[ovs-dev] [PATCH] ovs-vsctl: check if the device name is valid

Ben Pfaff blp at nicira.com
Wed Oct 24 15:54:49 UTC 2012


On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 05:45:36PM +0800, Cong Wang wrote:
> Before waiting for the kernel to reject an invalid name, we
> can actually check it before going into the kernel. The code
> is stolen from linux kernel function dev_valid_name(),
> but it should apply to non-Linux arch as well, because
> IFNAMSIZ is POSIX and other errors are obvious.
> 
> After this patch I got:
> 
> # ovs-vsctl add-port ovsbr0 12345678901234567890
> ovs-vsctl: cannot create a port named 12345678901234567890 because the name is not valid
> # ovs-vsctl add-br 12345678901234567890
> ovs-vsctl: cannot create a bridge named 12345678901234567890 because the name is not valid

I understand why this is an attractive patch, but it restricts what
ovs-vsctl can do to what Linux can handle.  ovs-vsctl, and Open vSwitch,
are meant to be more portable than that.  Different operating systems
have different limits on the maximum length and the allowed format of
port names.  I don't have the ESX source code right here, for example,
but if I recall correctly the maximum length of a port name is much
longer in ESX, and less restricted, than in Linux.



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