Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754051Ab2HNXBL (ORCPT ); Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:01:11 -0400 Received: from mail.vyatta.com ([76.74.103.46]:59198 "EHLO mail.vyatta.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751164Ab2HNXBI (ORCPT ); Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:01:08 -0400 Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:00:55 -0700 From: Stephen Hemminger To: Ben Hutchings Cc: Jiri Pirko , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Subject: Re: [patch net-next v2 01/15] net: introduce upper device lists Message-ID: <20120814160055.1e948456@nehalam.linuxnetplumber.net> In-Reply-To: <1344983624.2690.77.camel@bwh-desktop.uk.solarflarecom.com> References: <1344956748-2099-1-git-send-email-jiri@resnulli.us> <1344956748-2099-2-git-send-email-jiri@resnulli.us> <1344983624.2690.77.camel@bwh-desktop.uk.solarflarecom.com> Organization: Vyatta X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.1 (GTK+ 2.24.10; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1588 Lines: 31 On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 23:33:44 +0100 Ben Hutchings wrote: > On Tue, 2012-08-14 at 17:05 +0200, Jiri Pirko wrote: > > This lists are supposed to serve for storing pointers to all upper devices. > > Eventually it will replace dev->master pointer which is used for > > bonding, bridge, team but it cannot be used for vlan, macvlan where > > there might be multiple upper present. In case the upper link is > > replacement for dev->master, it is marked with "master" flag. > > Something I found interesting is that the dev->master pointer and now > netdev_master_upper_dev_get{,_rcu}() are hardly used by the stackled > drivers that set the master. They also have to set an rx_handler on the > lower device (which is itself mutually exclusive) which gets its own > context pointer (rx_handler_data). > > Instead, the master pointer is mostly used by device drivers to find out > about a bridge or bonding device above *their* devices. And that seems > to work only for those specific device drivers, not e.g. openvswitch or > team. I wonder if we could find a better way to encapsulate the things > they want do do, in a later step (not holding up this change!). The concept is master is very useful to user level config things like Vyatta for seeing parent/child relationship. Since is in ABI now, it must stay. -- 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/