netdev - Re: PRP with VLAN support - or how to contribute to a Linux network driver

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2023 09:08:17 +0100
From: Heiko Gerstung <heiko.gerstung@...nberg.de>
To: Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>
Cc: "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: PRP with VLAN support - or how to contribute to a Linux network
 driver

Am 08.11.23, 16:17 schrieb "Andrew Lunn" <andrew@...n.ch <mailto:andrew@...n.ch>>:

>> I would like to discuss if it makes sense to remove the PRP
>> functionality from the HSR driver (which is based on the bridge
>> kernel module AFAICS) and instead implement PRP as a separate module
>> (based on the Bonding driver, which would make more sense for PRP).

> Seems like nobody replied. I don't know PRP or HSR, so i can only make
> general remarks.

Thank you for responding!

> The general policy is that we don't rip something out and replace it
> with new code. We try to improve what already exists to meet the
> demands. This is partially because of backwards compatibility. There
> could be users using the code as is. You cannot break that. Can you
> step by step modify the current code to make use of bonding, and in
> the process show you don't break the current use cases? 

Understood. I am not sure if we can change the hsr driver to gradually use a more bonding-like approach for prp and I believe this might not be required, as long as we can get VLAN support into it. 

> You also need to consider offloading to hardware. The bridge code has infrastructure
> to offload. Does the bond driver? I've no idea about that.

I do not know this either but would expect that the nature of bonding would not require offloading support (I do not see a potential for efficiency/performance improvements here, unlike HSR or PRP). 

>> Hoping for advise what the next steps could be. Happy to discuss
>> this off-list as it may not be of interest for most people.

> You probably want to get together with others who are interested in
> PRP and HSR. linutronix, ti, microchip, etc.

Yes, would love to do that and my hope was that I would find them here. I am not familiar with the "orphaned" status for a kernel module, but I would have expected that one of the mentioned parties interested in PRP/HSR would have adopted the module. 

> Andrew

Again, thanks a lot for your comments and remarks, very useful.

Heiko

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