RE: [PATCH net-next 1/6] ethtool: Extend link modes settings uAPI with lanes

From: Danielle Ratson <danieller@nvidia.com>
To: Michal Kubecek <mkubecek@suse.cz>
Cc: Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli.us>, Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>,
	"Jakub Kicinski" <kuba@kernel.org>,
	Ido Schimmel <idosch@idosch.org>,
	"netdev@vger.kernel.org" <netdev@vger.kernel.org>,
	"davem@davemloft.net" <davem@davemloft.net>,
	Jiri Pirko <jiri@nvidia.com>,
	"f.fainelli@gmail.com" <f.fainelli@gmail.com>,
	mlxsw <mlxsw@nvidia.com>, Ido Schimmel <idosch@nvidia.com>,
	"johannes@sipsolutions.net" <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Subject: RE: [PATCH net-next 1/6] ethtool: Extend link modes settings uAPI with lanes
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:20:22 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <DM6PR12MB38651062E363459E66140B23D81C0@DM6PR12MB3865.namprd12.prod.outlook.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20201021070820.oszrgnsqxddi2m43@lion.mk-sys.cz>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michal Kubecek <mkubecek@suse.cz>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2020 10:08 AM
> To: Danielle Ratson <danieller@nvidia.com>
> Cc: Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli.us>; Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>; Jakub
> Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>; Ido Schimmel <idosch@idosch.org>;
> netdev@vger.kernel.org; davem@davemloft.net; Jiri Pirko
> <jiri@nvidia.com>; f.fainelli@gmail.com; mlxsw <mlxsw@nvidia.com>; Ido
> Schimmel <idosch@nvidia.com>; johannes@sipsolutions.net
> Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next 1/6] ethtool: Extend link modes settings uAPI
> with lanes
> 
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 07:39:13AM +0000, Danielle Ratson wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Michal Kubecek <mkubecek@suse.cz>
> > > Sent: Monday, October 19, 2020 4:25 PM
> > >
> > > As I said, I meant the extension suggested in my mail as independent
> > > of what this series is about. For lanes count selector, I find
> > > proposed
> > >
> > >   ethtool -s <dev> ... lanes <lanes_num> ...
> > >
> > > the most natural.
> > >
> > > From purely syntactic/semantic point of view, there are three types
> > > of
> > > requests:
> > >
> > >   (1) enable specific set of modes, disable the rest
> > >   (2) enable/disable specific modes, leave the rest as they are
> > >   (3) enable modes matching a condition (and disable the rest)
> > >
> > > What I proposed was to allow the use symbolic names instead of masks
> > > (which are getting more and more awful with each new mode) also for
> > > (1), like they can already be used for (2).
> > >
> > > The lanes selector is an extension of (3) which I would prefer not
> > > to mix with
> > > (1) or (2) within one command line, i.e. either "advertise" or
> > > "speed / duplex / lanes".
> > >
> > > IIUC Jakub's and Andrew's comments were not so much about the syntax
> > > and semantic (which is quite clear) but rather about the question if
> > > the requests like "advertise exactly the modes with (100Gb/s speed
> > > and) two lanes" would really address a real life need and wouldn't
> > > be more often used as shortcuts for "advertise 100000baseKR2/Full".
> > > (On the other hand, I suspect existing speed and duplex selectors
> > > are often used the same way.)
> > >
> > > Michal
> >
> > So, do you want to change the current approach somehow or we are good
> > to go with this one, keeping in mind the future extension you have
> > suggested?
> 
> As far as I'm concerned, it makes sense as it is. The only thing I'm not happy
> about is ETHTOOL_A_LINKMODES_LANES being a "write only" attribute
> (unlike _SPEED and _DUPLEX) but being able to query this information would
> require extensive changes far beyond the scope of this series.
> 
> Michal

If I understood you correctly, patch #5 does that query, isn't it? "mlxsw: ethtool: Expose the number of lanes in use"