On 04/05/2018 02:47 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote: > On Thu, Apr 05, 2018 at 10:30:01AM +0000, Laurentiu Tudor wrote: >> Hello, >> >> My 2c below. >> >> On 04/04/2018 03:42 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote: >>>> I hear you. It is more complicated this way...having all these individual >>>> objects vs just a single "bundle" of them that represents a NIC. But, >>>> that's >>>> the way the DPAA2 hardware is, and we're implementing kernel support for >>>> the hardware as it is. >>> >>> Hi Stuart >>> >>> I see we are not making any progress here. >>> >>> So what i suggest is you post the kernel code and configuration tool >>> concept to netdev for a full review. You want reviews from David >>> Miller, Jiri Pirko, Jakub Kicinski, David Ahern, etc. >>> >> >> I think that the discussion steered too much towards networking related >> topics, while this ioctl doesn't have much to do with networking. > > Hi Laurentiu > > So i can use switchdev without it? I can modprobe the switchdev > driver, all the physical interfaces will appear, and i can use ip addr > add etc. I do not need to use a user space tool at all in order to use > the network functionality?
Absolutely! In normal use cases the system designer, depending on the requirements, configures the various devices that it desires through a firmware configuration (think something like a device tree). The devices configured are presented on the mc-bus and probed normally by the kernel. The standard networking linux tools can be used as expected. The ioctl is necessary only for more advanced use cases that are supported by this bus. Think "more dynamic" scenarios that involve linking & unlinking various devices at runtime, maybe some virtualization scenarios. Unfortunately I'm not the architect type of guy so I don't have more specific examples to better illustrate ... --- Best Regards, Laurentiu
