From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Maxime Bizon Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4 net-next] net: phy: add Generic Netlink Ethernet switch configuration API Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:12:45 +0100 Message-ID: <1383088365.16822.22.camel@sakura.staff.proxad.net> References: <1382466229-15123-1-git-send-email-f.fainelli@gmail.com> <1382466229-15123-2-git-send-email-f.fainelli@gmail.com> <5266D7D6.9000309@intel.com> <20131022202537.GA16336@hmsreliant.think-freely.org> <5267B764.305@mojatatu.com> <5267BB53.8030703@openwrt.org> <5267C6B9.4000704@mojatatu.com> Reply-To: mbizon@freebox.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ANSI_X3.4-1968" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Felix Fietkau , Florian Fainelli , Neil Horman , John Fastabend , netdev , David Miller , Sascha Hauer , John Crispin , Jonas Gorski , Gary Thomas , Vlad Yasevich , Stephen Hemminger To: Jamal Hadi Salim Return-path: Received: from ns.iliad.fr ([212.27.33.1]:60774 "EHLO ns.iliad.fr" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751182Ab3J2XTS (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Oct 2013 19:19:18 -0400 In-Reply-To: <5267C6B9.4000704@mojatatu.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Wed, 2013-10-23 at 08:53 -0400, Jamal Hadi Salim wrote: > So exposing the 5-8 ports as netdevs would be useful. Giving access to > their stats through per-port netdevs etc. i.e a switch/bridge will While the intent is to make it look familiar to users, IMO this breaks the rule of the least surprise. >>From a user POV, when you see a netdevice, you expect to be able to receive or send packets from/to it. The ability to read stats/link is only a secondary feature. Wireless subsystem moved away from using dummy/additional netdevices because it caused confusion. multiqueue devices forced us to separate struct netdevice and struct netdev_queue, maybe it's time for more surgery :) -- Maxime