Re: rte_fib network order bug

["Robin Jarry" <rjarry@redhat.com>]

Medvedkin, Vladimir, Nov 13, 2024 at 11:42:
> Hi Robin,
>
> It should not. Here is documentation says regarding this flag:
>
> /** If set, fib lookup is expecting IPv4 address in network byte order */
> #define RTE_FIB_F_NETWORK_ORDER    1
>
> As stated above lookups will be performed while expecting addresses to 
> be in BE byte order. Control plane API expects IPv4 prefix address to be 
> in CPU byte order.

I had not understood that it was *only* the lookups that were network 
order.

The original reason why a RTE_FIB_F_NETWORK_ORDER flag was suggested 
some time ago is that inet_pton() always returns network order 
addresses. It makes it much more natural to keep everything in network 
order instead of having to swap things around.

Now, only having the lookup functions requiring network order addresses 
but all the other functions in the API requiring host order addresses is 
even more confusing.

In my opinion, when RTE_FIB_F_NETWORK_ORDER is set, *all* functions of 
the fib API should take network order addresses. That obviously mean 
that rib should also have a similar flag.

Is that possible without a massive rework? If not, then I think we 
should revert the patch that adds it or at least discourage its use in 
its current state.

What do you think?