On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:31:39 +0200
Jiri Pirko [off-list ref] wrote:

Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 03:37:26AM CEST, dsahern@gmail.com wrote:

quoted

On 8/11/19 7:34 PM, David Ahern wrote:  

quoted

On 8/10/19 12:30 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote:  

quoted

Could you please write me an example message of add/remove?  

altnames are for existing netdevs, yes? existing netdevs have an id and
a name - 2 existing references for identifying the existing netdev for
which an altname will be added. Even using the altname as the main
'handle' for a setlink change, I see no reason why the GETLINK api can
not take an the IFLA_ALT_IFNAME and return the full details of the
device if the altname is unique.

So, what do the new RTM commands give you that you can not do with
RTM_*LINK?
  

To put this another way, the ALT_NAME is an attribute of an object - a
LINK. It is *not* a separate object which requires its own set of
commands for manipulating.  

Okay, again, could you provide example of a message to add/remove
altname using existing setlink message? Thanks!

The existing IFALIAS takes an empty name to do deletion.