Initialize SoftNIC to work with rte_flow rules

[Lukáš Šišmiš]

Hi all,


I am trying to setup completely virtual development environment where it 
would be possible to develop applications with rte_flow rules.

For this, I've found SoftNIC as a viable solution as this is supposed to 
be a software NIC that also supports rte_flow rules.

However, I am having a hard time to set it up, I couldn't find good 
examples/documentation for this. Examples/docs found in 
ip_pipeline/pipeline examples are outdated.

I was able to make it run through testpmd but without the support for 
rte_flow.

Could you please help me to create spec/cli file that would support this 
use case?


I am currently primarily interested in RX direction although being able 
to work in the TX direction would be greatly appreciated.

The solution I am currently thinking of:

net_pcap0 -> net_softnic0 -> DPDK application + TX( -> net_softnic0 -> 
net_ring/net_null)


The RX path can be done - and I was able to run it in testpmd but then 
testpmd complained when I tried to apply rte_flow rules (not 
implemented). Makes sense considering that the softnic default pipeline 
doesn't contain any tables I guess.


Thank you all in advance.

I'm CC'ing Cristian as he is the SoftNIC maintainer.


Cheers,

Lukas Sismis