Subject: Re: [patch net-next rfc 3/7] net: rtnetlink: add commands to add and delete alternative ifnames

From: Jiri Pirko <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:31:39 +0200

Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 03:37:26AM CEST, [email-masked] wrote:
>On 8/11/19 7:34 PM, David Ahern wrote:
>> On 8/10/19 12:30 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>>> Could you please write me an example message of add/remove?
>> 
>> altnames are for existing netdevs, yes? existing netdevs have an id and
>> a name - 2 existing references for identifying the existing netdev for
>> which an altname will be added. Even using the altname as the main
>> 'handle' for a setlink change, I see no reason why the GETLINK api can
>> not take an the IFLA_ALT_IFNAME and return the full details of the
>> device if the altname is unique.
>> 
>> So, what do the new RTM commands give you that you can not do with
>> RTM_*LINK?
>> 
>
>
>To put this another way, the ALT_NAME is an attribute of an object - a
>LINK. It is *not* a separate object which requires its own set of
>commands for manipulating.

Okay, again, could you provide example of a message to add/remove
altname using existing setlink message? Thanks!