Re: [patch net-next 1/9] Introduce devlink infrastructure

On 2/22/16, 10:31 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote:

From: Jiri Pirko <redacted>

Introduce devlink infrastructure for drivers to register and expose to
userspace via generic Netlink interface.

There are two basic objects defined:
devlink - one instance for every "parent device", for example switch ASIC
devlink port - one instance for every physical port of the device.

Like i have expressed earlier, the only thing that bothers me here is that we are creating a new devlink object for switch port when there
is an existing netdev object.

Is there a chance that the drivers you are targeting can still create netdevs for physical ports ?
It would make things so much more consistent and simpler to manage without a cost of adding yet another interface.

The port splitter support is needed at the netdev api too (ie rtnetlink). Most switchdev drivers that expose netdevs
would benefit from a native 'ip link' way to configure port splitting. This will be useful for nic drivers too.

thanks,
Roopa