Please correct me.

When ipv4 networik interfaces are initialized by /etc/init.d/network thru /etc/hostname.xyz,

First of all, we have to be sure that we're talking about Solaris 8 here. It appears the startup scripts have had some name changes...

1. if /etc/hostname.zyz has more than one lines, each line will be

configured for that interface with /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet param-string with param-string is the content of the corresponding line. This leads to the interface is not up, except param-string has the correct format & contains the keyword "up" ( for example, the line contains "some-valid-host-name up" )

Sure..

2. If /etc/hostname.xyz.has only one line, the interface will be init as

/sbin/ifconfig xyz inet param-string netmask + broadcast + up. In this case, the param-string is often the hostname.

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So if /etc/hostname.xyz has 3 lines, we will have /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line1 /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line2 /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line3

Actually, it would be...

/sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line1 /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line2 /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line3 netmask + broadcast + up

*unless* the last line is blank. If the last line is blank then it becomes...

/sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line1 /sbin/ifconfig xyz inet line2

Line 3 is dropped entirely..

Why do we need this multi-line process like this ?

Good question. I couldn't find a particular bug or patch in sunsolve that mentioned this...

Also, this multi-line stuff appears to be new in Solaris 8.