Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751097Ab3IYHDX (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:03:23 -0400 Received: from ja.ssi.bg ([178.16.129.10]:45371 "EHLO ja.ssi.bg" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750726Ab3IYHDW (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:03:22 -0400 Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 10:08:29 +0300 (EEST) From: Julian Anastasov To: Vincent Li cc: "netdev@vger.kernel.org" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, davem@davemloft.net Subject: Re: [PATCH] Allow userspace code to use flag IFA_F_SECONDARY to specify an ip address to be primary or secondary ip on an interface In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <1380046281-6012-1-git-send-email-vincent.mc.li@gmail.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (LFD 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2202 Lines: 75 Hello, On Tue, 24 Sep 2013, Vincent Li wrote: > Thanks Julian for the comments, I imagined it would not be so simple > as it changed old behavior with ip binary and some actions in > __inet_del_ifa() that I am not fully aware of. my intention is to > preserve the old behavior and extend the flexibility, I am unable to > come up with a good patch to achieve the intended behavior. ... > if someone can point me to the right patch directions or coming up > with better patches, it is very much appreciated. My first idea was to use NLM_F_APPEND to implement 'ip addr prepend' and 'ip addr append' but the default operation is 'append' without providing NLM_F_APPEND, so it does not work. Another idea is to add new attribute IFA_PREFERENCE in include/uapi/linux/if_addr.h just before __IFA_MAX, integer, 3 of the values are known. A preference for the used scope. /* Add as last, default */ IFA_PREFERENCE_APPEND = 0, /* Add as last primary, before any present primary in subnet */ IFA_PREFERENCE_PRIMARY = 128, /* First for scope */ IFA_PREFERENCE_FIRST = 255, We should keep it in ifa as priority, for sorting purposes. It can be 4-byte value, if user wants to copy user-defined order into preference. Sorting order should be: - all primaries sorted by decreasing scope, decreasing priority and adding order - then all secondaries (IFA_F_SECONDARY) sorted by decreasing priority and adding order Usage: ip addr add ... pref[erence] type_or_priority # Add floating IP (append at priority 128) # The primary mode is not guaranteed if another address from # the same subnet is already using the same or higher priority. ip addr add ... pref primary # More preferred primary ip addr add ... pref 129 # Add first IP for scope ip addr add ... pref first The scope has similar 'sorting' property but not for IPs in same subnet and it would be difficult to use it for global routes. Thoughts? Regards -- Julian Anastasov -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/