Subject: Re: [RFC 0/5] bridge - introduce via_phys_dev feature

From: Stephen Hemminger <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:18:43 -0800

Looking back at this. What if the API was simpler:

Instead of:
> Typical session looks like
> 
> | [email-masked]$ brctl addbr br0
> | [email-masked]$ ifconfig br0 up
> | [email-masked]$ echo 1 > /sys/class/net/bridge/br0/via_phys_dev
> | [email-masked]$ brctl addif br0 eth0
> | (...waiting a bit...)
> | [email-masked]$

Why not:
  1. Setup bridge (and any other interfaces except eth0); includes bringing br0 up
  2. Add eth0 to bridge with new flag to inherit
       a. brctl addif br0 eth0 inherit

Inherit functionality would need to move address (Ether, IP, IPv6)
and routes from eth0 to br0.
I will see about doing it as much as possible in userspace.