[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] net: introduce IPv4 ihl and version fields

[Olivier Matz]

Hi Gregory,

On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 04:10:25AM +0000, Gregory Etelson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> There was no activity that patch for a long time.
> The patch is marked as failed, but we verified failed tests and concluded that the failures can be ignored.
> https://patchwork.dpdk.org/project/dpdk/patch/20210527152858.13312-1-getelson@nvidia.com/
> How should I proceed with this case ?
> Please advise.
>

I like the idea of this patch: to me it is more convenient to access to
these fields with a bitfield. I don't see a problem about using
bitfields here, glibc or FreeBSD netinet/ip.h are doing the same.

However, as stated previously, this patch breaks the initialization API.
The DPDK ABI/API policy is described here:
http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/contributing/abi_policy.html#the-dpdk-abi-policy

>From this document:

  The API should only be changed for significant reasons, such as
  performance enhancements. API breakages due to changes such as
  reorganizing public structure fields for aesthetic or readability
  purposes should be avoided.

So to follow the project policy, I think we should reject this path.

Regards,
Olivier