net: network device name ifalias support

This patch add support for keeping an additional character alias
associated with an network interface. This is useful for maintaining
the SNMP ifAlias value which is a user defined value. Routers use this
to hold information like which circuit or line it is connected to. It
is just an arbitrary text label on the network device.

There are two exposed interfaces with this patch, the value can be
read/written either via netlink or sysfs.

This could be maintained just by the snmp daemon, but it is more
generally useful for other management tools, and the kernel is good
place to act as an agreed upon interface to store it.

Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

1 files changed, 23 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/net/core/dev.c b/net/core/dev.c
index fdfc4b6a644..e9139053399 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/net/core/dev.c
@@ -954,6 +954,29 @@ rollback:
 }
 
 /**
+ *	dev_set_alias - change ifalias of a device
+ *	@dev: device
+ *	@alias: name up to IFALIASZ
+ *
+ *	Set ifalias for a device,
+ */
+int dev_set_alias(struct net_device *dev, const char *alias, size_t len)
+{
+	ASSERT_RTNL();
+
+	if (len >= IFALIASZ)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	dev->ifalias = krealloc(dev->ifalias, len+1, GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!dev->ifalias)
+		return -ENOMEM;
+
+	strlcpy(dev->ifalias, alias, len+1);
+	return len;
+}
+
+
+/**
  *	netdev_features_change - device changes features
  *	@dev: device to cause notification
  *