[dpdk-dev] Solarflare PMD submission question

[Thomas Monjalon]

2016-10-28 13:50, Andrew Rybchenko:
> First of all I'd like to double check that it is clear that we discuss 
> libefx
> (base driver in terms of DPDK) import here. The PMD itself is already split
> in 20+ patches.

I don't know libefx. In DPDK, a base driver is often a subdirectory
inside the PMD. Will it be the case?

> The only thing which comes to my mind is to split libefx import on subsystem
> basis (few files per subsystem). It is artificial and added files will 
> be abandoned
> until the patch which adds them into build. It could be something like:
>   1. External interfaces definition
>   2. Internal interfaces definition
>   3. Registers definition (hardware interface)
>   4. Management CPU interface definition (it is one file, but still big 
> 650K)
>   5. Management CPU interface implementation
> and so on for NIC global controls, interrupts, event queue, transmit, 
> receive,
>   filtering etc.

Yes it is artificial.
The most valuable would be a transversal logical split, kind of feature
per feature, in order to explain how the device works.
Such commit is also the opportunity to explain acronyms and so on.

> > It would be also really appreciated to provide a design documentation
> > in doc/guides/nics. Are the datasheets open? A link in the doc would help.
> 
> We have a documentation which grows together with supported features,
> but it is rather for users. Important design decisions (not so many) are
> documented nearby corresponding code. Unfortunately there is no open
> datasheets. Management CPU interface definition has comments.

Without neither a datasheet, nor a comprehensive code introduction, it is
almost impossible to dive in your code. So it misses the point about bringing
it to an Open Source project.
Please do the the effort to bring some knowledge to the community.

Thanks