Subject: Re: Resend: [IPROUTE2 PATCH] Interface group as new ip link option

From: jamal <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:08:47 -0400

On Tue, 2007-16-10 at 13:47 +0200, Laszlo Attila Toth wrote:

> Hm, the main problem (for me) is that it requires more then one value 
> per net device and it should be limited. But if I say it is 5 for 
> instance, anyone can say it is not enough for him.

Yes, those pesky humans, you give them an inch and they want a mile ;->
I think 32 for example is better than 1. So if you use a u32 variable
doesnt pollute the netdevice that much - and used as a bitmap, then
setting any of the 32 bits implies the device is in that group. This of
course limits the group ids to be (1..32). Your mileage may vary.

> ip link set ppp0 group 10
> also if "ip link set..." works for multiple interfaces it is already 
> done. If it is not, it will affect positively all other settings :)

nice.
The part that is not very useful today with ifconfig or ip link ls is i
have only two choices: Either i ask for all devices or for one; i cant
ask for something in the middle. If i can group them together then i can
solve that problem sith some user space plumbing (which avoids 10K
netlink messages). 
"get ppp*" may actually be a totally separate call which also traverses
the list in the kernel and just returns the matching devices. 

cheers,
jamal