[PATCH v4 03/23] net/ixgbe: remove experimental FDIR API

[Bruce Richardson]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2026 at 10:08:57PM -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> Remove the PMD specific flow director API from ixgbe.
> These APIs are experimental, therefore they can be removed
> without additional warnings.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>
> ---
>  drivers/net/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethdev.h  |   5 -
>  drivers/net/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_fdir.c    | 117 ------------------------
>  drivers/net/intel/ixgbe/rte_pmd_ixgbe.c |  34 -------
>  drivers/net/intel/ixgbe/rte_pmd_ixgbe.h |  32 -------
>  4 files changed, 188 deletions(-)
> 
Yes, they are experimental and can be removed without warning, but that
doesn't mean that they should just be removed. Checking the original commit
that added these, the comment says:

  "There are also several small features which can not be
   implemented in rte_flow. This patch re-implemented these
   features as private API."

Therefore, I think we should keep these two APIs or if we are going to
remove them, we mark them as deprecated for a couple of releases first.
Since these are driver private, and are not part of a common API like
ethdev, I'd view their presence as "mostly harmless".

/Bruce