Re: [PATCH net-next 4/8] devlink: allow subports on devlink PCI ports

Jiri Pirko
2019-03-01T16:30:19Z

Fri, Mar 01, 2019 at 05:04:01PM CET, jakub.kicinski@netronome.com wrote:
>On Fri, 1 Mar 2019 08:25:57 +0100, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>> >> I think it would be beneficial to have the switchid shown for devlink
>> >> ports too. Then it is clean that the devlink ports with the same
>> >> switchid belong to the same switch, and other ports under the same
>> >> devlink instance (like PF itself) is separate, but still under the same
>> >> ASIC.
>> >
>> >Sure, you mean in terms of UI - user space can do a link dump or get
>> >that from sysfs, right?
>>
>> I thinking about moving it to devlink. I'll work on it more today.
>
>At the kernel level? Are we sure this is appropriate? I'd think
>switchid is in essence a forwarding attribute, so it belongs with
>netdevs, no?

It's an id which identifies ports which belong to the same switch.
Internally in kernel it is used for forwarding purposes. But it is
exposed to user too. I believe it is a nice way to see which devlink
ports belong to switch and which not. Please see the RFC I send today.