Stephen Hemminger wrote:

There is no reason to not allow non-admin users to query network
statistics and settings.

NAK.

Some functions in the past didn't like getting hit rapidly in succession.

I would agree to this, but only after an exhaustive audit of each driver 
and each sub-ioctl.  Right now, I only have confidence in GDRVINFO 
probably being safe -- but still that requires an audit, since in rare 
cases the driver may be poking firmware and eeprom areas.

Finally, I fixed a buffer overflow in ethtool version 5, so an audit to 
make sure overflows cannot affect the kernel is basically _required_.

	Jeff