netdev - Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] [PATCH 03/17] batman-adv: Add network

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Message-ID: <113e9222-3310-71c6-7cec-c253b9b5d194@unstable.cc>
Date:   Sat, 4 Aug 2018 17:24:11 +0800
From:   Antonio Quartulli <a@...table.cc>
To:     The list for a Better Approach To Mobile Ad-hoc
         Networking <b.a.t.m.a.n@...ts.open-mesh.org>,
        Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>,
        Linus Lüssing <linus.luessing@...3.blue>
Cc:     netdev@...r.kernel.org, davem@...emloft.net
Subject: Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] [PATCH 03/17] batman-adv: Add network_coding and
 mcast sysfs files to README

Hi Jiri,

On 20/05/18 14:19, Jiri Pirko wrote:
> Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 05:43:08PM CEST, linus.luessing@...3.blue wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 12:56:28PM +0200, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>>>>> I strongly believe it is a huge mistake to use sysfs for things like
>>>>> this. This should be done via generic netlink api.
>>>>
>>>> This doesn't change the problem that it is already that way. This patch
>>>> only adds the list of available files to the README.
>>>
>>> Sure. Just found out you did it like that. Therefore I commented. I
>>> suggest to rework the api to use genl entirely.
>>
>> Hi Jiri,
>>
>> Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
>>
>> Could you explain a bit more on which disadvantages you see in
>> the usage of sysfs here?
> 
> There are 2 major disadvantages.
> 1) You don't have any events on a change. An app has to poll in order to
>    know what changed in kernel. Netlink handles this by sending
>    multicast messages on a specific socket while whoever is interested
>    gets the messages.
> 2) In sysfs, everything is string. There are even mixed values like
>    "1 (means something)". There are no well defined values. Every driver
>    can expose same things differently. In Netlink, you have well-defined
>    attributes, with typed values. You can pass multiple attributes for
>    the same value if needed.
> 
> In general, usage of sysfs in netdev subsystem is frowned upon. I would
> suggest to convert your iface to Generic Netlink API and let the
> existing sysfs API to rot.

Do you have any pointer about where this discussion took place? I
imagine it happened in conjunction with some patches intended to other
drivers/netdev changes.

Reading that could give us a sense of how strict/important/severe this
decision was and how to prioritize future work.

I am asking because we have been working on a new feature since several
months and this feature introduces a new sysfs knob.

Now, although I understand the recommendation of switching to netlink, I
find it a bit impractical to delay a new (and fairly big) feature,
simply because it uses a potentially obsolete, but current, API.

Any opinion about this?


Thanks a lot


Regards,


-- 
Antonio Quartulli



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