Is there any information about "option ifname" vs "list ports" as I cannot find any ? Or is "option ifname" deprecated and replaced by "list ports" ?
Haha I always like your name/avatar.
But so; deprecated it seems ?
ifname is still youed, it seems....
ifname- The base L2 device required when using themacvlandevice type. Install the kmod-macvlan package if necessary.
Only in the /etc/config/network file.
Still used extensively in the /etc/config/wireless file to override the auto-generated one.
eg "phy0-ap0" is auto generated but you can configure an ifname to be more meaningful eg "my-ap". I don't recall but I think a maximum of 8 characters and the first must be a letter. Dashes are allowed.
The issue is that I see it a lot with BATMAN and Vlans; the issue is: is it a needed package.
I'm having trouble with simple 802.11.s Mesh to BATMAN; and I'm not sure if that package is the issue as I like to use Vlans as well.
Maybe open up a new thread and post your current config files.
That is fixed; I get the feeling that you need to use bat0.1 instead of bat0 to get your mesh traffic floating from the start when using vlans.
I can open a topic for it if you want because people seem to be confused about it everywhere where I found topics about BATMAN and vlans.
But this isn't news? That's the way to declare/reference a vlan id on an network interface on Linux since 30 years...
Lots of people claim to use bat0 instead of bat0.1 as bat0 exists by default in vlan 1; or should be.
If you have no vlan IDs in use you can use the plain interface. But if you want the Linux Kernel to deal with vlan id on Ethernet frames then you need the dot notation for the sub interface. 
Yes I assumed but most tutorials say different; even the ones that explain vlans. 
Maybe the Wiki even needs to be updated.