Re: IPSec questions and comments

On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 08:01:17PM -0500, Corey Minyard wrote:

[off-list ref], "David S. Miller" [off-list ref]
Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Bcc: 
Subject: IPSec questions
Reply-To: minyard@acm.org

I've been going through the XFRM code trying to understand it.  I've
been documenting things in the code as I go.

I have a specific usage question, then a general question:

1) In struct xfrm_dst, what is the difference between the route and path
fields?  From what I can tell, in the first element of a bundle they
will both point the route the packet will take after it has been
transformed.  In the other elements of a bundle, route is the same as in
the first element and path will be NULL.  Is this really the intent?
Can path just be eliminated?

Eyal gave a good explanation of this.

2) This code is really hard to understand.  Nobody should have to go
through what I'm going through.  If I can convince my employer to allow
me to submit the comments I'm adding, would that be something acceptable?
It would obviously take a lot of time to review.  If nobody's going to
have the time to review it, I don't need to put forth the extra effort
to make it submittable.

Documentation is always welcome. If you submit your documentation
in small reviewable patches, then it should be accepted and merged
over time.