Re: BUG #6651: macaddr length constraint violates standard

On fre, 2012-05-18 at 19:57 +0000, erlkonig(at)talisman(dot)org wrote:
> The macaddr type does not allow for MACs of greater length (or less than)
> than six bytes, only capturing a particular variety of ethernet address
> (Xerox's original version) instead of the broader use of MACs where
> addresses of other lengths are common, such as the 64-bit EUI-64.
>
> A more appropriate type name would have been "ethernet", specific to the
> case actually captured by "macaddr".

The documentation makes reference to IEEE Std 820, which clearly allows
only 48 bit quantities and calls them "LAN MAC addresses". So I think
the implementation, documentation, and terminology is correct.

I'm not familiar with the EUI-64 space, but the Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_address indicates that they are related
to but distinct from what is generally known as MAC addresses. But
since you are claiming a standards violation, would you also point out
which standard?

> Given compatibility concerns, renaming
> it is probably infeasible. However, being able to parameterize the
> length, defaulting to 6 bytes, would be adequate.

That could be a workable solution.