[K12OSN] OT: random

[Peter Hartmann]

I've written a bash script to do some data acquisition from a relay.
Since I'm just measuring on/off, I'm not messing with serial of
parallel ports and extra equipment.  I'm planning on using an extra
nic card with a loopback ethernet cable.   I tested this on my laptop
running FC6.  When the loopback circuit is complete ifconfig shows
"RUNNING". When the circuit is broken RUNNING is not shown.   However,
the platform is FC3.  FC3, as well as FC5 don't react this way when
there's not network connection.  What is this function called?  Media
check?  Is there another way of getting that information on these
older OSes?


Thanks!

Peter