On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 11:19 PM, Jiri Pirko <jiri@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Wed, Apr 04, 2018 at 03:04:26AM CEST, dsahern@xxxxxxxxx wrote: >>On 4/3/18 9:42 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote: >>>> >>>> There are other use cases that want to hide a device from userspace. I >>> >>> What usecases do you have in mind? >> >>As mentioned in a previous response some kernel drivers create control >>netdevs. Just as in this case users should not be mucking with it, and > > virtio_net. Any other drivers? netvsc if factoring out virtio_bypass to a common driver. > > >>S/W like lldpd should ignore it. > > It's just a matter of identification of the netdevs, so the user knows > what to do. > > >> >>> >>>> would prefer a better solution than playing games with name prefixes and >>>> one that includes an API for users to list all devices -- even ones >>>> hidden by default. >>> >>> Netdevice hiding feels a bit scarry for me. This smells like a workaround >>> for userspace issues. Why can't the netdevice be visible always and >>> userspace would know what is it and what should it do with it? >>> >>> Once we start with hiding, there are other things related to that which >>> appear. Like who can see what, levels of visibility etc... >>> >> >>I would not advocate for any API that does not allow users to have full >>introspection. The intent is to hide the netdev by default but have an >>option to see it. > > As an administrator, I want to see all by default. I think it is > reasonable requirements. Again, this awfully smells like a workaround... If the requirement is just for dumping the link info i.e. perform read-only operation on the hidden netdev, it's completely fine. However, I am not a big fan of creating a weird mechanism to allow user deliberately manipulate the visibility (hide/unhide) of a netdev in any case at any time. This is subject to becoming a slippery slope to work around any software issue that should get fixed in the right place. Let's treat IFF_HIDDEN as a means to hide auto-managed netdevices. If it's just the name is misleading, I can get it renamed to something like IFF_AUTO_MANAGED which might reflect its nature more properly. Thanks, -Siwei _______________________________________________ Virtualization mailing list Virtualization@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/virtualization
