ifconfig packet receive count

["Jason Smith" <jvsmith@midamer.net>]

I realize that I already kind of know the answer to this question but I'm
just wondering the why behind it and why has it never been worked around,
not that its that big of a deal.

When i run ifconfig on a box running snort at work.  It gives the packet
receive count as 2147483647, it's been like that for at least a week.  I
realize that this number is 2^32 if counting from zero.  And I also realize
that this being an i386 based system that it is based on 32 bits.  So I
guess my real question is, is this a limitation in the kernel?  Sort of
along the same line as the 2 GB mem limit in the 2.2 kernels.  Or is it
something else?  And also not that its really extremely necessary how hard
would it be to work around this?  I unfortunately don't have any programming
skills so I am unable to read the kernel source and figure out an answer for
myself.  So I ask all of you.  The kernel I am using is the standard 2.4.6.

Thank you
Jason Smith

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