[ovs-dev] [PATCH] ofproto-dpif: Use send_packet() instead of netdev_send().

[Ben Pfaff]

On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 07:55:24PM -0700, Jesse Gross wrote:
> netdev_send() directly sends a packet using Linux mechanisms, skipping
> our kernel module. Several upper layer abstractions are built on top of
> the kernel module, so this means that we loose stats, sFlow, etc. on
> these packets. This changes bonding, LACP, and STP to use send_packet()
> as CFM does, which uses the standard kernel mechanisms and provides a
> single place that needs to be updated.

It seems reasonable in concept.  In practice I dislike callbacks where
other mechanisms are practically available, so I'd prefer to have
bond_send_learning_packet() just compose a packet for the caller to
send.  Presumably it would return either an ofpbuf to send (or null if
none is to be sent) and the 'aux' value of the slave to send it on.  I
guess its name might better change to something like
bond_compose_learning_packet() in that case.

Such a function would only return NULL if bond->active_slave is NULL,
so we might as well eliminate that case by adding &&
bond->active_slave to may_send_learning_packets().

Thanks,

Ben.