netdev - Re: [RFD] Network configuration data in sysfs

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Date:	Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:17:01 +0200
From:	Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@...tta.com>
To:	"Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill@...temov.name>
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org, "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Alexey Kuznetsov <kuznet@....inr.ac.ru>,
	James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>,
	Hideaki YOSHIFUJI <yoshfuji@...ux-ipv6.org>,
	Patrick McHardy <kaber@...sh.net>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...e.de>,
	Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@...y.org>,
	Alexey Gladkov <gladkov.alexey@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [RFD] Network configuration data in sysfs

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:35:58 +0300
"Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill@...temov.name> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Currently there's no way to set or inspect network configuration (protocol
> addresses, routes, etc.) through sysfs. Yes, we have netlink interface for
> this, but sysfs has advantage:
> 
> - change or inspect network configuration using standard unix utilities
>   (echo, cat, etc.). It's useful at least in restricted environment where
>   no special utilities available -- initrd or stripped down busybox.

Last I checked busybox had a stripped down version of iproute arealdy.

> - transparent udev support. It would be nice to get this information to
>   udev.
> 
> Is there something fundamental preventing us to have sysfs interface for
> network configuration?
> 

Sysfs does not support the concept of transactions. Many network operations
require setting multiple values at a time; which is why a message interface
like netlink works much better.
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