netdev - Re: critic on documentation of the network stack

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Message-ID: <1390783094.2735.82.camel@deadeye.wl.decadent.org.uk>
Date:	Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:38:14 +0000
From:	Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
To:	Hannes Frederic Sowa <hannes@...essinduktion.org>
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: critic on documentation of the network stack

On Fri, 2014-01-24 at 04:23 +0100, Hannes Frederic Sowa wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> After net-next is closed I wanted to put the following link here:
> 
>   <http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4356053&cid=45184693>
> 
> I don't want to start a flamefest or come too close to someone but I
> fear some of the critic is reasonable.  Maybe we can do better (I have
> to admit, I also hate writing documentation, e.g. have not yet send the
> IP_PMTUDISC_INTERFACE man-page patches).
> 
> I try to start with some constructive discussion:
> 
> There are some great features in the network stack that some people miss
> because of lack documentation. One possible solution is documentation
> directly in the kernel, but mostly this is just written as a reference
> and the real wonderful stuff is only achieved by putting lots of those
> features correclty together.

I think the reference documentation is also severely lacking.  I have
occasionally filled in documentation of the ethtool API (as kernel-doc
comments) after having to effectively reverse-engineer it from the
implementations.

> Maybe this is the second or third time this was proposed but I'll try
> again: Would it make sense to just start slow and setup a wiki where we
> just throw in the various snippets we use for testing while developing
> patches, maybe with a bit of background information?
[...]

There seems to be an appropriate wiki available:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking

But developers will need to get into the habit of using it (maybe with
pressure from David Miller).

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
If the facts do not conform to your theory, they must be disposed of.

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