Here we are, this is the ultimate post from these series. Thanks both previous posts, we are now able to get a list of interfaces using any language from shell script to whatever language which can speak ''sockets''.
However, as we could realize earlier, the ioctl-based method does not work exactly the way we want, because it does only report IP enabled devices. So if you want to deal with network interfaces before they start running, you are stuck with the /proc method. There must be another way. Remember that man netdevice we did last week. They mentioned netlink... What are those ?
Netlink sockets are sockets from the AF_NETLINK family. Being sockets, they are used to communicate between two addresses. The fun part is, netlink communications are local. And they usually (in the most simple scenario) link a user process with the kernel, especially the networking stack of the kernel.
