[dpdk-dev] [PATCH 09/11] device-args: replace use-device eal option by pci-whitelist and vdev

[Richardson, Bruce]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Olivier Matz
> Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 5:26 PM
> To: dev at dpdk.org
> Subject: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 09/11] device-args: replace use-device eal
> option by pci-whitelist and vdev
> 
> This commit splits the "--use-device" option in two new options:
> 
> - "--pci-whitelist or -w": add a PCI device in the white list
> - "--vdev": instanciate a new virtual device
> 
> Before the patch, the same option "--use-device" was used for these 2 use-
> cases.

[BR] Reviewing the patch set, most of the changes make sense to me. This one I've a few comments on. 
Is it really necessary and beneficial to split the --use-device option into two, and have two different ways for specifying the devices to use, based on whether they are pci or virtual devices? An alternative suggestion/idea: keep a common flag (be it --use-device, or something else) to specify a device to use and that device's parameters, for all device types, pretty much as now. Then, to solve the issue of not being able to use blacklisting plus virtual devices, that could be solved by adding the --pci-whitelist like you suggest, except instead of specifying the devices there, it simply means that only the pci devices passed to use-device get used. Without --pci-whitelist, all pci devices get used, whether or not they are explicitly called out with --use-device?
In this case, the "-b" flag could also be aliased by an "--ignore-device" (or similar) flag.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?