Re: [PATCH ethtool] ethtool: Report driver features described in struct ethtool_drvinfo

[Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com>]

On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 22:44 +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 15:07 -0700, Ajit.Khaparde@Emulex.Com wrote:
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Ben Hutchings [bhutchings@solarflare.com]
> > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 5:00 PM
> > To: Khaparde, Ajit
> > Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
> > Subject: RE: [RFC] ethtool: Display reg dump length via get driver info.
> > 
> > > On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 14:52 -0700, Ajit.Khaparde@Emulex.Com wrote:
> > >> ______________________________________
> > >> From: Ben Hutchings [bhutchings@solarflare.com]
> > >> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 4:32 PM
> > >> To: Khaparde, Ajit
> > >> Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
> > >> Subject: Re: [RFC] ethtool: Display reg dump length via get driver info.
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 16:06 -0500, Ajit Khaparde wrote:
> > >> >> Devices like BE store Reg Dump Data in the hardware.
> > >>
> > > >> Where else would it be?
> > >>
> > >> Well yes. That's true.
> > >>
> > >> >> This change will allow to just peek into the hardware
> > >> >> to see if any data is available for a dump and analysis,
> > >> >> without actually dumping the register data.
> > >> > [...]
> > >>
> > >> > This is wrong.  ethtool_ops::get_regs_len really should return a
> > >> > constant, otherwise ethtool (and the kernel) cannot allocate a buffer of
> > >> > the right size.  If the size of a dump really does vary then make it
> > >> > return the maximum possible size for the device.
> > >>
> > >> Yes, it is a constant size. And will always be the max size possible.
> > >> I just want to see if I can get the length, without really making the ethtoool -d call.
> > >> Because that will trigger the dump too.
> > >> At that moment, I may not be interested in the data itself.
> > 
> > > OK, so what you're really interested in is 'does this version of the
> > > driver support register dump'?
> > 
> > Yes. I did not want to add another option in ethtool to get this info out.
> 
> So, how about this?
[...]
I've applied this change.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.