Index: /trunk/vblade-persist/src/vblade-persist
===================================================================
--- /trunk/vblade-persist/src/vblade-persist	(revision 695)
+++ /trunk/vblade-persist/src/vblade-persist	(revision 696)
@@ -41,4 +41,8 @@
 }
 
+verify_mac_address() {
+    echo "$1" | tr -d ':' | egrep -q '^[[:xdigit:]]{12}$'
+}
+
 # shelf identifiers should be integers:
 # FIXME: check that they're in a certain range? 
@@ -187,5 +191,7 @@
 	    shift
 	    for mac in "$@"; do 
-		if [ ! -e "$DPATH/macs/$mac" ] ; then
+		if ( ! verify_mac_address "$mac" ) ; then
+		    error "Not a valid MAC address: '$mac'"
+		elif [ ! -e "$DPATH/macs/$mac" ] ; then
 		    touch "$DPATH/macs/$mac"
 		    CHANGES=yes