netdev - Re: [PATCH] bridge: MTU auto tuning ignores IFLA

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Message-ID: <2c985516-88a3-9fee-dbd1-134aecd323e5@blackwall.org>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:35:53 +0300
From: Nikolay Aleksandrov <razor@...ckwall.org>
To: Trent Lloyd <trent.lloyd@...onical.com>, Roopa Prabhu <roopa@...dia.com>,
 "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>, Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
 Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
 Shuah Khan <shuah@...nel.org>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, bridge@...ts.linux-foundation.org,
 netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] bridge: MTU auto tuning ignores IFLA_MTU on NEWLINK

On 9/27/23 11:10, Nikolay Aleksandrov wrote:
> On 9/27/23 10:57, Trent Lloyd wrote:
>> Commit 804b854d374e ("net: bridge: disable bridge MTU auto tuning if it
>> was set manually") disabled auto-tuning of the bridge MTU when the MTU
>> was explicitly set by the user, however that would only happen when the
>> MTU was set after creation. This commit ensures auto-tuning is also
>> disabled when the MTU is set during bridge creation.
>>
>> Currently when the br_netdev_ops br_change_mtu function is called, the
>> flag BROPT_MTU_SET_BY_USER is set. However this function is only called
>> when the MTU is changed after interface creation and is not called if
>> the MTU is specified during creation with IFLA_MTU (br_dev_newlink).
>>
>> br_change_mtu also does not get called if the MTU is set to the same
>> value it currently has, which makes it difficult to work around this
>> issue (especially for the default MTU of 1500) as you have to first
>> change the MTU to some other value and then back to the desired value.
>>
> 
> Yep, I think I also described this in the commit message of my patch.
> 
>> Add new selftests to ensure the bridge MTU is handled correctly:
>>   - Bridge created with user-specified MTU (1500)
>>   - Bridge created with user-specified MTU (2000)
>>   - Bridge created without user-specified MTU
>>   - Bridge created with user-specified MTU set after creation (2000)
>>
>> Regression risk: Any workload which erroneously specified an MTU during
>> creation but accidentally relied upon auto-tuning to a different value
>> may be broken by this change.
>>
> 
> Hmm, you're right. There's a risk of regression. Also it acts 
> differently when set to 1500 as you've mentioned. I think they should 
> act the same, also bridge's fake rtable RTAX_MTU is not set.
> 
>> Link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/2034099
>> Fixes: 804b854d374e ("net: bridge: disable bridge MTU auto tuning if 
>> it was set manually")
>> Signed-off-by: Trent Lloyd <trent.lloyd@...onical.com>
>> ---
> 

So I've been thinking about this and to elaborate - my concerns are two
first is inconsistency between setting MTU at create vs later when it's 
the default (i.e. this way disables auto-tuning, while later it doesn't)
and second is potential breakage as some network managers always set the 
mtu when creating devices. That would suddenly start disabling 
auto-tuning and that will surprise some people which expect it to work.

I think if you make them both act the same and leave out that case with 
a big comment why, this would be good for -net. To fully solve the 
problem without breaking anyone I think we should add control over the 
autotuning flag so it can be turned on/off by the users. That would be 
explicit and will work for all cases, but that is net-next material.

Thanks,
  Nik