[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] doc: announce ABI change for rte_eth_dev structure

[Thomas Monjalon]

Hi,

This patch announces an interesting change in the DPDK design.

2016-07-20 16:24, Tomasz Kulasek:
> This is an ABI deprecation notice for DPDK 16.11 in librte_ether about
> changes in rte_eth_dev and rte_eth_desc_lim structures.
> 
> In 16.11, we plan to introduce rte_eth_tx_prep() function to do
> necessary preparations of packet burst to be safely transmitted on
> device for desired HW offloads (set/reset checksum field according to
> the hardware requirements) and check HW constraints (number of segments
> per packet, etc).
> 
> While the limitations and requirements may differ for devices, it
> requires to extend rte_eth_dev structure with new function pointer
> "tx_pkt_prep" which can be implemented in the driver to prepare and
> verify packets, in devices specific way, before burst, what should to
> prevent application to send malformed packets.
> 
> Also new fields will be introduced in rte_eth_desc_lim: nb_seg_max and
> nb_mtu_seg_max, providing an information about max segments in TSO and
> non TSO packets acceptable by device.

We cannot acknowledge such notice without a prior design discussion.
Please explain why you plan to work on this change and give a draft of
the new structures (a RFC patch would be ideal).

Thanks