OpenWrt 21.02.0 Fourth release candidate - DSA docs

[Arınç ÜNAL]

Hey Rich.

On 17/09/2021 14:30, Rich Brown wrote:
> Hi Arınç
> 
>> On Sep 17, 2021, at 3:17 AM, Arınç ÜNAL <arinc.unal at arinc9.com> wrote:
>>
>> The current naming used on LuCI/UCI is inaccurate and confusing. The “interfaces” under Network → Interfaces actually represent networks. The actual interfaces are called “device”.
> 
> I agree that the terminology is confusing. I really struggled with the names when I added them into the preface to the DSA Mini-tutorial (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/dsa/dsa-mini-tutorial). I did some research looking at the original DSA documentation: it didn't offer much in the way of definitions. So I followed my usual practice of documenting the lingo of whatever application I'm using.
> 
> After looking hard at how LuCI seemed to work, I wrote:
> 
> --------
> 	• Devices are physical connections that convey bits/frames to other computers. They operate at layer 2 in the protocol stack, have a MAC address along with several other configurable parameters...
> 		
> 	• Interfaces route IP packets and operate at layer 3 in the protocol stack. An interface is associated with a single device that sends/receives its packets. Interfaces get their IP address parameters by the choice of protocol...
> ---------
> 
> I haven't heard any corrections from others about these assertions, so I am hopeful that I got those definitions right.
> 
Sadly, both definitions are wrong.

A network device is not the physical connections but the physical 
hardware that is used to convey bits/frames to other computers. A 
physical hardware is not a networking protocol. It cannot abide on any 
of the OSI layers.

A network interface provides the means on the software to connect to a 
network. Routers route packets (and they're not necessarily have to be 
Internet Protocol packets). It cannot abide on any of the OSI layers.

> When you say that "interfaces... actually represent networks" I think you mean that they're "subnets" (and have a subnet address range, IP address, and other characteristics). Is that what you mean? Although I'm neither a Linux OS or network expert, I can see an explanation for using the terms "devices" and "interfaces" as defined above.
> 
> In this case, I believe it will be difficult to change the terminology used in OpenWrt/LuCI. I think that train has left the station. Perhaps our efforts will be best used toward documenting the syntax and GUI as it is today, so that people can configure their gear the way they want.
> 
I don't see why not. Changing "config device" to "config interface" 
won't work with older configs so we can keep it as is and document it 
properly on LuCI & the wiki as you said.

However, we can change "config interface" to "config network". Then, 
automatically migrate "config interface" entries to "config network" on 
older configs.

> Best regards,
> 
> Rich
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