Re: [PATCH] hashed device lookup (Does NOT meet Linus' sumission policy!)

[Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>]

Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 02:33:27PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> 
>     I'm hoping that I can get a few comments on this code.  It was
>     added to (significantly) speed up things like 'ifconfig -a' when
>     running with 4000 or so VLAN devices.  It should also help other
>     instances with lots of (virtual) devices, like FrameRelay, ATM,
>     and possibly virtual IP interfaces.  It probably won't help
>     'normal' users much, and in it's final form, should probably be a
>     selectable option in the config process.
> 
> Virtual IP interfaces in the form of ifname:<number> (e.g. eth:1) IMO
> should be deprecated and removed completely in 2.5.x. It's an ugly
> external wart that should be removed.

I don't know enough to have any serious opinion about virtual IP
interfaces, but I am very certain that VLANs should appear as
an interface to external code/user-land, just as eth0 does.

This hashing helps with VLANs, and since I aim to get VLANs into
the kernel proper sooner or later, having this piece in there
makes my patch a little smaller :)

However, if folks look at the patch and hate it, then it can
be left out, or changed appropriately.

Ben

-- 
Ben Greear (greearb@candelatech.com)  http://www.candelatech.com
Author of ScryMUD:  scry.wanfear.com 4444        (Released under GPL)
http://scry.wanfear.com               http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear
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