[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v3] ethdev: add return code to rte_eth_stats_reset()

[Thomas Monjalon]

08/08/2017 13:03, Christian Ehrhardt:
> On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Van Haaren, Harry <
> harry.van.haaren at intel.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Some devices do not support reset of eth stats.  An application may
> > > need to know not to clear shadow stats if the device cannot.
> > >
> > > rte_eth_stats_reset is updated to provide a return code to share
> > > whether the device supports reset or not.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: David Harton <dharton at cisco.com>
> > > ---
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > As far as I know changing the return type (void to int) of a function does
> > *not* break ABI, but does "break" API as the application code should now
> > check the return value. In theory the application could ignore the return
> > value and current behavior is maintained.
> >
> 
> After discussing with Harry on IRC it turns out we both ended up checking
> the same online sources
> to verify our thoughts, like [1].
> 
> Given this and several other sources it seems to be as outlined above an
> API but not ABI break.
> I'm not an expert and this is mostly opinion, but my personal rule mostly
> is: "if in doubt bump it".

Anyway, the ABI will be broken (and bumped) again in 17.11.
This patch will be accepted in 17.11.