linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH net-next v8 00/14] ethtool netlink interface, part 1

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Message-ID: <cac0adaa-fab6-eaba-a888-5783890564d8@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:45:20 -0800
From:   Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com>
To:     Michal Kubecek <mkubecek@...e.cz>
Cc:     David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        Jakub Kicinski <jakub.kicinski@...ronome.com>,
        Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>, Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        John Linville <linville@...driver.com>,
        Stephen Hemminger <stephen@...workplumber.org>,
        Johannes Berg <johannes@...solutions.net>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next v8 00/14] ethtool netlink interface, part 1



On 12/23/2019 2:05 PM, Michal Kubecek wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 08:52:01AM -0800, Florian Fainelli wrote:
>> Hi Michal,
>>
>> On 12/22/2019 3:45 PM, Michal Kubecek wrote:
>>> This is first part of netlink based alternative userspace interface for
>>> ethtool. It aims to address some long known issues with the ioctl
>>> interface, mainly lack of extensibility, raciness, limited error reporting
>>> and absence of notifications. The goal is to allow userspace ethtool
>>> utility to provide all features it currently does but without using the
>>> ioctl interface. However, some features provided by ethtool ioctl API will
>>> be available through other netlink interfaces (rtnetlink, devlink) if it's
>>> more appropriate.
>>>
>>> The interface uses generic netlink family "ethtool" and provides multicast
>>> group "monitor" which is used for notifications. Documentation for the
>>> interface is in Documentation/networking/ethtool-netlink.rst file. The
>>> netlink interface is optional, it is built when CONFIG_ETHTOOL_NETLINK
>>> (bool) option is enabled.
>>>
>>> There are three types of request messages distinguished by suffix "_GET"
>>> (query for information), "_SET" (modify parameters) and "_ACT" (perform an
>>> action). Kernel reply messages have name with additional suffix "_REPLY"
>>> (e.g. ETHTOOL_MSG_SETTINGS_GET_REPLY). Most "_SET" and "_ACT" message types
>>> do not have matching reply type as only some of them need additional reply
>>> data beyond numeric error code and extack. Kernel also broadcasts
>>> notification messages ("_NTF" suffix) on changes.
>>
>> Thanks for re-posting these patches again, would you have ethtool and
>> iproute2 branches with your latest ethnl patches applied? I did find
>> your ethnl directory on your github, but it applies to a slightly oldish
>> ethtool version. If you could maintain forks with an "ethnl" branch
>> there, that would help greatly.
> 
> The iproute2 patch (adding display of permanent hardware address) is in
> iproute2 "next" tree. As for (userspace) ethtool code, at the moment
> it's not in a presentable state. As I wanted on getting v8 out as soon
> as possible, I focused on making it work somehow so that I can test the
> kernel patchset. So at the moment, the userspace series is still in the
> form of an older one (implementing older UAPI) plus one bit "work in
> progress" patch adapting it to current UAPI.
> 
> The userspace code also still doesn't look the way I would like it to.
> I would like to spend some more time on it in second half of this week
> and then I plan to also update the repository on github.

OK, no problem. The patches do look fine to me with a few comments here
and there. I hope Jiri likes the user space ABI now, as it would be good
to get your changes included, from there we can have many more hands to
help with converting/extending the existing ioctl() interface.
-- 
Florian