[dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/3] remove RTE_EAL_UNBIND_PORTS related code

[David Marchand]

On 04/14/2014 03:12 PM, Burakov, Anatoly wrote:
>> For now, I have a problem with your patch as it breaks drivers that use
>> RTE_PCI_DRV_FORCE_UNBIND flag, since it removes the part where this flag
>> is handled. Besides, I can see some remaining parts mentioning
>> pci_switch_module() in comments.
>
> I wonder if this functionality is needed at all. I couldn't find any drivers using that flag, and the unbinding can be done using the included Python script as well. Given that we're getting rid of unbinding and binding in the EAL, it's only logical that we get rid of the force-unbinding as well, don't you think?

This functionality is at least used by virtio-net-pmd.
So we cannot remove this without a fix for virtio-net-pmd.
Besides, if we remove this functionality, then headers and documentation 
should be updated accordingly.

Yet, even if we remove this from the eal, I think we should provide a 
proper api to bind/unbind devices to kernel drivers.
This way PMDs can use this api and forget about OS dependencies (linux/bsd).


By the way, there is also a cleanup to be done inside bsd implementation 
as I found references to linux code inside it.

$ grep -rl pci_switch_module lib/
lib/librte_eal/bsdapp/eal/eal_pci.c

I am not sure BSD has a /sys filesystem.

$ grep -rl eal_parse_sysfs_value lib/librte_eal/bsdapp/
lib/librte_eal/bsdapp/eal/include/eal_filesystem.h
lib/librte_eal/bsdapp/eal/eal.c



As a conclusion, as far as all these cleanups are concerned, I would say 
we should target the next major release.



Regards,
-- 
David Marchand