Re: [PATCH net-next] net: dlink: add get_ethtool_stats in ethtool

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

> Regarding the RMON statistics, I understand that you are advising me to use the
> structured ethtool_rmon_stats for RMON statistics and to reserve unstructured
> ethtool -S (without groups) for non-standard statistics. The documentation[1]
> specifies grouping RMON statistics, but there are other statistics in my patch
> that are not part of the RMON. Would it be appropriate to group these
> additional statistics as well?

Groups are used where we expect drivers to offer the same
statistics. Having the group means we have a well defined interface,
where as in the past they were just dumped in ethtool -S, often with
inconsistent names. So once you have extracted the RMON stats, see
what you have left and see if they fit any of the existing groups. If
not, they are probably just what the hardware vendor thought was
useful, rather than being defined by some standard, so can be part of
the unstructured output of ethtool -S.

	Andrew