[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] doc: announce ivshmem support removal

[Hiroshi Shimamoto]

Hi,

> Subject: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] doc: announce ivshmem support removal
> 
> There was a prior call with an explanation of what needs to be done:
> 	http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-June/040844.html
> - Qemu patch upstreamed
> - IVSHMEM PCI device managed by a PCI driver
> - No DPDK objects (ring/mempool) allocated by EAL
> 
> As nobody seems interested, it is time to remove this code which
> makes EAL improvements harder.

I'd like to confirm about the issue.
I know there are real users who rely on ivshmem mechanism. e.g. spp user.
Unfortunately they don't prefer to expose their opinion to the community.
Furthermore they may not have noticed this situation.

Anyway, it is the issue that the current ivshmem implementation breaks
EAL framework and is much complicated, right?
IIUC, for DPDK, ivshmem support module should be separated from a middle of
EAL code and make it as a PCI driver. That means the current rte_ivshmem
removal should happen. To keep the functionality to share DPDK objects
between host and guest in shared memory like ivshmem, it should be
implemented cleanly.
Is my understanding correct?

thanks,
Hiroshi

> 
> Signed-off-by: Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon at 6wind.com>
> ---
>  doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst | 3 +++
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> index 9cadf6a..1ef8460 100644
> --- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> +++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> @@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ Deprecation Notices
>    will be removed in 16.11.
>    It is replaced by rte_mempool_generic_get/put functions.
> 
> +* The ``rte_ivshmem`` feature (including library and EAL code) will be removed
> +  in 16.11 because it has some design issues which are not planned to be fixed.
> +
>  * The ethtool support will be removed from KNI in 16.11.
>    It is implemented only for igb and ixgbe.
>    It is really hard to maintain because it requires some out-of-tree kernel
> --
> 2.7.0