From: Edward Cree <redacted>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2018 16:01:47 +0000

On 01/03/18 18:36, David Miller wrote:

quoted

We really should have the ethtool interfaces under deep freeze until we
convert it to netlink or similar.
Second, this is a real hackish way to extend ethtool with new
semantics.� A structure changes layout based upon a flag bit setting
in an earlier member?� Yikes...

Yeah, while I'm reasonably confident it's ABI-compatible (presence of that
�flag in the past should always have led to drivers complaining they didn't
�recognise it), and it is somewhat similar to the existing FLOW_EXT flag,
�it is indeed rather ugly.� This is the only way I could see to do it
�without adding a whole new command number, which I felt might also be
�contentious (see: deep freeze) but is probably a better approach.

quoted

Lastly, there has been feedback asking how practical and useful this
facility actually is, and you must address that.

According to our marketing folks, there is end-user demand for this feature
�or something like it.� I didn't see any arguments why this isn't useful,
�just that other things might be useful too.� (Also, sorry it took me so
�long to address their feedback, but I had to do a bit of background
�reading before I could understand what Jakub was suggesting.)

Ok.

Since nobody is really working on the ethtool --> devlink/netlink conversion,
it really isn't reasonable for me to block useful changes like your's.

So please resubmit this series and I will apply it.

Thanks.