The kernel currently contains four (4) disparate implementations of different aspects of the RNDIS (Remote Network Driver Interface Specification) protocol. This protocol is a way of marshalling the Windows network driver model to external devices over different bearers. - drivers/net/usb/rndis_host: implements the protocol for USB ethernet (etc) dongles, an alternative to CDC ethernet. For example some mobile phones also expose this interface for easy networking. - drivers/net/wireless/rndis_wlan: same thing for WLAN. - drivers/usb/gadget/*rndis: the embedded counterpart, say you want to create one of the above devices. - drivers/net/hyperv/rndis_filter: when virtualizing Linux inside windows, windows helpfully exposes a virtual "network card" which also use RNDIS. (Hm, would have been helpful to use virtio instead I guess but whatever.) This disparate implementation isn't particularly smart, I just recently discovered this and made this initial attempt att consolidation which shows how we can cut down code by some 250 lines in constant definitions alone. This is just a starter - if we apply this we can also move over a lot of data types to <linux/rndis.h> and cut down even more. Then we can potentially move code and consolidate code in a central implementation of the protocol. However this requires some involvement of the authors of the disparate implementations, who need to test and help out ... I have no way to really test this consolidation - I've dug up a USB dongle but I have no easily patched embedded controller with a slave interface right now and I have no Windows server with hyperv to test it on. So if you like this, let's proceed, but if you're all in "I wanna keep this one implementation in my corner" I'll just give up right now. So: what do you think? Yours, Linus Walleij Linus Walleij (14): usb/net: rndis: inline the cpu_to_le32() macro usb/net: rndis: break out <linux/rndis.h> defines usb/net: rndis: remove duplicate definitions usb/net: rndis: remove ambigous status codes usb/net: rndis: eliminate first set of duplicate OIDs usb/net: rndis: merge duplicate 802_* OIDs usb/net: rndis: delete surplus defines usb/net: rndis: group all status codes together usb/net: rndis: merge media type definitions usb/net: rndis: delete duplicate packet types usb/net: rndis: move and namespace PnP defines usb/net: rndis: merge command codes usb/net: rndis: fixup a few name prefixes usb/net: rndis: move bus message definition drivers/net/hyperv/hyperv_net.h | 290 +---------------------------- drivers/net/hyperv/rndis_filter.c | 46 +++--- drivers/net/usb/rndis_host.c | 52 +++--- drivers/net/wireless/rndis_wlan.c | 295 ++++++++++++----------------- drivers/usb/gadget/f_rndis.c | 6 +- drivers/usb/gadget/ndis.h | 164 ---------------- drivers/usb/gadget/rndis.c | 271 +++++++++++++------------- drivers/usb/gadget/rndis.h | 48 +----- include/linux/rndis.h | 378 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ include/linux/usb/rndis_host.h | 66 +------- 10 files changed, 694 insertions(+), 922 deletions(-) create mode 100644 include/linux/rndis.h -- 1.7.7.6 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-usb" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
