netdev - Re: [PATCH v4 net-next 06/10] net/ncsi: Ethtool operation to get NCSI hw statistics

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Message-Id: <20170504000534.GA11287@gwshan>
Date:   Thu, 4 May 2017 10:05:34 +1000
From:   Gavin Shan <gwshan@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:     David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Cc:     andrew@...n.ch, gwshan@...ux.vnet.ibm.com, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        joe@...ches.com, kubakici@...pl, f.fainelli@...il.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 net-next 06/10] net/ncsi: Ethtool operation to get
 NCSI hw statistics

On Wed, May 03, 2017 at 09:18:23AM -0400, David Miller wrote:
>From: Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>
>Date: Wed, 3 May 2017 14:47:22 +0200
>
>> On Wed, May 03, 2017 at 02:44:37PM +1000, Gavin Shan wrote:
>>> This adds ethtool command (ETHTOOL_GNCSISTATS) to retrieve the
>>> NCSI hardware statistics.
>> 
>> Hi Gavin
>> 
>> I've not been following this patchset, so maybe i'm about to ask a
>> question which has already been asked and answered.
>> 
>> Why cannot use just use ethtool -S for this?
>
>Indeed, when I said to use ethtool for these NCSI hw stats I meant
>that the "ethtool -S" be used, not some new ethtool command.
>

Thanks for the comments. Feel free to ask any questions which would
make the code clear and better. There are couple of factors I thought
separate command is better than ETHTOOL_GSTATS: The statistic items from
ETHTOOL_GSTATS are variable, meaning the kernel needs provide the layout
of the statistic items via ETHTOOL_GSSET_INFO and ETHTOOL_GSTRINGS.
NCSI HW statistics aren't following this and their layout is fixed.
Besides, statistics for ETHTOOL_GSTATS are maintained in local MAC,
but NCSI HW statistics are collected from NIC on far-end. So they're
different from this point. Lastly, the NCSI software statistics needs
separate command. It'd better to have separate command for HW statistics
as well, to make things consistent.

Cheers,
Gavin