I've found this to be true, AFAIK:

   if a single -a argument is given, it dis­
   plays the status of all interfaces, even  
   those  that  are down

...unless, of course, it's broken (hacked?)

Andy

On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, Bob Tanner wrote:

> Shouldn't ifconfig -a under RedHat return if the interface is in promiscous
> mode?
> 
>