The original reason to request this change was simple: to figure out what type of interface we are looking at, since now some wireless drivers can simultaneously create managed, p2p and ap interfaces. Knowing that, from a simple front-end (let's even say a shell script) we can decide what arguments to use with wpa_supplicant (or indeed if we want to start it on this interface). wpa_supplicant, of course, knows how to manipulate the device further using nl80211. I thought it was a bit onerous to force userspace all the way through nl80211 just to get this trivial piece of information, but apparently this doesn't seem to be the common point of view.
-- Paul On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 11:43 PM, Marcel Holtmann <mar...@holtmann.org> wrote: > Hi Nicolas, > >>>> Add a "wireless/nl80211_iftype" entry in the net device sysfs >>>> file structure to indicate the mode of the wireless device so >>>> it can be discovered easily from userspace. >>> >>> What's wrong with "iw dev", i.e. netlink/nl80211? >> >> "Do NOT screenscrape this tool, we don't consider its output stable." >> >> So if you are in a shell script, you're basically screwed. > > if you are in a shell script, you are screwed no matter what. So what is your > point? > > Regards > > Marcel > > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
