Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:52:31 -0800 From: Marcel Moolenaar <marcel@xcllnt.net> To: Luigi Rizzo <rizzo@iet.unipi.it> Cc: net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Abstracting struct ifnet Message-ID: <54272F2A-28FE-4388-9450-EBFB5F7C26EC@xcllnt.net> In-Reply-To: <20120217082342.GA15346@onelab2.iet.unipi.it> References: <338757D1-6B1E-49CF-983F-5D5851066FD3@xcllnt.net> <20120217082342.GA15346@onelab2.iet.unipi.it>
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On Feb 17, 2012, at 12:23 AM, Luigi Rizzo wrote: >> >> Thoughts, feedback and suggestion are welcome, > > I do like the idea, but the amount of changes will be massive > (see below). The thing that worries me the most is that it > will introduce huge changes between different releases, unless > we backport the accessors (while keeping the underlying struct ifnet > frozen so we preserve the kernel ABI). Hi Luigi, That's a good point. When we have something to work with on -current and ideally with only a few drivers changed, we not only have a hybrid approach in -current, which allows us to stage the work, we also have the inherent support for backward compatibility. This then can be put in 9-stable to allow for "the new network" drivers to be used in a 9-stable code base as well. As for the amount of change: yes, it's large. But I think it's a good investment and an enabler for structural ifnet rework. FYI, -- Marcel Moolenaar marcel@xcllnt.net
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