netdev - [PATCH net-next] tools: ynl: rework the string representation of NlError

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Message-ID: <20251024215713.1250688-1-kuba@kernel.org>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:57:13 -0700
From: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>
To: davem@...emloft.net
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	edumazet@...gle.com,
	pabeni@...hat.com,
	andrew+netdev@...n.ch,
	horms@...nel.org,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
	donald.hunter@...il.com,
	ast@...erby.net
Subject: [PATCH net-next] tools: ynl: rework the string representation of NlError

In early days of YNL development dumping the NlMsg on errors
was quite useful, as the library itself could have been buggy.
These days increasingly the NlMsg is just taking up screen space
and means nothing to a typical user. Try to format the errors
more in line with how YNL C formats its errors strings.

Before:
  $ ynl --family ethtool  --do channels-set  --json '{}'
  Netlink error: Invalid argument
  nl_len = 44 (28) nl_flags = 0x300 nl_type = 2
	error: -22
	extack: {'miss-type': 'header'}

  $ ynl --family ethtool  --do channels-set  --json '{..., "tx-count": 999}'
  Netlink error: Invalid argument
  nl_len = 88 (72) nl_flags = 0x300 nl_type = 2
	error: -22
	extack: {'msg': 'requested channel count exceeds maximum', 'bad-attr': '.tx-count'}

After:
  $ ynl --family ethtool  --do channels-set  --json '{}'
  Netlink error: Invalid argument {'miss-type': 'header'}

  $ ynl --family ethtool  --do channels-set  --json '{..., "tx-count": 999}'
  Netlink error: requested channel count exceeds maximum: Invalid argument {'bad-attr': '.tx-count'}

Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>
---
CC: donald.hunter@...il.com
CC: ast@...erby.net
---
 tools/net/ynl/pyynl/lib/ynl.py | 12 +++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/net/ynl/pyynl/lib/ynl.py b/tools/net/ynl/pyynl/lib/ynl.py
index 62383c70ebb9..bac9eb33ba89 100644
--- a/tools/net/ynl/pyynl/lib/ynl.py
+++ b/tools/net/ynl/pyynl/lib/ynl.py
@@ -105,7 +105,17 @@ from .nlspec import SpecFamily
     self.error = -nl_msg.error
 
   def __str__(self):
-    return f"Netlink error: {os.strerror(self.error)}\n{self.nl_msg}"
+    msg = "Netlink error: "
+
+    extack = self.nl_msg.extack.copy() if self.nl_msg.extack else {}
+    if extack:
+        if 'msg' in extack:
+            msg += extack['msg'] + ': '
+            del extack['msg']
+    msg += os.strerror(self.error)
+    if extack:
+        msg += ' ' + str(extack)
+    return msg
 
 
 class ConfigError(Exception):
-- 
2.51.0