[dpdk-dev] DPDK namespace

[Trahe, Fiona]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Monjalon
> Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2016 2:57 PM
> To: dev at dpdk.org
> Subject: [dpdk-dev] DPDK namespace
> 
> DPDK is going to be more popular in Linux distributions.
> It means people will have some DPDK files in their /usr/include and some DPDK
> libraries on their system.
> 
> Let's imagine someone trying to compile an application which needs
> rte_ethdev.h. He has to figure out that this "rte header" is provided by the DPDK.
> Hopefully it will be explained on StackOverflow that RTE stands for DPDK.
> Then someone else will try to run a binary without having installed the DPDK
> libraries. The linker will require libethdev.so (no prefix here).
> StackOverflow will probably have another good answer (among wrong ones):
> "Hey Sherlock Holmes, have you tried to install the DPDK library?"
> Followed by an insight: "You know, the DPDK naming is weird..."
> And we could continue the story with developers having some naming clash
> because of some identifiers not prefixed at all.
> 
> The goal of this email is to get some feedback on how important it is to fix the
> DPDK namespace.
> 
> If there is enough agreement that we should do something, I suggest to
> introduce the "dpdk_" prefix slowly and live with both "rte_" and "dpdk_"
> during some time.
> We could start using the new prefix for the new APIs (example: crypto) or when
> there is a significant API break (example: mempool).
> 
> Opinions welcome!
I don't have an opinion on how important it is to fix the namespace, though it does seem like a good idea. 
However if it's to be done, in my opinion it should be completed quickly or will just cause more confusion.
So if rte_cryptoxxx becomes dpdk_cryptoxxx all other libraries should follow in next release or two, with 
the resulting ABI compatibility handling. Maybe with dual naming handled for several releases, but a 
clear end date when all are converted.
Else there will be many years with a mix of rte_ and dpdk_