linux-kernel - Question about dev_queue_xmit and guaranteed packet transmission

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Date:   Wed, 8 May 2019 21:38:55 -0600
From:   Jeffrey Merkey <jeffmerkey@...il.com>
To:     linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Question about dev_queue_xmit and guaranteed packet transmission

I noticed that Linux has been updated on later versions to always
consume the skb in calls to dev_queue_xmit, and may even drop the skb
after returning a return code of NETDEV_TX_OK which seems kind of
broken.  I have an application which requires guaranteed skb
transmission and the following code seems to work well for me if I
call the
netdev->netdev_ops->ndo_start_xmit function directly instead of using
dev_queue_xmit.

Is there a method of calling dev_queue_xmit which guarantees packet
transmission?  The current implementation of dev_queue_xmit used to
return error codes without consuming the skb, which allowed programs
which call it to simply resend the failing skb by calling
dev_queue_xmit again without having to recreate and repopulate the
skb.  There also appears to be no reliable way to know for certain if
dev_queue_xmit even sent a packet since it can at times return
NETDEV_TX_OK then turn around and drop the packet later on.

I have it working calling the ndo_start_xmit driver function directly
which does seem to guarantee  transmission, but would like to know if
there is a way to get guaranteed TX of skb's with dev_queue_xmit.

Jeff