suse man page for nameif

NAMEIF(8)						  Linux's Administrator's Manual						 NAMEIF(8)

NAME
       nameif - name network interfaces based on MAC addresses

SYNOPSIS
       nameif [-c configfile] [-s]
       nameif [-c configfile] [-s] [interface macaddress]
       nameif [-c configfile] [-r] [newifname oldifname]

DESCRIPTION
       nameif  renames	network  interfaces based on mac addresses or interface names.	When no arguments are given /etc/mactab is read. Each line
       of it contains an interface name and a Ethernet MAC address. Comments are allowed starting with #.  Otherwise the interfaces  specified	on
       the command line are processed.	nameif looks for the interface with the given MAC address or old interface name and renames it to the name
       given.

OPTIONS
       [-s|--syslog]
	      Log all error messages to syslog.

       [-r|--rename]
	      Rename the interface given by oldifname to the new name newifname without consulting any macaddress.

       [-c|--config-file configfile]
	      Read configfile instead of /etc/mactab.

NOTES
       nameif should be run before the interface is up, otherwise it'll fail.

FILES
       /etc/mactab

BUGS
       Only works for Ethernet currently.

net-tools							    18 Oct 2000 							 NAMEIF(8)