[Lcd4linux-devel] plugin_wifi ?

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hello list, especially Martin and Michael.

Let's continue our dicussion about plugin_wifi :
I see three solutions to the claim :

- the first is parsing /proc/net/wireless (which exists for both 2.4 and
2.6) as /proc/net/dev, there are all the informations (unlike
/proc/net/dev which shows only a few info).

- another way is using ioctl : in fact there's no direct ioctl for
wireless extensions, the stats are merged with "generic" stats (see
include/linux/netdevice.h and include/net/iw_handler.h), works with all
kernels (the new API is from 2002), but it handles too the 'normal' eth
devices, so why not calling this plugin_net and delete plugin_netdev ?

- the last way which won't please to Martin : all statistics ('normal' +
wireless extensions) are exported in
/sys/class/net/$interface_name/statistics, so we can access them
easilly, just as plugin_i2c_sensors does ! But as you may guess, sysfs
is only on 2.6.

Now my point of view: the last two ways overpower plugin_netdev which
can be removed then, and the plugin would be called plugin_net instead
of plugin_wifi. But then, which one to use ? Using sysfs would be very
easy and I can write the plugin in about 2hours from plugin_i2c_sensors,
but some people will complain about their old, deprecated, outdated,
superseeded, ..., 2.4 kernel not being supported :/ We may in that case
keep plugin_netdev and write rapidly a plugin_net_wireless which parses
/proc/net/wireless (easilly writen too) so they can delay once more the
migration to the best kernel ever released ( until 2.8 is out :D )

The best solution would be ioctl, but I don't know how to do this, and I
don't know if it's worth the price to do this manner. If you know ioctl
and wants to dig this way, just raise your hand :)

Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>