Thomas Graf wrote: > * Paul Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2006-07-28 14:39 > >>It sounds like you main concern is that I'm not using the netlink >>attribute interfaces, yes? I looked at using those originally but >>decided not to use them for the following reasons: >> >> 1. They are listed as "optional" in the documents I read >> 2. They add at least an extra 32 bits to each attribute >> 3. There seems to be plenty of users in net/ipv4 who do not make >> use of attributes (a *quick* look again reveals none) >> 4. Since I'm reading messages from userspace I can't trust the >> message contents regardless of it's use of attributes >> 5. Harder to work with in userspace without using a netlink >> library, which would create an extra dependency for tools which >> talk to the NetLabel subsystem >> >>Basically, I saw no requirement to use the netlink attributes and no >>advantage so I didn't. Is this reasonable, or do you feel the use of >>attributes is a requirement? > > Not a requirement but I would encourage it. Almost all netlink > families are using attributes with a few exceptions. We just > used to call them rtattr defined in rtnetlink.h before the new > api was added. There is one huge advantage in using attributes > which is that your protocol is extendable without breaking binary > interfaces. > > What I'm refering to primarly are the existing functions to write > netlink and genetlink headers etc.
Okay. Thanks for your feedback but unless I hear from others that this is a requirement I think I'm going to leave the code as written for the reasons I listed above. I won't argue the fact that attributes may make life easier when extending existing messages/interfaces but I think the existing NetLabel message format as well as the generic netlinks versioning of each message should allow plenty of room for growth in the future (if needed). -- paul moore linux security @ hp - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
