netdev - Re: PATCH: Network Device Naming mechanism and policy

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Message-ID: <20091013173638.GE1119@ldl.fc.hp.com>
Date:	Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:36:38 -0600
From:	dann frazier <dannf@...com>
To:	Narendra_K@...l.com
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-hotplug@...r.kernel.org,
	Matt_Domsch@...l.com, Jordan_Hargrave@...l.com,
	Charles_Rose@...l.com
Subject: Re: PATCH: Network Device Naming mechanism and policy

1;2202;0cOn Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 10:43:49PM +0530, Narendra_K@...l.com wrote:
> 
> >> These device nodes are not functional at the moment - open() returns 
> >> -ENOSYS.  Their only purpose is to provide userspace with a kernel 
> >> name to ifindex mapping, in a form that udev can easily manage.
> >
> >If the idea is just to provide a userspace-visible mapping 
> >(and presumably take advantage of udev's infrastructure for 
> >naming) does this need kernel changes? Could this be a 
> >hierarchy under e.g. /etc/udev instead, using plain text 
> >files? It still means we need something like libnetdevname for 
> >apps to do the translation, but I'm not seeing why it matters 
> >how this map is stored. Is there some special property of the 
> >character devices (e.g. uevents) that we're not already 
> >getting with the existing interfaces?
> 
> Yes. The char device by itself doesn't help in any way. But it provides
> a flexible mechanism to provide multiple names for the same device, just
> the way it is for disks.

Right - so any reason this couldn't be implemented completely in
userspace by having udev manipulate plain text files under say
/etc/udev/net/?

I do agree that it would be nice for admins/installers to tweak/use
nic names in a similar way to storage names (udev rules), and it might
let us take advantage of a lot of the existing udev code.

-- 
dann frazier

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