linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH net-next 1/7] net: phy: introduce phy numbering and phy namespaces

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Message-ID: <20230907141904.1be84216@pc-7.home>
Date:   Thu, 7 Sep 2023 14:19:04 +0200
From:   Maxime Chevallier <maxime.chevallier@...tlin.com>
To:     "Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk>
Cc:     davem@...emloft.net, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
        Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
        Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
        Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com>,
        Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>,
        Vladimir Oltean <vladimir.oltean@....com>,
        Oleksij Rempel <linux@...pel-privat.de>,
        Nicolò Veronese <nicveronese@...il.com>,
        thomas.petazzoni@...tlin.com,
        Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@...roup.eu>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH net-next 1/7] net: phy: introduce phy numbering and
 phy namespaces

On Thu, 7 Sep 2023 11:14:08 +0100
"Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 07, 2023 at 11:23:59AM +0200, Maxime Chevallier wrote:
> > Link topologies containing multiple network PHYs attached to the same
> > net_device can be found when using a PHY as a media converter for use
> > with an SFP connector, on which an SFP transceiver containing a PHY can
> > be used.
> > 
> > With the current model, the transceiver's PHY can't be used for
> > operations such as cable testing, timestamping, macsec offload, etc.
> > 
> > The reason being that most of the logic for these configuration, coming
> > from either ethtool netlink or ioctls tend to use netdev->phydev, which
> > in multi-phy systems will reference the PHY closest to the MAC.
> > 
> > Introduce a numbering scheme allowing to enumerate PHY devices that
> > belong to any netdev, which can in turn allow userspace to take more
> > precise decisions with regard to each PHY's configuration.
> > 
> > The numbering is maintained per-netdev, hence the notion of PHY
> > namespaces. The numbering works similarly to a netdevice's ifindex, with
> > identifiers that are only recycled once INT_MAX has been reached.
> > 
> > This prevents races that could occur between PHY listing and SFP
> > transceiver removal/insertion.
> > 
> > The identifiers are assigned at phy_attach time, as the numbering
> > depends on the netdevice the phy is attached to.  
> 
> I think you can simplify this code quite a bit by using idr.
> idr_alloc_cyclic() looks like it will do the allocation you want,
> plus the IDR subsystem will store the pointer to the object (in
> this case the phy device) and allow you to look that up. That
> probably gets rid of quite a bit of code.
> 
> You will need to handle the locking around IDR however.

Oh thanks for pointing this out. I had considered idr but I didn't spot
the _cyclic() helper, and I had ruled that out thinking it would re-use
ids directly after freeing them. I'll be more than happy to use that.

Thanks,

Maxime