On Wed, May 03, 2017 at 09:18:23AM -0400, David Miller wrote: >From: Andrew Lunn <and...@lunn.ch> >Date: Wed, 3 May 2017 14:47:22 +0200 > >> On Wed, May 03, 2017 at 02:44:37PM +1000, Gavin Shan wrote: >>> This adds ethtool command (ETHTOOL_GNCSISTATS) to retrieve the >>> NCSI hardware statistics. >> >> Hi Gavin >> >> I've not been following this patchset, so maybe i'm about to ask a >> question which has already been asked and answered. >> >> Why cannot use just use ethtool -S for this? > >Indeed, when I said to use ethtool for these NCSI hw stats I meant >that the "ethtool -S" be used, not some new ethtool command. >
Thanks for the comments. Feel free to ask any questions which would make the code clear and better. There are couple of factors I thought separate command is better than ETHTOOL_GSTATS: The statistic items from ETHTOOL_GSTATS are variable, meaning the kernel needs provide the layout of the statistic items via ETHTOOL_GSSET_INFO and ETHTOOL_GSTRINGS. NCSI HW statistics aren't following this and their layout is fixed. Besides, statistics for ETHTOOL_GSTATS are maintained in local MAC, but NCSI HW statistics are collected from NIC on far-end. So they're different from this point. Lastly, the NCSI software statistics needs separate command. It'd better to have separate command for HW statistics as well, to make things consistent. Cheers, Gavin
