/etc/network/interfaces

the following are some of the lines in my /etc/network/interfaces file

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet static

can any one explain what these lines are and what is their purpose ?

iface i know it means interface
eth0 - ethernet card 0
inet means what ?

what is meant by loopback , auto lo ?


nixscripter

"loopback" refers to an internal loopback network - 127.0.0.0/8
Loopback is a virtual interface which simply sends the packets from the local computer to itself. Leave that auto, as some daemons use it to for networking tricks, particularly RPC.


jamesapnic

The inet means that the interface will be used for "Internet" networking, i.e. using TCP/IP. Static means that it has been supplied with a fixed address and that is not, for example, using DHCP.


tredegar

and if you type man interfaces in a terminal, you can read a lot more about what the text in that file means.