Re: [PATCH net 2/7] selftests: openvswitch: add config file

[Matthieu Baerts <matttbe@kernel.org>]

Hi Aaron,

Thank you for the review!

On 16/07/2026 22:00, Aaron Conole wrote:
> Aaron Conole <aconole@redhat.com> writes:
>> "Matthieu Baerts (NGI0)" <matttbe@kernel.org> writes:
>>
>>> The kselftests doc mentions that a config file should be present "if a
>>> test needs specific kernel config options enabled". This selftest
>>> requires some kernel config, but no config file was provided.
>>>
>>> We could say that a sub-target could use the parent's config file, but
>>> the kselftests doc doesn't mention anything about that. Plus the
>>> net/openvswitch target is the only net target without a config file.
>>
>> We've been operating on that assumption from the openvswitch side, but
>> it's true that isn't explicitly documented anywhere, and I guess it
>> isn't officially supported in the kselftest framework.  I guess we'll
>> need to keep updating this config as we add tests for things like SCTP,
>> and others, and maybe that's a good thing like we can add a comment
>> describing which tests take which configs.
>>
>> The downside is for most of the OVS testing we use the NIPA scripts
>> and those 'inherit' the parent config, so it would be a change on our
>> side from the development standpoint (but probably something we should
>> have been doing from the beginning).
>>
>> That said, would it be worth also exploring the 'cascading
>> configuration' support?  It seems like a useful feature, but maybe it
>> should be a separate discussion.  I ask because of how OVS interacts
>> with the networking stack as an 'alternative bridge' so-to-speak, I do
>> worry about having to duplicate lots of configurations between the two
>> as we expand the test coverage on OVS side.

It is not clear to me what you are using on your side, but I guess it
should be doable to modify some scripts to merge this new config file
and the net one in your case.

>>> Here is a new config file, which is a trimmed version of the net one,
>>> with hopefully the minimal required kconfig on top of 'make defconfig'.
>>
>> Should this also remove the OVS configs from the upper level since there
>> shouldn't be OVS tests executing there (ie: CONFIG_OPENVSWITCH*)?
> 
> Actually, forget this part.  The P-MTU tests in pmtu.sh use ovs to
> create a datapath through OVS.  So these configurations need to stay at
> the top level as well.

Indeed. I don't know these tests well, but maybe this P-MTU selftest
should move to the net/openvswitch target?

Cheers,
Matt