Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] if_link: Add VF multicast promiscuous control

[Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com>]

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On Mon, 2015-02-23 at 06:29 -0800, Skidmore, Donald C wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Edward Cree [mailto:ecree@solarflare.com]
> > Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 5:53 AM
> > To: Skidmore, Donald C
> > Cc: Hiroshi Shimamoto; vyasevic@redhat.com; Kirsher, Jeffrey T; Alexander
> > Duyck; Bjørn Mork; e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net;
> > netdev@vger.kernel.org; Choi, Sy Jong; linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; David
> > Laight; Hayato Momma
> > Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] if_link: Add VF multicast promiscuous control
> > 
> > On 20/02/15 21:05, Skidmore, Donald C wrote:
> > > If a vender specific interface is objectionable maybe a simpler and more
> > generic interface would be for the PF to be able to set a given VF into
> > "trusted" mode... I admit exactly what 'trusted' meant would vary from
> > vender to vender, but it would be a way for the driver to know it could allow
> > configurations such as this.  Just an idea, since we seem to be getting more
> > requests for things such as this.
> > That's an even worse idea; now you have a generic interface with completely
> > undefined semantics.
> > The right way to do this, imho, is to use one of the standard interfaces for
> > driver-specific gubbins - e.g. sysfs, genetlink or even (whisper it) ioctls - and
> > put your 'VF promisc mode' setting there.  That way you have a vendor-
> > specific interface with vendor-specified semantics.
> > Of those options, I'd recommend sysfs as the best fit.
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> 
> I do see your point, but I thought custom sysfs interfaces (not to even mention new ioctl's :) were frowned upon?  Which is why I didn't even consider sysfs as an option.

We discussed this during NetConf last week, and Don is correct that a
custom sysfs interface is not the way we want to handle this.  We agreed
upon a generic interface so that any NIC is able to turn on or off VF
multicast promiscuous mode.

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