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 13:44:07 -0800 Message-ID: <20151201134407.3018adcc@xeon-e3> References: <20151201080652.5cba6f8b@xeon-e3> <20151201.142847.1980856920707150414.davem@davemloft.net> <20151201122038.795305df@xeon-e3> <20151201.155725.733555238839381632.davem@davemloft.net> <1449004499.3829359.455124521.608D0A9E@webmail.messagingengine.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: David Miller , max@rfc2324.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org To: Hannes Frederic Sowa Return-path: Received: from mail-pa0-f47.google.com ([209.85.220.47]:33007 "EHLO mail-pa0-f47.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756544AbbLAVn6 (ORCPT ); Tue, 1 Dec 2015 16:43:58 -0500 Received: by pabfh17 with SMTP id fh17so18069892pab.0 for ; Tue, 01 Dec 2015 13:43:58 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <1449004499.3829359.455124521.608D0A9E@webmail.messagingengine.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, 01 Dec 2015 22:14:59 +0100 Hannes Frederic Sowa wrote: > On Tue, Dec 1, 2015, at 21:57, David Miller wrote: > > From: Stephen Hemminger > > Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 12:20:38 -0800 > > > > > 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. > > > > But at least in theory, that could be extended to do so right? > > I had several snmp installations with net-snmp and munin, cacti and so > on and all had the interface name in ifDescription already some years > back. In net-snmp 5.7 or later ifDescr is set to result of pci_lookup_name (by default).