From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from mail-bk0-f46.google.com ([209.85.214.46]:51303 "EHLO mail-bk0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1422755Ab2CPPAr (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:47 -0400 Received: by bkcik5 with SMTP id ik5so2971016bkc.19 for ; Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:00:46 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4F635562.6090505@openwrt.org> (sfid-20120316_160101_448263_DD7D41AA) Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:59:46 +0100 From: Florian Fainelli MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ben Greear CC: "John W. Linville" , Johannes Berg , linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [RFC 2/2] mac80211: Support getting sta_info stats via ethtool. References: <1331833159-12694-1-git-send-email-greearb@candelatech.com> <1331833159-12694-2-git-send-email-greearb@candelatech.com> <1331837531.3432.36.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> <4F623B58.1070106@candelatech.com> <20120316134909.GA2563@tuxdriver.com> <4F634BB2.8050408@openwrt.org> <4F63543A.2000108@candelatech.com> In-Reply-To: <4F63543A.2000108@candelatech.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Le 03/16/12 15:54, Ben Greear a écrit : > On 03/16/2012 07:18 AM, Florian Fainelli wrote: >> Hello, >> >> Le 03/16/12 14:49, John W. Linville a écrit : >>> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 11:56:24AM -0700, Ben Greear wrote: >>>> On 03/15/2012 11:52 AM, Johannes Berg wrote: >>>>> On Thu, 2012-03-15 at 10:39 -0700, greearb@candelatech.com wrote: >>>>>> From: Ben Greear >>>>>> >>>>>> This lets ethtool print out stats related to station >>>>>> interfaces. Does not yet get stats from the underlying >>>>>> driver. >>>>> >>>>> Hmm. What's the advantage of using ethtool over iw, which already >>>>> has a >>>>> bunch of these numbers? >>>> >>>> Well, ethtool api might be easier for some apps to use, >>>> and perhaps easier for users to read if all they want >>>> are stats. >>> >>> And they can use the same tool for both wired and wireless interfaces >>> -- could be handy. >> >> iw already provides statistics which are relevant for wireless >> interfaces. I really don't see the point in also reporting them via >> ethtool, also it is going to >> be error prone if someone updates the netlink interface and forgets >> about the ethtool one. > > Ethtool provides what it provides. If it's missing a stat, I or > someone else can add it. What if we don't want to bloat ethtool with new stats? I mean, someone else one day will see wireless stats in, and say, hey why don't I add atm, x25, or any protocol of the moment to ethtool, then what do we do? > > And if it's not there, then users can do without or get it elsewhere. > > iw does not provide any way to get underlying wifi radio counters, and > the only other way I've found is to parse various debugfs files that > are subject to change at a whim. That's another topic, if debugfs interface changes you should complain to their maintainers. > Ethtool is a step up from that at least. > > iw is also not supposed to be screen-scraped, while ethtool stats are a > fairly easily parsed output so scripts and such could use that. Why not fix iw instead so its output gets nicely parsed? Would there be no reporting tool that I would not object, otherwise I prefer to keep things where they are consistent, that is, iw configures and reports stats for wireless, and so does ethtool for Ethernet interfaces. -- Florian