This error is in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-
scripts/network-functions from initscripts-3.78-1.

If the function source_config is given a $CONFIG which has
path elements (such as "/path/to/file" and not just
"file"), the variable $PARENTDEVNAME will be incorrectly
computed. The path elements will not be stripped with
"basename", as they are when computing $DEVNAME.

Here is the patch: (hope it does not get too mangled.)

####
--- network-functions.orig   Thu Oct 15 12:07:52 1998
+++ network-functions       Mon Apr  5 17:55:37 1999
@@ -5,11 +5,11 @@
 {
     DEVNAME=`basename $CONFIG | sed 's/^ifcfg-//g'`

     if basename $CONFIG | grep -q '[^g]-' ; then
        PARENTCONFIG=`echo $CONFIG | sed 's/-[^-]*$//g'`
-       PARENTDEVNAME=`echo $PARENTCONFIG | sed
's/^ifcfg-//g'`
+       PARENTDEVNAME=`basename $PARENTCONFIG | sed
's/^ifcfg-//g'`
        [ -f $PARENTCONFIG ] || {
            echo "Missing config file $PARENTCONFIG." >&2
            exit 1
        }
        . $PARENTCONFIG
####

I don't see this causing any horrible errors in the near
future. But, it is incorrect and will mess something up
sometime.