--- a/include/linux/if.h	2008-09-22 11:54:10.000000000 -0700
+++ b/include/linux/if.h	2008-09-22 16:22:24.000000000 -0700
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #include <linux/compiler.h>		/* for "__user" et al           */
 
 #define	IFNAMSIZ	16
+#define	IFALIASZ	256
 #include <linux/hdlc/ioctl.h>
 
 /* Standard interface flags (netdevice->flags). */
--- a/include/linux/if_link.h	2008-09-22 11:50:28.000000000 -0700
+++ b/include/linux/if_link.h	2008-09-22 11:54:32.000000000 -0700
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ enum
 	IFLA_LINKINFO,
 #define IFLA_LINKINFO IFLA_LINKINFO
 	IFLA_NET_NS_PID,
+	IFLA_IFALIAS,
 	__IFLA_MAX
 };
 
--- a/include/linux/netdevice.h	2008-09-22 11:46:10.000000000 -0700
+++ b/include/linux/netdevice.h	2008-09-22 16:04:24.000000000 -0700
@@ -471,6 +471,8 @@ struct net_device
 	char			name[IFNAMSIZ];
 	/* device name hash chain */
 	struct hlist_node	name_hlist;
+	/* snmp alias */
+	char 			*ifalias;
 
 	/*
 	 *	I/O specific fields
@@ -1224,6 +1226,7 @@ extern int		dev_ethtool(struct net *net,
 extern unsigned		dev_get_flags(const struct net_device *);
 extern int		dev_change_flags(struct net_device *, unsigned);
 extern int		dev_change_name(struct net_device *, char *);
+extern int		dev_set_alias(struct net_device *, const char *, size_t);
 extern int		dev_change_net_namespace(struct net_device *,
 						 struct net *, const char *);
 extern int		dev_set_mtu(struct net_device *, int);
--- a/net/core/dev.c	2008-09-22 11:58:17.000000000 -0700
+++ b/net/core/dev.c	2008-09-22 17:26:57.000000000 -0700
@@ -954,6 +954,29 @@ rollback:
 }
 
 /**
+ *	dev_set_alias - change ifalias of a device
+ *	@dev: device
+ *	@alias: name up to IFALIASZ
+ *
+ *	Set ifalias for a device,
+ */
+int dev_set_alias(struct net_device *dev, const char *alias, size_t len)
+{
+	ASSERT_RTNL();
+
+	if (len >= IFALIASZ)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	dev->ifalias = krealloc(dev->ifalias, len+1, GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!dev->ifalias)
+		return -ENOMEM;
+
+	strlcpy(dev->ifalias, alias, len+1);
+	return len;
+}
+
+
+/**
  *	netdev_features_change - device changes features
  *	@dev: device to cause notification
  *
--- a/net/core/net-sysfs.c	2008-09-22 12:03:34.000000000 -0700
+++ b/net/core/net-sysfs.c	2008-09-22 17:27:14.000000000 -0700
@@ -209,9 +209,44 @@ static ssize_t store_tx_queue_len(struct
 	return netdev_store(dev, attr, buf, len, change_tx_queue_len);
 }
 
+static ssize_t store_ifalias(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr,
+			     const char *buf, size_t len)
+{
+	struct net_device *netdev = to_net_dev(dev);
+	size_t count = len;
+	ssize_t ret;
+
+	if (!capable(CAP_NET_ADMIN))
+		return -EPERM;
+
+	/* ignore trailing newline */
+	if (len >  0 && buf[len - 1] == '\n')
+		--count;
+
+	rtnl_lock();
+	ret = dev_set_alias(netdev, buf, count);
+	rtnl_unlock();
+
+	return ret < 0 ? ret : len;
+}
+
+static ssize_t show_ifalias(struct device *dev,
+			    struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf)
+{
+	const struct net_device *netdev = to_net_dev(dev);
+	ssize_t ret = 0;
+
+	rtnl_lock();
+	if (netdev->ifalias)
+		ret = sprintf(buf, "%s\n", netdev->ifalias);
+	rtnl_unlock();
+	return ret;
+}
+
 static struct device_attribute net_class_attributes[] = {
 	__ATTR(addr_len, S_IRUGO, show_addr_len, NULL),
 	__ATTR(dev_id, S_IRUGO, show_dev_id, NULL),
+	__ATTR(ifalias, S_IRUGO | S_IWUSR, show_ifalias, store_ifalias),
 	__ATTR(iflink, S_IRUGO, show_iflink, NULL),
 	__ATTR(ifindex, S_IRUGO, show_ifindex, NULL),
 	__ATTR(features, S_IRUGO, show_features, NULL),
@@ -418,6 +453,7 @@ static void netdev_release(struct device
 
 	BUG_ON(dev->reg_state != NETREG_RELEASED);
 
+	kfree(dev->ifalias);
 	kfree((char *)dev - dev->padded);
 }
 
--- a/net/core/rtnetlink.c	2008-09-22 11:48:30.000000000 -0700
+++ b/net/core/rtnetlink.c	2008-09-22 16:23:56.000000000 -0700
@@ -586,6 +586,7 @@ static inline size_t if_nlmsg_size(const
 {
 	return NLMSG_ALIGN(sizeof(struct ifinfomsg))
 	       + nla_total_size(IFNAMSIZ) /* IFLA_IFNAME */
+	       + nla_total_size(IFALIASZ) /* IFLA_IFALIAS */
 	       + nla_total_size(IFNAMSIZ) /* IFLA_QDISC */
 	       + nla_total_size(sizeof(struct rtnl_link_ifmap))
 	       + nla_total_size(sizeof(struct rtnl_link_stats))
@@ -640,6 +641,9 @@ static int rtnl_fill_ifinfo(struct sk_bu
 	if (txq->qdisc_sleeping)
 		NLA_PUT_STRING(skb, IFLA_QDISC, txq->qdisc_sleeping->ops->id);
 
+	if (dev->ifalias)
+		NLA_PUT_STRING(skb, IFLA_IFALIAS, dev->ifalias);
+
 	if (1) {
 		struct rtnl_link_ifmap map = {
 			.mem_start   = dev->mem_start,
@@ -713,6 +717,7 @@ const struct nla_policy ifla_policy[IFLA
 	[IFLA_LINKMODE]		= { .type = NLA_U8 },
 	[IFLA_LINKINFO]		= { .type = NLA_NESTED },
 	[IFLA_NET_NS_PID]	= { .type = NLA_U32 },
+	[IFLA_IFALIAS]	        = { .type = NLA_STRING, .len = IFALIASZ-1 },
 };
 
 static const struct nla_policy ifla_info_policy[IFLA_INFO_MAX+1] = {
@@ -853,6 +858,14 @@ static int do_setlink(struct net_device 
 		modified = 1;
 	}
 
+	if (tb[IFLA_IFALIAS]) {
+		err = dev_set_alias(dev, nla_data(tb[IFLA_IFALIAS]),
+				    nla_len(tb[IFLA_IFALIAS]));
+		if (err < 0)
+			goto errout;
+		modified = 1;
+	}
+
 	if (tb[IFLA_BROADCAST]) {
 		nla_memcpy(dev->broadcast, tb[IFLA_BROADCAST], dev->addr_len);
 		send_addr_notify = 1;