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From: Hannes Frederic Sowa <hannes@stressinduktion•org>
To: David Miller <davem@davemloft•net>, jiri@resnulli•us
Cc: netdev@vger•kernel.org, idosch@mellanox•com, eladr@mellanox•com,
	yotamg@mellanox•com, ogerlitz@mellanox•com, yishaih@mellanox•com,
	dledford@redhat•com, sean.hefty@intel•com,
	hal.rosenstock@gmail•com, eugenia@mellanox•com,
	roopa@cumulusnetworks•com, nikolay@cumulusnetworks•com,
	hadarh@mellanox•com, jhs@mojatatu•com, john.fastabend@gmail•com,
	jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel•com, brouer@redhat•com,
	ivecera@redhat•com, rami.rosen@intel•com,
	gospo@cumulusnetworks•com
Subject: Re: [patch net-next v2 0/9] Introduce devlink interface and first drivers to use it
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:44:43 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <56CF67BB.70901@stressinduktion.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20160225.151247.479900417232368503.davem@davemloft.net>

On 25.02.2016 21:12, David Miller wrote:
> From: Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli•us>
> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 16:51:25 +0100
>
>> There a is need for some userspace API that would allow to expose things
>> that are not directly related to any device class like net_device of
>> ib_device, but rather chip-wide/switch-ASIC-wide stuff.
>>
>> Use cases:
>> 1) get/set of port type (Ethernet/InfiniBand)
>> 2) setting up port splitters - split port into multiple ones and squash again,
>>     enables usage of splitter cable
>> 3) setting up shared buffers - shared among multiple ports within
>>     one chip (work in progress)
>> 4) configuration of switch wide properties - resources division etc - This will
>>     allow to pass configuration that is unacceptable to be passed as
>>     a module option.
>>
>> First patch of this set introduces a new generic Netlink based interface,
>> called "devlink". It is similar to nl80211 model and it is heavily
>> influenced by it, including the API definition. The devlink introduction patch
>> implements use cases 1) and 2). Other 2 are in development atm and will
>> be addressed by follow-ups.
>>
>> It is very convenient for drivers to use devlink, as you can see in other
>> patches in this set.
>>
>> Counterpart for devlink is userspace tool for now called "dl". Command line
>> interface and outputs are derived from "ip" tool so it should be easy
>> for users to get used to it.
>
> I am very close to applying this series as-is.
>
> The clincher for me is that there is precendence in the nl80211 stuff,
> so obviously whatever userland infrastructure sits on top of that has
> found a way to deal whatever perceived shortcomings devlink has.

Actually nl80211 phy interfaces aren't really managed by wpa_supplicant 
nor NetworkManager, but they use net_device names to discover those 
later on. In devlink we don't necessarily have netdev names, thus my 
only objection to this series is to switch to stable topology identifiers.

> If all that people can come up with is "device names! omg UDEV!" and
> "multiple tools are hard to use!"  That's awesome, because it means
> nobody has any real substantial objection to this facility. :-)

I do think this is important if a lot of devlinks are visible and they 
don't yet provide a net_device. One has to use e.g. pci identifiers or 
depend on module loading order. Especially I have no idea how this 
should work with devices where the module is not yet loaded (and most 
device drivers don't split between pci layer and net_device). This is 
even more complicated then the udev stuff we have nowadays.

Bye,
Hannes

  reply	other threads:[~2016-02-25 20:44 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2016-02-23 15:51 [patch net-next v2 0/9] Introduce devlink interface and first drivers to use it Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 1/9] Introduce devlink infrastructure Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 21:19   ` Jarod Wilson
2016-02-24  7:19     ` Jiri Pirko
2016-02-24 16:12       ` Jarod Wilson
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 2/9] mlx4: Implement devlink interface Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 3/9] mlx4: Implement port type setting via " Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 4/9] mlxsw: Implement " Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 5/9] mlxsw: core: Add devlink port splitter callbacks Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 6/9] mlxsw: spectrum: Unmap local port from module during teardown Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 7/9] mlxsw: spectrum: Store local port to module mapping during init Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 8/9] mlxsw: spectrum: Mark unused ports using NULL Jiri Pirko
2016-02-23 15:51 ` [patch net-next v2 9/9] mlxsw: spectrum: Introduce port splitting Jiri Pirko
2016-02-25 20:12 ` [patch net-next v2 0/9] Introduce devlink interface and first drivers to use it David Miller
2016-02-25 20:44   ` Hannes Frederic Sowa [this message]
2016-02-25 21:12     ` Jiri Pirko
2016-02-25 21:53       ` Hannes Frederic Sowa
2016-02-25 22:58         ` Jiri Pirko
2016-02-25 21:50   ` Andy Gospodarek

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