[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] doc: add deprecation notice about changes to ethernet structures

[Bruce Richardson]

On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 03:09:10PM -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> Tell users about upcoming changes to rte_ether_addr and
> rte_ether_header.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>
> ---
>  doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst | 9 +++++++++
>  1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> index a7796f49b9fe..9c20a47b3e4c 100644
> --- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> +++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
> @@ -82,3 +82,12 @@ Deprecation Notices
>    to set new power environment if power environment was already initialized.
>    In this case the function will return -1 unless the environment is unset first
>    (using ``rte_power_unset_env``). Other function usage scenarios will not change.
> +
> +* net: the Ethernet address and header defintions will change attributes.
> +  The Ethernet address struct will no longer be marked as packed since
> +  since the packed attribute is meaningless on a byte array.
> +  The Etherne header will be marked as aligned on a 2 byte boundary (and
> +  no longer packed).  This allows for efficient access on all CPU's.
> +  These changes should not impact normal usage drivers naturally
> +  align the Ethernet header on receive, and almost every encapsulation
> +  preserves the alignment.
> -- 
> 2.17.1

More comprehensive deprecation notice than mine, so:

Acked-by: Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson at intel.com>

One suggested change, rather than "almost every encapsulation" can we put
it down as "all known encapsulations". If there is even a single public
spec, in-real-use encapsulation that is used that does not preserve
alignment, we should not do this. Saying "almost every" implies that we
know of ones that don't, which I don't believe is the case.

/Bruce