On 28/09/18 17:45, Andrew Lunn wrote:

Now is a good time to change the API, since we are moving to a netlink
socket. Which is why these questions were asked in the first place...

OK, well, I've posted sfc's semantics and view-from-the-hardware*; now
 patiently waiting for other NIC vendors to chime in so we can try to
 converge on something consistent.
Then again, since they've been CCed since the original patch three weeks
 ago, we might be waiting a while :-(

Regarding Ariel Almog's suggested semantics, it seems like they have the
 'auto' bit just encoding 'more than one non-auto bit', which is
 redundant (i.e. off|rs is always off|rs|auto, whereas rs is never
 rs|auto).  I don't see how that would be useful.

-Ed

* One complication I left out: we actually have _three_ pairs of sup/req
  bits, because we separate 'BaseR for 10G/40G/100G' from 'BaseR for
  25G/50G'.  I don't know the details of why our HW does this (or why
  100G isn't lumped in with the other 25ers) but I think it has to do
  with Horrific Ethernet Spec Arcana Man Was Not Meant To Know™.