Re: [Linux-ATM-General] Better instrumenting ATM/DSL

[chas w. - C. <ch...@cm...>]

On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:39:56 -0800
Philip Prindeville <phi...@re...> wrote:

> Hi.
> 
> I was thinking about how the kernel assigns IfIndex numbers for
> (amongst other things) SNMP to interfaces, and the fact that ATM
> doesn't use netdev's means that it can't be given one that's
> meaningful.
> 
> It also can't be the source or sync for netlink messages
> (route/link.h).
> 
> How could the ATM infrastructure be modified to better integrate with
> the kernel's notion of what an 'interface' is?

at one point there was talking about convering atm_device to use a
net_device instead.  this would have fixed a couple of problems at once:
the device registration/allocation races, shutdown/removal races,
duplication of code, et al. the big drawback might be that raw atm
devices would appear if the output of ifconfig which might be confusing.

atm isnt alone in this.  infiniband maintains is own private device
structure and registration code.  so conversion might not be necessary.

as far as netlink, i think we just need to define a netlink family
for atm devices and them create the necessary routines to generate
and handle these messages.  go through the archives.  there was some
talk about this too at one point.