Re: [PATCH] iproute2: hide devices starting with period by default

On 2/23/17 5:30 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:

On Thu, 23 Feb 2017 16:39:52 -0700
David Ahern [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

On 2/23/17 12:50 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:

quoted

Some use cases create Linux networking devices which are not intended for use
by normal networking. This is an enhancement to ip command to hide network
devices starting with period (like files in normal directory).  Interfaces whose
name start with "." are not shown by default, and the -a (or -all) flag must
be used to show these devices.  

Agree that some devices need to be hidden by default -- not just from
users but also other processes.

This solution is very narrow, only affecting iproute2 users. Any other
programs that use netlink or /proc files will continue to see those devices.

I want solution that works broadly. And this works for sysfs already.

for 'ls' maybe, but not general walking of /sys. It does not hide
devices from snmpd, from ifconfig, etc., etc.

quoted

I started a patch a year ago that allows devices to marked as invisible
(attribute can be toggled at any time). Invisible devices do not show up
in netlink dumps, proc files or notifications. Netlink dumps can request
invisible devices to be included in a link dump. While it is more
intrusive, it is also more complete covering all of the paths in which
the device is shows up.

Also, changing the default behavior for iproute2 could break existing
users that have such device names.

I am less worried about this. The only people using . in name already
are probably Brocade, and they have similar thing in CLI to hide these
devices.

seems like a big assumption.