Re: [RFC PATCH 7/9] GSO: Support partial segmentation offload

On Thu, 24 Mar 2016, Alexander Duyck wrote:

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Edward Cree [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

So: in the initial transmit path we build a coherent superframe; when we get
to the device, we say either "oh, device doesn't support offloads at all,
call GSO", or "oh, device supports this particular GSO type for TSO, so give
it the superframe SKB to do what it wants with", or "oh, device supports
GSO_PARTIAL, let's call skb_mac_gso_partial [i.e. chain of new callbacks I
was describing in previous email] and then give the non-coherent SKB to the
device".

What you are proposing is essentially forking GSO.

In a way, I suppose it is.

I really don't
like that.  I prefer the approach we have now where essentially GSO
partial is something checked for at the very end and we have a few
checks when putting together the headers so we do the right thing.

I guess both can exist, and I'll name mine something other than "GSO 
partial"...

This is sounding very complicated.  I think we would be better off if
you took the time to try and implement some of this yourself so you
could see how feasible it is.

Sure, I was already intending to do that before I saw your patch series
and thought it might be able to do what I had in mind.  As it now seems
like we're envisaging different things, I'll go back to implementing
mine and wish you luck with yours.

-Ed