On Wed, May 24, 2006 at 03:05:54PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: > Phil Dibowitz wrote: > >On Wed, May 24, 2006 at 02:23:05PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: > >>I disagree that we should bother about clearing statistics. It always > >>adds more complication than necessary. Few (if any) other statistics in > >>Linux permit easy clearing, often because adding operations other than > >>'increment' or 'read' requires adding expensive spinlocks or atomic > >>operations. > > > >Every networking device in the world supports clearing interface > >statistics. > >Why should linux not be able to do the most basic operation on any > >cisco/juniper/enterasys/whatever managed switch or router? > > > >It's a common operation on a network interface, I don't see why this is a > >concern. > > > >When I'm debugging a networking issue On a cluster of hundreds and hundreds > >of machines at work, I want to be able to reset them all quickly, and get a > >rough idea of if they're all climbing, if they're all climbing at the same > >rate, etc. And being able to do "for i in `cat hostlist`; do ssh $i > >ethtool -z > >eth0; done" is really, really, REALLY, useful. > > Obtaining the difference between two numbers is not that difficult. > > Given any method of clearing statistics across your cluster, I'm certain > you can come up with a similar method of obtaining the current statistic > (the baseline).
Right, I'm aware there are other ways of doing this - I've written scripts to record a hundreds of numbers, and then subtract them from each other. But those scripts are work arounds for a feature _lacking_ in the kernel. A feature that, as I've mentioned, is supported on any piece of networking gear (and of course, lets not forget there's a specific option in the kernel config *just* for "behave like a router"). If my patch was invasive and broke things, I would understand the hesitation, but this is a feature that allows people to *choose* to do this if they need to and the code is pretty self-contained. -- Phil Dibowitz [EMAIL PROTECTED] Freeware and Technical Pages Insanity Palace of Metallica http://www.phildev.net/ http://www.ipom.com/ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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