Subject: Re: [PATCH] iproute2: ip: add wilcard support for device matching

From: jamal <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:38:08 -0500

On Fri, 2010-12-10 at 20:06 +0200, Octavian Purdila wrote:

> > $ ip link add link bond0 "vlan\*199" type vlan id 199
> > $ ifconfig "vlan\*199"
> 
> :) Then use a special dev keyword like dev* ?
> 
> $ ip link set dev* dummy set
> 
> Or use a new flag to allow expansion?
> 
> $ ip -e link set dev dummy* set

There was something ive always wanted to do but
havent had time. It will cut time in a big way the
user-kernel interaction in precisely your situation.

Add a new general purpose netdev 32 bit tag. You can use this
feature to "group" netdevs. The group "all netdevs" is 0 - which
is the default.
I can group individual dummy interfaces into group 1. 
ip link dev dummy0 set group 1
..
..
ip link dev dummy99 set group 1

Then i can send a query to only ifup and ignore
the 1000 vlans that exist.

ip link dev ls group 1

or if i didnt list the group, then group 0 is assumed.

As a warning - this would be a general purpose tag.
So i can use it in conjunction with skb->mark to enable
filtering for example on ingress side with some action.

cheers,
jamal