netdev - [PATCH] wifi: wext: warn about usage only once

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Date:   Fri, 24 Feb 2023 13:59:34 +0100
From:   Johannes Berg <johannes@...solutions.net>
To:     linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        netdev@...r.kernel.org, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@...inger.net>,
        Nicolas Cavallari <Nicolas.Cavallari@...en-communications.fr>,
        Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@...el.com>
Subject: [PATCH] wifi: wext: warn about usage only once

From: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@...el.com>

Warn only once since the ratelimit parameters are still
allowing too many messages to happen. This will no longer
tell you all the different processes, but still gives a
heads-up of sorts.

Also modify the message to note that wext stops working
for future Wi-Fi 7 hardware, this is already implemented
in commit 4ca69027691a ("wifi: wireless: deny wireless
extensions on MLO-capable devices") and is maybe of more
relevance to users than the fact that we'd like to have
wireless extensions deprecated.

The issue with Wi-Fi 7 is that you can now have multiple
connections to the same AP, so a whole bunch of things
now become per link rather than per netdev, which can't
really be handled in wireless extensions.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@...el.com>
---
Not really sure I see a better solution ...

 - tracking it per task would be nice in a way I guess,
   but is also awful;
 - adjusting the rate limit will lead us into an endless
   bikeshedding discussion about the parameters;
 - removing the warning will leave us with no indiciation
   of what happens with Wi-Fi 7 hardware, although most of
   the processes using them now (like Chrome browser??)
   probably ignore failures from it
 - trying to support a 30+ year old technology on modern
   Wi-Fi 7 hardware will be "interesting" and lead to all
   kinds of hacks there
---
 net/wireless/wext-core.c | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/wireless/wext-core.c b/net/wireless/wext-core.c
index 13a72b17248e..a125fd1fa134 100644
--- a/net/wireless/wext-core.c
+++ b/net/wireless/wext-core.c
@@ -641,8 +641,8 @@ static void wireless_warn_cfg80211_wext(void)
 {
 	char name[sizeof(current->comm)];
 
-	pr_warn_ratelimited("warning: `%s' uses wireless extensions that are deprecated for modern drivers; use nl80211\n",
-			    get_task_comm(name, current));
+	pr_warn_once("warning: `%s' uses wireless extensions which will stop working for Wi-Fi 7 hardware; use nl80211\n",
+		     get_task_comm(name, current));
 }
 #endif
 
-- 
2.39.2