netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next] bonding: Remove support for use

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Message-ID: <b25f0337-5a7d-4632-a022-facc477a8dce@blackwall.org>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 12:52:17 +0300
From: Nikolay Aleksandrov <razor@...ckwall.org>
To: Jay Vosburgh <jv@...sburgh.net>, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
 Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
 Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, Simon Horman <horms@...nel.org>,
 Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@...n.ch>,
 linux-doc@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] bonding: Remove support for use_carrier

On 8/30/25 03:08, Jay Vosburgh wrote:
> 	 Remove the implementation of use_carrier, the link monitoring
> method that utilizes ethtool or ioctl to determine the link state of an
> interface in a bond.  Bonding will always behaves as if use_carrier=1,
> which relies on netif_carrier_ok() to determine the link state of
> interfaces.
> 
> 	To avoid acquiring RTNL many times per second, bonding inspects
> link state under RCU, but not under RTNL.  However, ethtool
> implementations in drivers may sleep, and therefore this strategy is
> unsuitable for use with calls into driver ethtool functions.
> 
> 	The use_carrier option was introduced in 2003, to provide
> backwards compatibility for network device drivers that did not support
> the then-new netif_carrier_ok/on/off system.  Device drivers are now
> expected to support netif_carrier_*, and the use_carrier backwards
> compatibility logic is no longer necessary.
> 
> 	The option itself remains, but when queried always returns 1,
> and may only be set to 1.
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/000000000000eb54bf061cfd666a@google.com/
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20240718122017.d2e33aaac43a.I10ab9c9ded97163aef4e4de10985cd8f7de60d28@changeid/
> Signed-off-by: Jay Vosburgh <jv@...sburgh.net>
> 
> ---
> 
> Note: Deliberately omitting a Fixes tag to avoid removing functionality
> in older kernels that may be in use.
> 
>   Documentation/networking/bonding.rst |  79 +++----------------
>   drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c      | 113 ++-------------------------
>   drivers/net/bonding/bond_netlink.c   |  14 ++--
>   drivers/net/bonding/bond_options.c   |   7 +-
>   drivers/net/bonding/bond_sysfs.c     |   6 +-
>   include/net/bonding.h                |   1 -
>   6 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 192 deletions(-)
> 

Reviewed-by: Nikolay Aleksandrov <razor@...ckwall.org>