Subject: Re: [RFC, PATCH 2.6.29.2] Ethernet V2.0 Configuration Testing Protocol, revision 20090428

From: Stephen Hemminger <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:15:45 -0700

On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:01:43 +0930
Mark Smith  <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Following on from my initial ECTP post on the 23rd of April, here is an
> updated revision.
> 
> Changes:
> 
> o  The ectpping utility is now available at http://ectpping.berlios.de.
> Kconfig and Documentation/networking/ectp.txt updated to reflect it's
> availability and location
> 
> o  absolutely avoid an unlikely unsigned int msgs_len wrap around in
> ectp_linear_skb_ok() and ectp_nonlinear_skb_ok()
> 
> o  use skb_queue_is_first() instead of skb_peek() in
> ectp_queue_delayed_tx_skb()
> 
> Patch below is against 2.6.29.2
> 
> Feedback from some networking and sys admin people I've told about it
> has been positive - they all agree with the benefit of being able to
> perform "ping" style testing on an Ethernet segment without requiring
> IP to be configured.
> 
> Any suggestions for improvement would be most appreciated.
> 
> Thanks very much,
> Mark.
> 

Why does this have to be in the kernel?  Why not all in user space
with AF_PACKET?