Passing EAL parameters via grout command line or conf file

[Adel Belkhiri]

Hi Robin,

Thank you for the quick response!

I tried adding virtual interfaces to Grout, and it seems to be working
well—thanks for the tip! I also reviewed main/dpdk.c and noticed that many
EAL parameters are hardcoded. For now, I’ll add the parameter I need
(--trace=lib.ethdev.*) directly in the source code.

Actually, I'm analyzing the performance of DPDK applications using the DPDK
trace library, and I'm planning to present a few use cases at an upcoming
conference based on Grout. I think a CLI parameter in Grout to pass
"additional EAL arguments" directly to DPDK would be a useful feature. I'll
submit a feature suggestion for this on GitHub.

Thanks again for your help!
Cheers,
Adel

On Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 2:18 PM Robin Jarry <rjarry at redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi Adel,
>
> Adel Belkhiri, Nov 14, 2024 at 19:45:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I would like to take a moment to thank you for this great project. I've
> > been experimenting with grout and exploring its features, and I have a
> > couple of questions:
>
> Thanks for your message.
>
> > 1. Does grout support virtual network interfaces? In DPDK applications,
> > these are typically specified using arguments like:
> > --vdev="net_vhost0,iface=/tmp/vhost-user1".
>
> Yes, it should work via port devargs, like physical NICs. E.g.:
>
> grcli add interface port vhu0 devargs net_vhost0,iface=/tmp/vhost-user1
>
> > 2. How can I pass EAL parameters to grout, such as --socket, --trace,
> etc.?
>
> EAL arguments are hard coded by grout during startup and everything is
> then done dynamically at runtime. Some parameters can be influenced
> based on grout startup flags.
>
> -v, --verbose
>  Will increase the verbosity. If specified 3 times, it will also enable
>  debugging logs for all DPDK libraries.
>
> https://github.com/DPDK/grout/blob/da5e879f85c3/main/dpdk.c#L88
>
> -t, --test-mode
>  Will add --no-shconf --no-huge -m 2048 to rte_eal_init() arguments.
>  This is used to run grout with net_null ports with a non-privileged
>  user for development testing.
>
> https://github.com/DPDK/grout/blob/da5e879f85c3/main/dpdk.c#L164-L167
>
> The --socket argument should not be needed. Memory will be allocated on
> the proper socket based on the detected PCI device socket and/or pinned
> CPU. We will probably need some additional work to force allocation of
> memory on a specific socket for virtual devices.
>
> If you think there are some missing features, please provide some
> feedback. Grout is still in its infancy and there are many things to
> improve.
>
> Cheers,
> Robin
>
>
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