On Tue, 2008-06-10 at 10:01 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote: > On Tue, 2008-06-10 at 10:12 +1000, Ben Nizette wrote: > > On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 11:03 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote: > > > > > Personally, I have a few issues with this: > > > 1) why bother with a second configuration interface that we have to > > > maintain, adjust, ...? if we need scriptable access, then make a > > > good userspace tool that is scriptable. > > > > What's the first one, sysfs..? ioctl (eww..)? > > netlink. Ah right. Netlink is indeed a nice interface for this kind of network device configuration, I'd probably use that for this task too. Of course, it isn't a general solution to the problem. If I were answering the question in $(SUBJECT) I'd say configfs is a good choice. In the specific case of network devices, you're lucky enough to have something more specifically tailored to your needs already. > > > > 2) string-based stuff is often messy, especially the varying attributes > > > like MAC addresses etc. Unless we just use binary files again, which > > > is not very useful again. Take, for example, the monitor flags. If > > > we use the same flags then nobody really knows what's up > > > (echo 0x3 > mntr_flags?) and if we use strings then we cannot easily > > > ever rename the flag while keeping ABI/API compatibility. > > > > Not sure I see the argument here, why would you want to change the flag > > name? If you decide the old name is stupid then can't you just alias > > the old name to the new one? > > Sure can do, but it just adds a lot of complexity to the kernel. I don't > see the point, it's not like you need a lot of code to build netlink > messages. Heck, I've done it by _hand_ and used just netlink sockets. > It's not a lot of code. > > > String handling is always a bit iffy, though it has to be done > > somewhere, either in kernel or in your "good userspace tool which is > > scriptable". I'd prefer to have it done once, well, in the kernel and > > not have to ship more software than necessary. > > I personally prefer to put it into userspace. Yeah, personal preference here. I come from an embedded background and have an aversion to tracking more userspace tools than I have to. This mainly comes from the fact uClibc (an embedded C library) doesn't maintain binary compatibility across releases; each time a bugfix comes out for that my entire userspace needs to be recompiled. Each userspace tool I add to my build scripts makes me die a little inside ;-) --Ben. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
