From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.0 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS, URIBL_BLOCKED,USER_AGENT_MUTT autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F9B4C48BD7 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2019 18:35:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E48020644 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 2019 18:35:45 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dkim=fail reason="signature verification failed" (1024-bit key) header.d=lunn.ch header.i=@lunn.ch header.b="5sDB/OqH" Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726514AbfF0Sfo (ORCPT ); Thu, 27 Jun 2019 14:35:44 -0400 Received: from vps0.lunn.ch ([185.16.172.187]:38162 "EHLO vps0.lunn.ch" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726384AbfF0Sfo (ORCPT ); Thu, 27 Jun 2019 14:35:44 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=lunn.ch; s=20171124; h=In-Reply-To:Content-Type:MIME-Version:References:Message-ID: Subject:Cc:To:From:Date:Sender:Reply-To:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-ID: Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc :Resent-Message-ID:List-Id:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe:List-Subscribe: List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=fZayt1YBru/i/e7L+pM4r1omxEseRubaI/dGxki2+n0=; b=5sDB/OqHz1rBWAwJ8pKur6kmga 6BREJlrnyxcdgM5DWcJBw1E2AkfFykjxwq0PJAgASO7mwHkp67ekCv7W+uOiCtW+8A0Rcu1d4teLs TtucQU7yfettEnT0FiieBpRwrxphcbKyMsOo7yzD2vAQjvVRCttoBZHHVY3Otbwb+bRI=; Received: from andrew by vps0.lunn.ch with local (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hgZFC-0002mO-4f; Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:35:38 +0200 Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:35:38 +0200 From: Andrew Lunn To: Stephen Hemminger Cc: Michal Kubecek , netdev@vger.kernel.org, David Ahern , Jiri Pirko , davem@davemloft.net, jakub.kicinski@netronome.com, sthemmin@microsoft.com, mlxsw@mellanox.com Subject: Re: [RFC] longer netdev names proposal Message-ID: <20190627183538.GI31189@lunn.ch> References: <20190627094327.GF2424@nanopsycho> <26b73332-9ea0-9d2c-9185-9de522c72bb9@gmail.com> <20190627180803.GJ27240@unicorn.suse.cz> <20190627112305.7e05e210@hermes.lan> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20190627112305.7e05e210@hermes.lan> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: netdev@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 11:23:05AM -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote: > On Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:08:03 +0200 > Michal Kubecek wrote: > > > It often feels as a deficiency that unlike block devices where we can > > keep one name and create multiple symlinks based on different naming > > schemes, network devices can have only one name. There are aliases but > > AFAIK they are only used (and can be only used) for SNMP. IMHO this > > limitation is part of the mess that left us with so-called "predictable > > names" which are in practice neither persistent nor predictable. > > > > So perhaps we could introduce actual aliases (or altnames or whatever we > > would call them) for network devices that could be used to identify > > a network device whenever both kernel and userspace tool supports them. > > Old (and ancient) tools would have to use the one canonical name limited > > to current IFNAMSIZ, new tools would allow using any alias which could > > be longer. > > > > Michal > > > That is already there in current network model. > # ip li set dev eno1 alias 'Onboard Ethernet' > # ip li show dev eno1 > 2: eno1: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 > link/ether ac:1f:6b:74:38:c0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff > alias Onboard Ethernet Hi Stephen $ ip li set dev enp3s0 alias "Onboard Ethernet" # ip link show "Onboard Ethernet" Device "Onboard Ethernet" does not exist. So it does not really appear to be an alias, it is a label. To be truly useful, it needs to be more than a label, it needs to be a real alias which you can use. Andrew