Proposal for changes to network device drivers and network stack (RFC)

[Damien Fleuriot]

On 17 Jan 2013, at 22:53, Steve Kiernan <stevek at juniper.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:11:27 +0100
> Andre Oppermann <oppermann at networx.ch> wrote:
> 
>> On 17.01.2013 20:23, Stephen J. Kiernan wrote:
>>> The network stack as a module patch has been separated out and can be found in the following location:
>>> http://people.freebsd.org/~marcel/Juniper/netstack-v2.diff
>> 
>> This is quite some work and a lot of changes which will a moment to review.
>> 
>> Can you describe the concept and the terminology you're using here some more?
>> What is a netstack module and what is its scope?  How does it relate to VNET?
>> What is an IOCGROUP? etc.  All this is probably obvious to you but not yet for
>> us.
> 
> Sure, not a problem. First, I will repeat here what Anu sent out previously as a description of the netstack changes.
> 
>> Today, not compiling networking stack related files in the kernel breaks
>> the kernel build due to dependencies the OS has on the network stack
>> (calling into functions in the network stack). Network stack module isn't
>> there. We've added these in JUNOS. The benefits for us are obvious (we can
>> load our own version of network stack if we desire!), but most likely this
>> functionality will benefit others too.
>> 
>> The detailed implementation is indicated later in this email. In short the
>> changes are:
>> 
>> - Load network stack as a module. For now via loader, not dynamically
>> loaded. (Is there interest in dynamic loading?).

I speak only for myself but I think dynamic loading would avoid a lot of trouble with/for people who don't read UPDATING carefully and forget to adjust loader.conf...