Re: [PATCH net-next v5 2/5] ethtool: netlink: add ETHTOOL_MSG_MSE_GET and wire up PHY MSE access

[Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 11:30:52 +0200 Oleksij Rempel wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 12, 2025 at 05:00:53PM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> > On Fri, 12 Sep 2025 12:07:42 +0200 Oleksij Rempel wrote:  
> > > I would prefer to keep u64 for refresh-rate-ps and num-symbols.
> > > 
> > > My reasoning comes from comparing the design decisions of today's industrial
> > > hardware to the projected needs of upcoming standards like 800 Gbit/s. This
> > > analysis shows that future PHYs will require values that exceed the limits of a
> > > u32.  
> > 
> > but u64 may or may not also have some alignment expectations, which uint
> > explicitly excludes  
> 
> just to confirm - if we declare an attribute as type: uint in the YAML
> spec, the kernel side can still use nla_put_u64() to send a 64-bit
> value, correct? My understanding is that uint is a flexible integer
> type, so userspace decoders will accept both 4-byte and 8-byte encodings
> transparently.

Theoretically, and yes. But why would you use put_u64 and not
put_uint() ?