Re: [PATCH net-next v2 1/7] net: devlink: Add unused port flavour

Jakub Kicinski
2020-09-28T23:39:40Z

On Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:36:50 -0700 Florian Fainelli wrote:
> On 9/28/2020 3:35 PM, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> > On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 00:07:30 +0200 Andrew Lunn wrote:
> >> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 10:05:08PM +0000, Vladimir Oltean wrote:
> >>> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 02:31:55PM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> >>>> On Sat, 26 Sep 2020 23:06:26 +0200 Andrew Lunn wrote:
> >>>>> Not all ports of a switch need to be used, particularly in embedded
> >>>>> systems. Add a port flavour for ports which physically exist in the
> >>>>> switch, but are not connected to the front panel etc, and so are
> >>>>> unused.
> >>>>
> >>>> This is missing the explanation of why reporting such ports makes sense.
> >>>
> >>> Because this is a core devlink patch, we're talking really generalistic
> >>> here.
> >>
> >> Hi Vladimir
> >>
> >> I don't think Jakub is questioning the why. He just wants it in the
> >> commit message.
> >
> > Ack, I think we need to clearly say when those should be exposed.
> > Most ASICs will have disabled ports, and we don't expect NICs to
> > suddenly start reporting ports for all PCI PFs they may have.
> >
> > Also I keep thinking that these ports and all their objects should
> > be hidden under some switch from user space perspective because they
> > are unlikely to be valuable to see for a normal user. Thoughts?
>
> Hidden in what sense? They are already hidden in that there is no
> net_device object being created for them. Are you asking for adding
> another option to say, devlink show like:
>
> devlink show -a
>
> which would also show the ports that are disabled during a dump?

Yup, exactly. Looks like ip uses -a for something I don't quite
understand - but some switch along those lines. We already have
-d for hiding less-relevant attributes.

Do you think this is an overkill? I don't feel strongly.