On Thu, Sep 07, 2023 at 11:23:59AM +0200, Maxime Chevallier wrote:

Link topologies containing multiple network PHYs attached to the same
net_device can be found when using a PHY as a media converter for use
with an SFP connector, on which an SFP transceiver containing a PHY can
be used.

With the current model, the transceiver's PHY can't be used for
operations such as cable testing, timestamping, macsec offload, etc.

The reason being that most of the logic for these configuration, coming
from either ethtool netlink or ioctls tend to use netdev->phydev, which
in multi-phy systems will reference the PHY closest to the MAC.

Introduce a numbering scheme allowing to enumerate PHY devices that
belong to any netdev, which can in turn allow userspace to take more
precise decisions with regard to each PHY's configuration.

I think we need more than a number. Topology needs to be a core
concept here, otherwise how is the user supposed to know which PHY to
use cable test on, etc.

However, it is not a simple problem. An SFP PHY should be the last in
a chain. So you can infer something from that. When we start adding
MII muxes, they will need to be part of the modal.

    Andrew