Re: [PATCH net-next v7 00/17] ethtool netlink interface, part 1

From: Jakub Kicinski
Date: Thu Oct 10 2019 - 20:49:00 EST


On Wed, 9 Oct 2019 22:59:00 +0200 (CEST), Michal Kubecek wrote:
> This is first part of netlink based alternative userspace interface for
> ethtool. It aims to address some long known issues with the ioctl
> interface, mainly lack of extensibility, raciness, limited error reporting
> and absence of notifications. The goal is to allow userspace ethtool
> utility to provide all features it currently does but without using the
> ioctl interface. However, some features provided by ethtool ioctl API will
> be available through other netlink interfaces (rtnetlink, devlink) if it's
> more appropriate.

Looks like perhaps with ETHTOOL_A_HEADER_RFLAGS checking taken out of
the picture we can proceed as is and potentially work on defining some
best practices around attrs and nesting for the future generations? :)

I was trying to find a way to perhaps start merging something.. Would
it make sense to spin out patches 1, 2, 3, and 8 as they seem to be
ready (possibly 11, too if the reorder isn't painful)?