Re: [PATCH RFC] mac80211: Use IFF_ECHO to force delivery of tx_status frames

From: Oliver Hartkopp
Date: Tue Feb 26 2019 - 06:05:08 EST


Hi Julius,

On 26.02.19 10:40, Julius Niedworok wrote:

In order to force delivery of TX status frames for research and debugging
purposes, implement the IFF_ECHO flag for ieee80211 devices. When this flag
is set for a specific interface, IEEE80211_TX_CTL_REQ_TX_STATUS is enabled
in all packets sent from that interface. IFF_ECHO can be set via
/sys/class/net/<dev>/flags. The default is disabled.

(..)

+ /*
+ * Force TX status frames on ieee80211 devices.
+ * Since IFF_ECHO is used by CAN devices for a different
+ * purpose, we must check dev->ieee80211_ptr.
+ */

The reason for IFF_ECHO was, that the data frame which is sent onto the wire (by one application) is not visible to all the other applications on the same (local) host. Therefore a successful transmission on the wire triggers the 'echo' of the sent content into the local host.

So what are you getting back after you enabled IFF_ECHO on your mac80211 device?

Is it just a 'status' about a sent packet, or is it the packet ('full content') itself?

Regards,
Oliver