SuSE 11.3 - man page for nameif (suse section 8)

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 consult-
	      ing 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)