Re: [RFC PATCH net-next 04/10] ethtool: Add link extended state

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

On Sun, Jun 07, 2020 at 05:59:39PM +0300, Amit Cohen wrote:
> Currently, drivers can only tell whether the link is up/down using
> LINKSTATE_GET, but no additional information is given.
> 
> Add attributes to LINKSTATE_GET command in order to allow drivers
> to expose the user more information in addition to link state to ease
> the debug process, for example, reason for link down state.
> 
> Extended state consists of two attributes - ext_state and ext_substate.
> The idea is to avoid 'vendor specific' states in order to prevent
> drivers to use specific ext_state that can be in the future common
> ext_state.
> 
> The substates allows drivers to add more information to the common
> ext_state. For example, vendor can expose 'Autoneg failure' as
> ext_state and add 'No partner detected during force mode' as
> ext_substate.
> 
> If a driver cannot pinpoint the extended state with the substate
> accuracy, it is free to expose only the extended state and omit the
> substate attribute.

Maybe it is hiding somewhere, but shoudn't there be a check to see if
the interface is administratively up? I don't think the information
returned here makes much sense if the interface is configured down.

	 Andrew