dev.* analogue for interfaces

Four years ago, I created the dev.* sysctl tree for device drivers.
Every time a device is registered, a sysctl context is automatically
created, and a node is created under dev (e.g. dev.cpu.0), with some
standardized nodes under it (%driver, %parent, %desc etc.) plus any node
the driver - or even another driver - wants to add.

However, not everything in Unix is a device. Specifically, network
interfaces aren't.

Some network interfaces are also devices, so they have a sysctl node in
dev.*:

% sysctl dev.msk
dev.msk.0.%desc: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Yukon EC Ultra Id 0xb4 Rev 0x02
dev.msk.0.%driver: msk
dev.msk.0.%parent: mskc0

Others don't: bridge, faith, lo, pflog, vlan etc.

What I propose is to add a similar sysctl tree for interfaces. It would
look a little different. For instance, some interfaces (bridge, vlan)
have parents or children, but most don't.

Just as it is for devices, creation and destruction of the interface's
sysctl node and context would be hidden inside if_{attach,detach}() and
completely transparent to the driver, and there will be an API that
drivers can use if they want to add their own nodes.

Since interfaces don't all have parents, the API will include a function
to specify one for those that do.

This is *not* intended to replace ifconfig; it is intended for infor-
mation which isn't available through ifconfig and which it wouldn't be
natural to place there. For instance, every wlan interface already has
a sysctl tree under net.wlan.

Drivers that already have sysctl nodes will require less code to create
them, and no code at all to destroy them, since if_detach() will take
care of that (all nodes in the interface's context are automatically
destroyed when the context is destroyed).

I'm unsure whether this should go under net.if, or just if. I think I
prefer the latter.

I'm open to objections and suggestions...

DES
--
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des@xxxxxx
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