Re: [PATCH 4/7] xt_mark match rev 1

[Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>]

Patrick McHardy wrote:
> Pablo Neira Ayuso wrote:
>> Jan Engelhardt wrote:
>>> What will netlink bring us, with respect to the two states:
>>> - old iptables, new kernel
>>> - new iptables, old kernel
>>> so matching some UUIDs (and .revision is one, more or less) seems
>>> like the way
>>> to go.
>>
>> Netlink doesn't stick us to fixed structure layouts as it happens to the
>> current interface since we represent the messages kernel <-> userspace
>> in TLV (type-length-value) format. Thus, userspace and kernel won't
>> share structures and new features just require a new type. For that
>> reason, the netlink interface won't require such revision infrastructure.
>>
>> Not that I'm against your patches, I'm just stating the right direction
>> to go for those 5-10 years that you have mentioned. And of course, we
>> don't have a single line of such interface at the moment :)
> 
> 
> Actually we do, I've been working on it, but had to interrupt
> for some other stuff. I hope to get back to it over christmas
> and beginning of next year. The goal is to add a compat layer
> for old iptables userspace, but I don't really care about how
> ugly it gets since we hopefully never have to look at it again
> until its removal :)

Cool, consider putting it somewhere, I'm willing to contribute to it ;).
BTW, if nobody complains I'll release iptables 1.4.0 final between today
and tomorrow.

-- 
"Los honestos son inadaptados sociales" -- Les Luthiers