From 2335ba704f32b855651d0cd15dd9b271ec565fb6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pablo Neira Ayuso Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2017 23:55:59 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] netlink: add NLM_F_NONREC flag for deletion requests In the last NFWS in Faro, Portugal, we discussed that netlink is lacking the semantics to request non recursive deletions, ie. do not delete an object iff it has child objects that hang from this parent object that the user requests to be deleted. We need this new flag to solve a problem for the iptables-compat backward compatibility utility, that runs iptables commands using the existing nf_tables netlink interface. Specifically, custom chains in iptables cannot be deleted if there are rules in it, however, nf_tables allows to remove any chain that is populated with content. To sort out this asymmetry, iptables-compat userspace sets this new NLM_F_NONREC flag to obtain the same semantics that iptables provides. This new flag should only be used for deletion requests. Note this new flag value overlaps with the existing: * NLM_F_ROOT for get requests. * NLM_F_REPLACE for new requests. However, those flags should not ever be used in deletion requests. Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso --- include/uapi/linux/netlink.h | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h b/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h index f4fc9c9e123d..e8af60a7c56d 100644 --- a/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h +++ b/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h @@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ struct nlmsghdr { #define NLM_F_CREATE 0x400 /* Create, if it does not exist */ #define NLM_F_APPEND 0x800 /* Add to end of list */ +/* Modifiers to DELETE request */ +#define NLM_F_NONREC 0x100 /* Do not delete recursively */ + /* Flags for ACK message */ #define NLM_F_CAPPED 0x100 /* request was capped */ #define NLM_F_ACK_TLVS 0x200 /* extended ACK TVLs were included */ -- 2.20.1