From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Stephen Hemminger Subject: Re: [RFC] Stable interface index option Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 12:20:38 -0800 Message-ID: <20151201122038.795305df@xeon-e3> References: <20151201155052.GA14984@principal.rfc2324.org> <1448985743.3387258.454809153.36540D70@webmail.messagingengine.com> <20151201080652.5cba6f8b@xeon-e3> <20151201.142847.1980856920707150414.davem@davemloft.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: hannes@stressinduktion.org, max@rfc2324.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org To: David Miller Return-path: Received: from mail-pa0-f42.google.com ([209.85.220.42]:35809 "EHLO mail-pa0-f42.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754662AbbLAUU3 (ORCPT ); Tue, 1 Dec 2015 15:20:29 -0500 Received: by pacej9 with SMTP id ej9so15560919pac.2 for ; Tue, 01 Dec 2015 12:20:29 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20151201.142847.1980856920707150414.davem@davemloft.net> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, 01 Dec 2015 14:28:47 -0500 (EST) David Miller wrote: > From: Stephen Hemminger > Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 08:06:52 -0800 > > > On Tue, 01 Dec 2015 17:02:23 +0100 > > Hannes Frederic Sowa wrote: > > > >> On Tue, Dec 1, 2015, at 16:50, Maximilian Wilhelm wrote: > >> > > I'm not sure I understand how this would work- are we going to > >> > > pin down the ifindex for some subset of interfaces? > >> > > >> > I'm not sure what your idea is, but I guess we might mean the same > >> > thing: > >> > > >> > What I have in mind is that the user can supply a list of (ifname -> > >> > ifindex) entries via a sysfs/procfs interface and if such a list is > >> > present, the kernel will search the list for every ifname which is > >> > registered and check if there is an entry. If there is, the ifindex > >> > for this entry is used. If there is no entry found for the given > >> > ifname, the usual algorithm is used (therefore inherently providing > >> > backward compatibility). > >> > >> Sorry to ask because I don't like this feature at all. There was a lot > >> of work on stable interface names. Why do you need stable ifindexes, > >> which were never meant to be stable for a longer amount of time? > > > > Also current versions of SNMP provide more useful information about > > network interface slot information in ifDescription > > Well if they do provide strings, then that is probably a better way > forward than messing with the kernel. It gives strings based on PCI information but nothing useful on tunnels.