devlink: Introduce switchdev_inactive eswitch mode

2025-11-11T12:17:53Z

Adds DEVLINK_ESWITCH_MODE_SWITCHDEV_INACTIVE attribute to UAPI and documentation. Before having traffic flow through an eswitch, a user may want to have the ability to block traffic towards the FDB until FDB is fully programmed and the user is ready to send traffic to it. For example: when two eswitches are present for vports in a multi-PF setup, one eswitch may take over the traffic from the other when the user chooses. Before this take over, a user may want to first program the inactive eswitch and then once ready redirect traffic to this new eswitch. switchdev modes transition semantics: legacy->switchdev_inactive: Create switchdev mode normally, traffic not allowed to flow yet. switchdev_inactive->switchdev: Enable traffic to flow. switchdev->switchdev_inactive: Block traffic on the FDB, FDB and representros state and content is preserved. When eswitch is configured to this mode, traffic is ignored/dropped on this eswitch FDB, while current configuration is kept, e.g FDB rules and netdev representros are kept available, FDB programming is allowed. Example: # start inactive switchdev devlink dev eswitch set pci/0000:08:00.1 mode switchdev_inactive # setup TC rules, representors etc .. # activate devlink dev eswitch set pci/0000:08:00.1 mode switchdev Signed-off-by: Saeed Mahameed Reviewed-by: Jiri Pirko Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251108070404.1551708-2-saeed@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Paolo Abeni

Documentation: Add documentation for eswitch attribute

2024-03-29T01:20:08Z

Provide devlink documentation for three eswitch attributes: mode, inline-mode, and encap-mode. Signed-off-by: William Tu Reviewed-by: Jakub Kicinski Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240325181228.6244-1-witu@nvidia.com Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski

kernel/Documentation/networking/devlink/devlink-eswitch-attr.rst, branch linux-rolling-stable

devlink: Introduce switchdev_inactive eswitch mode

Documentation: Add documentation for eswitch attribute