-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

The variables for network statistics (in struct net_device_stats) are unsigned 
longs. On 32-bit architectures, this makes them overflow every 4GB or 2^32 
packets. The following series of patches [against 2.5.74] makes the 
statistics variable type configurable. The default is to leave everything the 
way it was (unsigned long). However, when NETSTATS64 is set in the config, 
the statistics use 64-bit variables (u_int64_t) - this works only on 32-bit 
architectures.

These patches are *not* ready to be included due to the fact that they add an 
API layer that controls the statistics and all the drivers have to be 
checked. For easier coding, the patch renames the fields in struct 
net_device_stat - this breaks everything (so all the previous code is easily 
visible.)  (The names are prefixed with _.)

This is a RFC, please let me know what you think should be improved.

*NOTE* I am aware that locking is suboptimal - I am looking for other 
solutions.

The patches include:
	- Documentation/networking/64bitstats.txt with description of the API, and 
current status of this project (I'm not sure about some of the arch dependent 
suff)
	- updated drivers to use new API
		- 8139too
		- 8390
		- dummy
		- eepro100
		- loopback
		- ne2k-pci
		- pcnet32
	- update for procfs and sysfs interfaces

Thanks,
Jeff.

- -- 
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the
freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
		- Abbie Hoffman




-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE/BOcHwFP0+seVj/4RAs8dAJ9UqAyKB3ADE11o6Wo5kP2MYMUrVACeMWKw
OiQPdQD85s9u+G4F/t0GraA=
=aZf/
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----