Re: [patch net-next 3/9] mlx4: Implement port type setting via devlink interface

Jiri Pirko
2016-02-24T07:15:30Z

Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 06:31:39PM CET, stephen@networkplumber.org wrote:
>On Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:26:00 +0100
>Hannes Frederic Sowa <hannes@stressinduktion.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jiri,
>>
>> On 22.02.2016 19:31, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>> > From: Jiri Pirko <jiri@mellanox.com>
>> >
>> > So far, there has been an mlx4-specific sysfs file allowing user to
>> > change port type to either Ethernet of InfiniBand. This is very
>> > inconvenient.
>>
>> Again, I want to express my concerns regarding all of this until this
>> will be integrated into udev/systemd for stable device names. While one
>> can build wrapper code around devlink to have stable devlink ports, I
>> don't see a reason to include kernel code which actually has more
>> problems than the sysfs approach. This harms admins to use those devices
>> and will additionally require user space to write boiler plate code.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Hannes
>>
>
>I appreciate that you need to have a lighterweight model for
>network devices. But have to agree with Hannes.

No, I don't need to have lighterweight model for network device. This
patch does nothing like that.

>
>This code breaks the model expected by applications like Quagga, SNMP
>and lots of other legacy code. Is this really going to work with the
>legacy Linux model.

No, this patch does not break anything. The original netdev still stay.