Re: [RFC] use <linux/if.h> instead of <net/if.h>

[Thomas Graf <tgraf redhat com>]

On Mon, 2011-09-12 at 18:05 -0400, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre wrote:
> I'm really no libc/kernel guru here, but since we hit this particular
> kind of issue before in Ubuntu...
> 
> AFAIK, normally both headers shouldn't conflict. This however happened
> IIRC early in the Natty release cycle due to a discrepancy between the
> libc and kernel includes. This was fixed with a kernel update. [1]

I guess NM will need to work on unfixed systems so this is not really
an option. I also don't see such a fix upstream.

> I'm not saying it's the exact same thing, but maybe there's a hint in
> there to the particular issue that was found. Note that having fewer
> <linux/*.h> includes in userspace (where possible) remains a good
> idea.

The problem is that <net/if.h> does not include defines for operational
state (IF_OPER_*) and link mode (IF_LINK_MODE_*). It also lacks
IFALIASZ, the length limit for link name aliases. NM will make use of
it at some point.