Re: [PATCH iwl-next v3 3/8] ice: do not check for zero mac when creating mac filters

[Tony Nguyen <anthony.l.nguyen@intel.com>]

On 1/20/2026 2:34 AM, Jakub Slepecki wrote:
> A zero MAC address was considered a special case while creating a new
> MAC filter.  There is no particular reason for that other than the fact
> that the union containing it was assumed to be zeroed out.  Now, address
> is pulled out of the union by ice_fltr_mac_address which checks all of
> the previously assumed zero-address cases and returns an error if they
> are hit.
> 
> Reviewed-by: Aleksandr Loktionov <aleksandr.loktionov@intel.com>
> Reviewed-by: Michal Swiatkowski <michal.swiatkowski@linux.intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jakub Slepecki <jakub.slepecki@intel.com>
> 
> ---
> No changes in v3.
> No changes in v2.
> ---
>   drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_switch.c | 2 +-
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_switch.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_switch.c
> index 0275e2910c6b..04e5d653efce 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_switch.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_switch.c
> @@ -3648,7 +3648,7 @@ int ice_add_mac(struct ice_hw *hw, struct list_head *m_list)
>   		u16 hw_vsi_id;
>   
>   		err = ice_fltr_mac_address(addr, &m_list_itr->fltr_info);
> -		if (err || is_zero_ether_addr(addr))

This is introduced in the previous patch; it would be better to remove 
it in the original patch.

Also, AI Review says:

The is_zero_ether_addr(addr) check was removed in line 3651, relying on 
the claim that ice_fltr_mac_address() performs this validation. However, 
the helper function only extracts the MAC address and validates the 
lookup type—it does NOT validate against zero addresses.

Thanks,
Tony

> +		if (err)
>   			return -EINVAL;
>   		m_list_itr->fltr_info.flag = ICE_FLTR_TX;
>   		vsi_handle = m_list_itr->fltr_info.vsi_handle;