Re: [RFC PATCH 1/3] veth: implement support for set_channel ethtool op

[Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>]

On Fri, 2021-07-09 at 17:23 +0200, Toke Høiland-Jørgensen wrote:
> Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com> writes:
> > On Fri, 2021-07-09 at 12:49 +0200, Paolo Abeni wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2021-07-09 at 12:15 +0200, Toke Høiland-Jørgensen wrote:
> > > > > +	if (netif_running(dev))
> > > > > +		veth_close(dev);
> > > > > +
> > > > > +	priv->num_tx_queues = ch->tx_count;
> > > > > +	priv->num_rx_queues = ch->rx_count;
> > > > 
> > > > Why can't just you use netif_set_real_num_*_queues() here directly (and
> > > > get rid of the priv members as above)?
> > > 
> > > Uhm... I haven't thought about it. Let me try ;)
> > 
> > Here there is a possible problem: if the latter
> > netif_set_real_num_*_queues() fails, we should not change the current
> > configuration, so we should revert the
> > first netif_set_real_num_*_queues() change.
> > 
> > Even that additional revert operation could fail. If/when that happen
> > set_channel() will leave the device in a different state from both the
> > old one and the new one, possibly with an XDP-incompatible number of
> > queues.
> > 
> > Keeping the  netif_set_real_num_*_queues() calls in veth_open() avoid
> > the above issue: if the queue creation is problematic, the device will
> > stay down.
> > 
> > I think the additional fields are worthy, WDYT?
> 
> Hmm, wouldn't the right thing to do be to back out the change and return
> an error to userspace? Something like:
> 
> +	if (netif_running(dev))
> +		veth_close(dev);
> +
> +	old_rx_queues = dev->real_num_rx_queues;
> +	err = netif_set_real_num_rx_queues(dev, ch->rx_count);
> +	if (err)
> +		return err;
> +
> +	err = netif_set_real_num_tx_queues(dev, ch->tx_count);
> +	if (err) {
> +		netif_set_real_num_rx_queues(dev, old_rx_queues);

I'm sorry, I was not clear enough. I mean: even the
above netif_set_real_num_rx_queues() can fail. When that happen we will
leave the device in an inconsistent state, possibly even with an
"unsupported" queue setting.

> +		return err;
> +	}
> +
> +	if (netif_running(dev))
> +		veth_open(dev);
> +	return 0;
> 
> 
> (also, shouldn't the result of veth_open() be returned? bit weird if you
> don't get an error but the device stays down...)

Agreed.

Thanks!

Paolo