> You mean /etc/network/interfaces? No. It's a configuration file for a separate set of tools that actually configure the interface for you. You can't set its

> You mean /etc/network/interfaces? No. It's a configuration file for a separate set of tools that actually configure the interface for you. You can't set its current IP address by writing to any file. > I can set tx queue length of eth0 to 300 packets: echo 300 > /sys/class/net/eth0/tx_queue_len Or change frame forwarding behavior from switch to hub: cat 0x65535 > /sys/class/net/vnet0_11/bridge/group_fwd_mask Sorry, no banana; you only can control two or three aspects this way, and not the most fundamental ones at that. Network interface is simply not a file, it's a separate OS-level construct, it's not exposed to userland as a file. Not everything in Linux or unix is a file, even though many things (the ones more remote from kernel) are.