The typical case I was referring to is for example when I am assisting
someone else with troubleshooting. This is coordinated with the system
admin, who would usually be the one to clear/snapshot the stats. This
cannot be done by a normal user as it requires root privileges. BTW
I'm also not clear why running "ethtool -S" requires root privileges,
as it would be more convenient if a normal user could do this (currently
I have to be given sudo access).
This is a useful mechanism for many, many people. Bottom line I don't
really care if it's done in the kernel or in user space, but it should
be possible using the standard "ethtool -S" command, and I have raised
at least a couple of issues with modifying the ethtool command to
support this (but which wouldn't be an issue if implemented in the
kernel).
-Bill
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