From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Ahern Subject: Re: [patch net-next v2 00/10] Add support for resource abstraction Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 10:38:50 -0600 Message-ID: <15818839-e5b0-06f2-6c19-909cc9dfc8a2@cumulusnetworks.com> References: <20171226112359.5313-1-jiri@resnulli.us> <20171227080902.GA1997@nanopsycho> <20171227082331.GA10517@lunn.ch> <20171227093754.GB1997@nanopsycho> <20171227130803.GA31962@lunn.ch> <20171227131531.GE1997@nanopsycho> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, davem@davemloft.net, arkadis@mellanox.com, mlxsw@mellanox.com, vivien.didelot@savoirfairelinux.com, f.fainelli@gmail.com, michael.chan@broadcom.com, ganeshgr@chelsio.com, saeedm@mellanox.com, matanb@mellanox.com, leonro@mellanox.com, idosch@mellanox.com, jakub.kicinski@netronome.com, ast@kernel.org, daniel@iogearbox.net, simon.horman@netronome.com, pieter.jansenvanvuuren@netronome.com, john.hurley@netronome.com, alexander.h.duyck@intel.com, linville@tuxdriver.com, gospo@broadcom.com, steven.lin1@broadcom.com, yuvalm@mellanox.com, ogerlitz@mellanox.com, roopa@cumulusnetworks.com To: Jiri Pirko , Andrew Lunn Return-path: Received: from mail-pl0-f47.google.com ([209.85.160.47]:45992 "EHLO mail-pl0-f47.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751184AbdL0Qiy (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Dec 2017 11:38:54 -0500 Received: by mail-pl0-f47.google.com with SMTP id o2so19657337plk.12 for ; Wed, 27 Dec 2017 08:38:54 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20171227131531.GE1997@nanopsycho> Content-Language: en-US Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On 12/27/17 7:15 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote: > Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 02:08:03PM CET, andrew@lunn.ch wrote: >>> This is misunderstanding I believe. This is not about ABI. That is well >>> defined by the netlink attributes. This is about meaning of particular >>> ASIC-specific internal resources. >> >> I would agree that the netlink attributed are clearly defined. But the >> meta information, what this ASIC specific internal resource means when >> you combine these attributes, is unclear. This meta information is >> also part of the ABI, and documenting giving users a hit what it >> means, and why they should change it, would be good practice. >> >> Look at sysfs. open/read/write are clearly defined, which is the >> equivalent of the netlink attributes. The meta information we document >> in Documentation/ABI/, what a file name means, what a value means, >> what other values it can take, etc. > > Hmm. That documents mainly sysfs. No mention of Netlink at all. But > maybe I missed it. Also, that defines the interface as is. However we > are talking about the data exchanged over the interface, not the > interface itself. I don't see how ASIC/HW specific thing, like for > example KVD in our case could be part of kernel ABI. That makes 0 sense > to me, sorry. > IMO, kernel documentation is not much better than vendor docs. A general networking admin may not have access to a kernel tree or have vendor docs at their finger tips. As I mentioned in the previous response, devlink attributes have self-documenting capabilities making that information available inline. That to me is the right place for a short, but reasonably sized description. For in-depth details users can cross-reference vendor docs.