From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Matt Domsch Subject: Re: PATCH: Network Device Naming mechanism and policy Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 09:51:38 -0500 Message-ID: <20091009145137.GD19218@mock.linuxdev.us.dell.com> References: <20091009140000.GA18765@mock.linuxdev.us.dell.com> Reply-To: Matt Domsch Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org, jordan_hargrave@dell.com To: Narendra K Return-path: Received: from ausxippc101.us.dell.com ([143.166.85.207]:4519 "EHLO ausxippc101.us.dell.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1760824AbZJIOwQ (ORCPT ); Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:52:16 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20091009140000.GA18765@mock.linuxdev.us.dell.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, Oct 09, 2009 at 09:00:01AM -0500, Narendra K wrote: > On Fri, Oct 09, 2009 at 07:12:07PM +0530, K, Narendra wrote: > > > example udev config: > > > SUBSYSTEM=="net", > > SYMLINK+="net/by-mac/$sysfs{ifindex}.$sysfs{address}" > > > > work as well. But coupling the ifindex to the MAC address like this > > doesn't work. (In general, coupling any two unrelated attributes when > > trying to do persistent names doesn't work.) > > > Attaching the latest patch incorporating review comments. Thank you Narendra. Let me also note that we are prepared to have userspace consumers of this new character device node. http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Oss/libnetdevname notes how the kernel patch will interact with udev, describes the new library helper function in libnetdevname, and has patches for net-tools, iproute2, and ethtool to make use of the helper function. As has been noted here, MAC addresses are not necessarily unique to an interface. As such, we are not proposing a net/by-mac/* symlink to /dev/netdev/*. Thanks, Matt -- Matt Domsch Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux