Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/26] IPVS: Add first IPv6 support to IPVS.

From: Patrick McHardy <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:38:05 +0200

Julius Volz wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2008, Simon Horman <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Eventially the changes settled down, and for the past few years they
>> have been very infrequent.  But the problem that the interface isn't
>> really extendable and that when changes are made kernel and ipvsadm
>> versions need to be incremented together remains. For instance, the
>> Debian package of ipvsadm actually shipps three different ipvsadm
>> binaries, and a wrapper works out which one to use based on the kernel
>> version.
> 
> Ugh.
> 
>> I wonder if now would be a good time to bite the bullet and design
>> a new interface that is extendable.
> 
> If we really have to break it once for IPv6 anyways, it seems like a
> good opportunity. Depends on how invasive the changes would need to
> be, of course...

You don't need to break the old interface, just add an additional
one.

> You probably already have some ideas on what a better interface would
> look like? Especially, how to design it for future backwards
> compatibility? And would it still use sockopts or rather one of the
> other communication mechanisms?

I'd suggest genetlink or nfnetlink.