Re: [PATCH net-next] mlx4: make sure to always set the port type

[Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>]

On Mon, 7 Sep 2020 09:19:39 +0200 Jiri Pirko wrote:
> >The port type is being set to IB or ETH without relation to net_device,
> >fixing it will require very major code rewrite for the stable driver
> >that in maintenance mode.  
> 
> Because the eth driver is not loaded, I see. The purpose of the
> WARN in devlink_port_type_eth_set is to prevent drivers from registering
> particular port without netdev/ibdev. That is what was repeatedly
> happening in the past as the driver developers didn't know they need to
> do it or were just lazy to do so.
> 
> I wonder if there is any possibility to do both...

I think we have two options in this case:
 - set type to eth without the netdev
 - selectively mute the warning

I think the former is better, because we still want to see what the
port type is. Perhaps we should add a:

  dev_warn("devlink port type set without software interface
            reference, device type not supported by the kernel?");

That way people won't just pass NULL out of laziness, hopefully.

WDYT?