Re: [PATCH net-next v3 1/3] phy: open_alliance_helpers: Add defines for link quality metrics

[Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@pengutronix.de>]

Hi Jakub,

On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 12:57:19PM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 19:12:52 +0200 Andrew Lunn wrote:
> > > If these are defined by a standard why not report them as structured
> > > data? Like we report ethtool_eth_mac_stats, ethtool_eth_ctrl_stats,
> > > ethtool_rmon_stats etc.?  
> > 
> > We could do, but we have no infrastructure for this at the
> > moment. These are PHY statistics, not MAC statistics.
> > We don't have all the ethool_op infrastructure, etc.
> 
> This appears to not be a concern when calling phy_ops->get_sset_count()
> You know this code better than me, but I can't think of any big 'infra'
> that we'd need. ethtool code can just call phy_ops, the rest is likely
> a repeat of the "MAC"/ethtool_ops stats.
> 
> > We also need to think about which PHY do we want the statics from,
> > the bootlin code for multiple PHYs etc.
> 
> True, that said I'd rather we added a new group for the well-defined
> PHY stats without supporting multi-PHY, than let the additional
> considerations prevent us from making progress. ioctl stats are
> strictly worse.
> 
> I'm sorry to pick on this particular series, but the structured ethtool
> stats have been around for 3 years. Feels like it's time to fill the
> gaps on the PHY side.

I completely agree with you, but I currently don't have additional
budget for this project.

What might help is a diagnostic concept that I can present to my
customers to seek sponsorship for implementing various interfaces based
on their relevance and priority for different projects.

Since I haven't seen an existing concept from the end product or
component vendors, I suggest starting this within the Linux Kernel
NetDev community.

I'll send my current thoughts in a separate email

Regards,
Oleksij
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