Subject: Re: [PATCH iproute2] genl: print caps for all families

From: Jakub Kicinski <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2023 16:56:18 -0800

On Fri, 24 Feb 2023 14:33:27 -0800 Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > I'm biased but at this point the time is probably better spent trying
> > to filling the gaps in ynl than add JSON to a CLI tool nobody knows
> > about... too harsh? :  
> 
> So I can drop it (insert sarcasm here)

It may be useful to experts as a for-human-consumption CLI.

JSON to me implies use in scripts or higher level code, I can't
think of a reason why scripts would poke into genl internals.
E.g. if a script wants something from devlink it will call devlink,
and the devlink tool internally may interrogate genl internals.

IOW we're tapping into a layer in the middle of the tech stack, 
while user wants JSON out of the end of the stack.

[We can replace ynl with a iproute2 internal lib or libml to avoid bias]
Now, what I'm saying is - for devlink - we don't have a easy to use
library which a programmer can interact with to query the family info.
Parsing thru the policy dumps is _hard_. So building a C library for
this seems more fruitful than adding JSON to the CLI tool.

IDK if I'm making sense.  I could well be wrong.