Subject: Re: [PATCH] net-sysfs: make flags symmetrical

From: Ben Greear <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:26:06 -0700

On 04/01/2013 03:04 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:16:43 -0700
> Ben Greear <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> On 04/01/2013 11:53 AM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>>> The flags reported by sysfs are the raw kernel flags, not the version
>>> exported to user space. This leads to the unsymmetrical behaviour that
>>> read != write. An example of this is when a device is part of a
>>> bridge.  The PROMISC flag returned from sysfs will not be the same as
>>> other API's.
>>>
>>> The reason this patch deserves wider discussion is someone might be
>>> depending on sysfs to read raw kernel flags.
>>
>> I am depending on this feature.  There is no other way I know
>> of to determine if an interface is actually currently acting
>> PROMISC or not.
>>
>> Please don't 'fix' this.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
>>
>
> The real problem is there isn't a netlink attribute that encodes
> the real flags (there should be), and when device changes state a notification
> should be sent.

Ok, that sounds great to me...but plz don't remove the work-around
in sysfs in the meantime :)

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <[email-masked]>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com