As it seems still to be missing, I'd like to suggest a hint or an example in the man page (or a link there to external information) how ifenslave is used when specifying bonding interfaces in /etc/network/interfaces. Inspired by https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ifenslave-2.6/+bug/1015199 I found out the following things which need to be clearified (i.e. should be clear after reading the man page):
1.) Does the order of interfaces matter in /etc/network/interfaces (it shouldn't...)
2.) What stanzas to write: auto? allow-bondX? both, none?
3.) What means <code>bond-slaves none</code>?
5.) If it is necessary to invoke <code>ifup slave0 && ifup slave1 && ... </code> before <code>ifup bond0</code>, how can anyone use bonded interfaces with auto stanza? (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ifenslave-2.6/+bug/1073820 is fixed, but I don't understand WHAT has been fixed)
6.) Which are other ways to configure a bonding interface -> EXAMPLES!!
Of the list you provided, what bits aren't currently covered by:
- /usr/share/
- /usr/share/
- ifup/ifdown/
Based on those, this seems to cover:
1) ifup manpage says that ifupdown processes the interfaces in the order they are listed in /etc/network/
2) allow-bondX is never mentioned in the Ubuntu documentation but auto always is
3) It means there are no hardcoded list of slaves for that bond (slaves are assigned through bond-master in their own interface definitions as per the examples).
5) See 1), you are supposed to first have all the physical devices, each with the right bond-master set, then the bond device itself with bond-slaves none. In this case, bringing up any of the physical devices will bring up the bond. If none of the physical devices exist by the time you bring up the bond, it'll wait for 5 minutes for a slave to appear on the system.
6) See README.Debian.gz and the examples