On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 02:47:47PM +0100, David Marchand wrote: > On Thu, 22 Jan 2026 at 14:32, Bruce Richardson > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 02:13:06PM +0100, Morten Brørup wrote: > > > > From: Bruce Richardson [mailto:[email protected]] > > > > Sent: Thursday, 22 January 2026 13.24 > > > > > > > > Having the net_null driver always available can be convenient and > > > > allows > > > > use by unit tests, so add this trivial driver to the always-enable > > > > list. > > > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Bruce Richardson <[email protected]> > > > > > > > > --- > > > > I'm not sure if we want this to be always enabled or not, so sending > > > > this as an RFC. I can see definite advantages to doing so, but I also > > > > dislike having too many components on the always-enable list. > > > > > > > > Since I'm ambivilent myself, including this patch so the community can > > > > decide. > > > > > > I don't think real applications use this. > > > If they do, they can include it manually. > > > > > > My main objection is: > > > We are setting the wrong precedence if we make stuff like this mandatory > > > for convenience. > > > > > > But I agree with the reason you are suggesting it. > > > > > > Is there some other way it can be enabled for unit tests? > > > Maybe the null driver can depend on the unit tests being built? > > > > > > I don't mind that the driver is being built. > > > I just don't want it included by default when statically linking a > > > monolithic application. > > Same, I don't want a driver with almost no maintenance on it (even if > it is trivial code) to be linked in a final application. > (it would be a pity to get a CVE because of net/null ;-)) > > > > > > > > I'm flexible on this RFC, so it's a very soft NAK from me. > > > If it can be disabled at build time, I'm OK with it. (But still concerned > > > about setting the wrong precedence.) > > > > > Yes, I agree. > > > > Why I'm proposing this is because, in order to give me faster rebuilds and > > because of the hardware I have available to me, I generally set up my > > builds with "-Denable_drivers=net/intel/*", since that really speeds up my > > dev-build-test cycle. In doing so, though, I do miss out on having some > > unit tests available when I run the fast-test suite, which is why I > > suggested this addition in case there are others who limit the builds to > > just the hardware they are using. > > Unit tests are mainly run by the CI or DPDK developers, so how about > putting this addition in the always enabled list under the > developer_mode check? >
Yep could work. Possibly also taking a modified version of Morten's suggestion about warning about skipped tests, what about just emitting a warning from meson if we are in developer mode and we haven't the net-null driver enabled? /Bruce
