Offering presents for more routing tables!

I've asked for this feature several years ago and evidently
it is not trivial to increase the number of routing tables.

But, perhaps someone now has time & inclination?

I would like to have more (a few thousand) routing tables
available in the kernel so that I can use a routing table for
each of my many VLANs.  Currently, the netlink protocol only
specifies an 8-bit id for the routing table:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3549.html  Section 3.1.1
so a new netlink message would need to be created and the 'ip' tool
updated.  I think at least a 16-bit identifier should be used,
possibly a full 32 bits so we don't have to revisit this again for
a while!

The kernel itself would also need to be modified so that it can
have more routing tables.  I realize most people don't need a
large number of tables, so the maximum number should be configured
at either compile time or run time.

If I remember right, there are certain tables (253 - 255) that
are currently special in the kernel.  For complete backwards compatibility,
this hole would probably have to remain as it is, with the new
tables starting at 256.

I would be willing to help test any resulting patches, and can
also offer bribes of money, hardware, beer, etc.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear [off-list ref]
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com