public inbox for netdev@vger.kernel.org 
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Vincent Bernat <vincent@bernat•im>
To: Jiri Benc <jbenc@redhat•com>
Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft•net>,
	netdev@vger•kernel.org,
	Nicolas Dichtel <nicolas.dichtel@6wind•com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] veth: replace iflink by a dedicated symlink in sysfs
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 14:13:00 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87bne38oj7.fsf@zoro.exoscale.ch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20150819130013.1a847627@griffin> (Jiri Benc's message of "Wed, 19 Aug 2015 13:00:13 +0200")

 ❦ 19 août 2015 13:00 +0200, Jiri Benc <jbenc@redhat•com> :

>> While the documentation doesn't say exactly what kind of relationship
>> iflink should represent, until a45253, only lower devices were
>> advertised this way. While veth cannot have a lower device, using iflink
>> to advertise the peer may create infinite loops in programs using iflink
>> to discover device topology.
>> 
>> Instead of advertising the peer link with iflink, a symbolic link "peer"
>> is added to each peer.
>
> By removing veth_get_iflink, you're also stopping IFLA_LINK being
> advertised in netlink messages, which consequently makes impossible to
> reliably match veth peers across name spaces again. This would be a
> huge step backwards.

That's the main goal of this patch: advertising the peer link as
IFLA_LINK attribute triggers an infinite loop in userland software when
they follow iflink to discover network devices topology. iflink has
always been the index of a lower device. If a sysfs symbolic link is not
good enough, I can propose a new IFLA_PEER attribute instead.
-- 
How apt the poor are to be proud.
		-- William Shakespeare, "Twelfth-Night"

  reply	other threads:[~2015-08-19 12:23 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
     [not found] <87fv3ier4s.fsf@zoro.exoscale.ch>
2015-08-19  6:44 ` Regression in 4.1 with veth and IFLA_LINK Vincent Bernat
2015-08-19  6:44   ` [PATCH] veth: replace iflink by a dedicated symlink in sysfs Vincent Bernat
2015-08-19 11:00     ` Jiri Benc
2015-08-19 12:13       ` Vincent Bernat [this message]
2015-08-19 12:38         ` Jiri Benc
2015-08-19 12:48           ` Vincent Bernat
2015-08-19 16:33             ` Nicolas Dichtel
2015-08-20 11:53               ` Jiri Benc
2015-08-20 14:31                 ` Nicolas Dichtel
2015-08-20 21:07                   ` David Miller
2015-08-22 20:51                     ` Vincent Bernat

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=87bne38oj7.fsf@zoro.exoscale.ch \
    --to=vincent@bernat$(echo .)im \
    --cc=davem@davemloft$(echo .)net \
    --cc=jbenc@redhat$(echo .)com \
    --cc=netdev@vger$(echo .)kernel.org \
    --cc=nicolas.dichtel@6wind$(echo .)com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox