netdev - Re: Generic interface to make physical port number used by a netdevice available to user space

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Date:	Thu, 23 May 2013 09:34:21 -0700
From:	Stephen Hemminger <stephen@...workplumber.org>
To:	<Narendra_K@...l.com>
Cc:	<netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Generic interface to make physical port number used by a
 netdevice available to user space

On Wed, 22 May 2013 13:24:15 +0530
<Narendra_K@...l.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> It is useful to know if network interfaces from NIC partitions 'map to/ use the'
> same physical port. For example,  when creating bonding in fault tolerance mode,
> if two network interfaces map to/use the same physical port, it might not have the
> desired result. This information is not available today in a standard format or
> it is not present.  If this information can be made available in a generic  way
> to user space, tools such as NetworkManager or Libteam  or Wicked can make smarter
> bonding decisions (such as warn users when setting up configurations which will
> not have desired effect).
> 
> The requirement is to have a generic interface using which kernel/drivers can
> provide information/hints to user space about the physical port number used by
> a network interface.
> 
> While looking for already existing generic facility, 'dev_id' sysfs attribute
> seemed relevant. Looking into the sources seemed to indicate that majority of 
> the drivers do not set it and it could be interpreted differently.
> 
> It would be great to know list's thoughts on  'dev_id' being used as the interface
> to make the physical port number information used by netdevice available to user
> space or do we need a new sysfs attribute for the same.
> 
> Note: I think in the scenario of SRIOV VF devices assigned to guest and being
> bonded, additional information would be needed to differentiate the network
> controller in the host.  But I suppose it is a different problem than this.
> 
> References to related discussions:
> 1. [PATCH net-next] bnx2x: Add Nic partitioning mode (57712)
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev&m=129098288709528&w=2
> 2. [PATCH net-next] bonding: Support for multi function NIC devices
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev&m=134240221118594&w=2
> 
> Thank you,
> 

One idea would be to reuse the mostly outdated if_port field.
As far as I can see only drivers using it are legacy drivers which support AUI vs. TP
back in the old bad days of BNC Ethernet.
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