From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 14 20:05:28 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B562A106568C; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:05:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brooks@lor.one-eyed-alien.net) Received: from lor.one-eyed-alien.net (lor.one-eyed-alien.net [69.66.77.232]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4CC768FC52; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:05:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from lor.one-eyed-alien.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lor.one-eyed-alien.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n7EJX4qX024478; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:33:04 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from brooks@lor.one-eyed-alien.net) Received: (from brooks@localhost) by lor.one-eyed-alien.net (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n7EJX3Va024477; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:33:03 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from brooks) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:33:03 -0500 From: Brooks Davis To: "Li, Qing" Message-ID: <20090814193303.GA21941@lor.one-eyed-alien.net> References: <4A83EEA8.5080202@delphij.net> <20090813182918.S93661@maildrop.int.zabbadoz.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="J/dobhs11T7y2rNN" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (lor.one-eyed-alien.net [127.0.0.1]); Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:33:05 -0500 (CDT) Cc: d@delphij.net, freebsd-net@freebsd.org, Qing Li , "Andrey V. Elsukov" , Julian Elischer , "Bjoern A. Zeeb" Subject: Re: RFC: interface description X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:05:28 -0000 --J/dobhs11T7y2rNN Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 10:49:24AM -0700, Li, Qing wrote: > >=20 > > My point has always been - if I have to add/do an ioctl I can always > > also use a library call that will read it from a .txt, .xml, .db file > > or whatever and I don't have to go to the kernel, handle all the > > string length problems there, ... especially as the kernel cannot do > > anything with that string. >=20 > The interface description feature is a useful feature. Quite a few > products out there actually put a label on the physical box so it's > reasonable to have the ability to label the ports in the kernel. >=20 > There are quite a few embedded systems and not-so-standalone boxes > out there that are derivatives of FreeBSD. These systems might not > have the luxury of a file system. And getting coredumps from the > field with such information embedded in the ifnet{} just makes > debugging field issues a little bit easier. I think this is a decently compelling argument for in-kernel descriptions. They do solve some synchronization issues and one pointer is probably an acceptable price to pay given all the edge cases related to keeping a file in sync if you went the totally user land route. I general, I don't think we should try too hard to solve every problem here. Adding a pointer to ifnet, a quick get/set ioctl, ifconfig support, and support for ifdesc_ or similar variables in rc.conf is probably as much as makes sense to do. This is mostly a feature for appliance builders. If I were working on adding the ability to slim down ifnet to the base system, I'd certainly make this an optional feature, but there are much fatter targets at the moment. -- Brooks --J/dobhs11T7y2rNN Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFKhbvuXY6L6fI4GtQRAj0JAJ9iXA8oEllkQfdG4u2GVs3vpBkb2gCdEccj yzbomu5g8F2V9q0KRZtnRkM= =N36y -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --J/dobhs11T7y2rNN--