Re: [PATCH v4 net-next 0/8] flow_dissector: Protocol specific flow dissector offload

Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 07:59:35PM CEST, tom@herbertland.com wrote:

On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 10:42 AM, David Miller [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

From: Tom Herbert <redacted>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 08:48:55 -0700

quoted

The flow_dissector interface is not a uAPI.

That's not true, insofar as cls_flower.c uses the flow_dissector
therefore if you change the flow_dissector in certain ways then
cls_flower.c might have it's behavior changed and that is in fact UAPI
facing.

Then I would suggest adding another flag like FLOW_DISSECTOR_F_FLOWER
and when anyone puts new code into flow_dissector they can wrap it
with "if !(flags & FLOW_DISSECTOR_F_FLOWER)". If the flower uAPI is
subsequently update then the conditional can be removed. This way
flower can support maintain its APIs, but we can still still extend
and improve flow_dissector for othersuse cases.

This is not flower-specific problem. Flow_dissector is a servant of many.
As such, it is instructed what should it do. If you want to
change the way inner headers are parsed, you should either:
1) change the callers so they are behaving the same as before
2) make the flow_dissection change optional so the caller can say if he
   wants original or new behaviour.