On Sat, Dec 29, 2007 at 03:15:08PM +0100, Andreas Henriksson wrote: Hi,
> > Very good to hear this has resolved itself. The only thing that remains > > is the false statement in the documentation about having to patch the > > kernel. Lets treat this report as a bug against the documentation from > > now on. I'll try to dig some and see if I can find it which kernel > > version the support first appeared. > > It seems like the required patch[1] which implements the feature is only > available for 2.4.18. As far as I can tell it only /looks/ like it works > with current kernels, because the kernel has the RTM_F_EQUALIZE flag > (but no actual implementation). The flag has been there since atleast > 2.4.0. > > man 7 rtnetlink says: > "RTM_F_EQUALIZE a multicast equalizer (not yet implemented)" This at least should be multipath, not multicast. > So..... Updating the documentation to state the fact that the required > kernel patch doesn't exist (for kernels supported by Debian) doesn't > seem very useful. Oh, I think it would be useful. Maybe add a note to README.Debian to the tune of "This version of iproute supports multipath route equalization, but as of 2007-12-30 no kernel implements it. Routes that rely on the 'equalize' keyword will not work as expected. See http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0203.2/1314.html and e.g. http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg10038.html for more information." > Possibly the support for equalize in iproute should be dropped completely > since it's never been part of any official kernel release, and since it > hasn't been solved in all these years noone will probably ever implement > this. I'll ask upstream.... I don't know. I see the current situation as being halfway there; adding the required support to the kernel would be a step forward, while also removing it from iproute would be a step backward. Also, removing equalize support from iproute may break scripts that use it, so that e.g. after a reboot, a box would be unable to set its routing up and become unreachable. Not good. Even if 'equalize' doesn't do what's expected, it at least works to the extent that the routes are created. The most I think could be done is make ip(8) print a warning when equalize is used. This will, however, still annoy a lot of people because it'll cause normally silent scripts to suddenly spew warnings. Andras -- Andras Korn <korn at chardonnay.math.bme.hu> <http://chardonnay.math.bme.hu/~korn/> QOTD: The Moon is covered with the results of astronomical odds. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
