manage multiple IP-addresses/masks per interface. Newer tools such as iproute2 support multiple address/prefixes per interface, but aliases are still supported for backwards compatibility. An alias is formed by adding a colon and a string when running ifconfig. This string is usually numeric, but this is not a must. o Alias creation. Alias creation is done by 'magic' interface naming: eg. to create a 200.1.1.1 alias for eth0 ... # ifconfig eth0:0 200.1.1.1 etc,etc.... ~~ -> request alias #0 creation (if not yet exists) for eth0 The corresponding route is also set up by this command. Please note: The route always points to the base interface. o Alias deletion. The alias is removed by shutting the alias down: # ifconfig eth0:0 down ~~~~~~~~~~ -> will delete alias o Alias (re-)configuring Aliases are not real devices, but programs should be able to configure and refer to them as usual (ifconfig, route, etc). o Relationship with main device If the base device is shut down the added aliases will be deleted too.