Re: [PATCH net-next 0/5] mlxsw: Add support for RED qevent "mark"

[Ido Schimmel <idosch@idosch.org>]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 02:22:55PM -0800, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 10:02:18 +0200 Ido Schimmel wrote:
> > From: Ido Schimmel <idosch@nvidia.com>
> > 
> > The RED qdisc currently supports two qevents: "early_drop" and "mark". The
> > filters added to the block bound to the "early_drop" qevent are executed on
> > packets for which the RED algorithm decides that they should be
> > early-dropped. The "mark" filters are similarly executed on ECT packets
> > that are marked as ECN-CE (Congestion Encountered).
> > 
> > A previous patchset has offloaded "early_drop" filters on Spectrum-2 and
> > later, provided that the classifier used is "matchall", that the action
> > used is either "trap" or "mirred", and a handful or further limitations.
> 
> For early_drop trap or mirred makes obvious sense, no explanation
> needed.
> 
> But for marked as a user I'd like to see a _copy_ of the packet, 
> while the original continues on its marry way to the destination.
> I'd venture to say that e.g. for a DCTCP deployment mark+trap is
> unusable, at least for tracing, because it distorts the operation 
> by effectively dropping instead of marking.
> 
> Am I reading this right?

You get a copy of the packet as otherwise it will create a lot of
problems (like you wrote).

> 
> If that is the case and you really want to keep the mark+trap
> functionality - I feel like at least better documentation is needed.
> The current two liner should also be rewritten, quoting from patch 1:
> 
> > * - ``ecn_mark``
> >   - ``drop``
> >   - Traps ECN-capable packets that were marked with CE (Congestion
> >     Encountered) code point by RED algorithm instead of being dropped
> 
> That needs to say that the trap is for datagrams trapped by a qevent.
> Otherwise "Traps ... instead of being dropped" is too much of a
> thought-shortcut, marked packets are not dropped.
> 
> (I'd also think that trap is better documented next to early_drop,
> let's look at it from the reader's perspective)

How about:

"Traps a copy of ECN-capable packets that were marked with CE
(Congestion Encountered) code point by RED algorithm instead of being
dropped. The trap is enabled by attaching a filter with action 'trap' to
the 'mark' qevent of the RED qdisc."

In addition, this output:

$ devlink trap show pci/0000:06:00.0 trap ecn_mark 
pci/0000:06:00.0:
  name ecn_mark type drop generic true action trap group buffer_drops

Can be converted to:

$ devlink trap show pci/0000:06:00.0 trap ecn_mark 
pci/0000:06:00.0:
  name ecn_mark type drop generic true action mirror group buffer_drops

"mirror: The packet is forwarded by the underlying device and a copy is sent to
the CPU."

In this case the action is static and you cannot change it.