1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
4 ABI and API Deprecation
5 =======================
7 See the guidelines document for details of the :doc:`ABI policy
8 <../contributing/abi_policy>`. API and ABI deprecation notices are to be posted
14 * meson: The minimum supported version of meson for configuring and building
15 DPDK will be increased to v0.47.1 (from 0.41) from DPDK 19.05 onwards. For
16 those users with a version earlier than 0.47.1, an updated copy of meson
17 can be got using the ``pip``, or ``pip3``, tool for downloading python
20 * build macros: The macros defining RTE_MACHINE_CPUFLAG_* will be removed
21 from the build. The information provided by these macros is available
22 through standard compiler macros. For example, RTE_MACHINE_CPUFLAG_SSE3
23 duplicates the compiler-provided macro __SSE3__.
25 * kvargs: The function ``rte_kvargs_process`` will get a new parameter
26 for returning key match count. It will ease handling of no-match case.
28 * eal: To be more inclusive in choice of naming, the DPDK project
29 will replace uses of master/slave in the API's and command line arguments.
31 References to master/slave in relation to lcore will be renamed
32 to initial/worker. The function ``rte_get_master_lcore()``
33 will be renamed to ``rte_get_initial_lcore()``.
34 For the 20.11 release, both names will be present and the
35 old function will be marked with the deprecated tag.
36 The old function will be removed in a future version.
38 The iterator for worker lcores will also change:
39 ``RTE_LCORE_FOREACH_SLAVE`` will be replaced with
40 ``RTE_LCORE_FOREACH_WORKER``.
42 The ``master-lcore`` argument to testpmd will be replaced
43 with ``initial-lcore``. The old ``master-lcore`` argument
44 will produce a runtime notification in 20.11 release, and
45 be removed completely in a future release.
47 * eal: The terms blacklist and whitelist to describe devices used
48 by DPDK will be replaced in the 20.11 relase.
49 This will apply to command line arguments as well as macros.
51 The macro ``RTE_DEV_BLACKLISTED`` will be replaced with ``RTE_DEV_EXCLUDED``
52 and ``RTE_DEV_WHITELISTED`` will be replaced with ``RTE_DEV_INCLUDED``
53 ``RTE_BUS_SCAN_BLACKLIST`` and ``RTE_BUS_SCAN_WHITELIST`` will be
54 replaced with ``RTE_BUS_SCAN_EXCLUDED`` and ``RTE_BUS_SCAN_INCLUDED``
55 respectively. Likewise ``RTE_DEVTYPE_BLACKLISTED_PCI`` and
56 ``RTE_DEVTYPE_WHITELISTED_PCI`` will be replaced with
57 ``RTE_DEVTYPE_EXCLUDED`` and ``RTE_DEVTYPE_INCLUDED``.
59 The old macros will be marked as deprecated in 20.11 and any
60 usage will cause a compile warning. They will be removed in
63 The command line arguments to ``rte_eal_init`` will change from
64 ``-b, --pci-blacklist`` to ``-x, --exclude`` and
65 ``-w, --pci-whitelist`` to ``-i, --include``.
66 The old command line arguments will continue to be accepted in 20.11
67 but will cause a runtime warning message. The old arguments will
68 be removed in a future release.
70 * eal: The function ``rte_eal_remote_launch`` will return new error codes
71 after read or write error on the pipe, instead of calling ``rte_panic``.
73 * eal: The ``rte_dev_event`` structure will be made private to the EAL as no
74 public API makes use of it.
76 * rte_atomicNN_xxx: These APIs do not take memory order parameter. This does
77 not allow for writing optimized code for all the CPU architectures supported
78 in DPDK. DPDK will adopt C11 atomic operations semantics and provide wrappers
79 using C11 atomic built-ins. These wrappers must be used for patches that
80 need to be merged in 20.08 onwards. This change will not introduce any
81 performance degradation.
83 * rte_smp_*mb: These APIs provide full barrier functionality. However, many
84 use cases do not require full barriers. To support such use cases, DPDK will
85 adopt C11 barrier semantics and provide wrappers using C11 atomic built-ins.
86 These wrappers must be used for patches that need to be merged in 20.08
87 onwards. This change will not introduce any performance degradation.
89 * rte_cio_*mb: Since the IO barriers for ARMv8 platforms are relaxed from DSB
90 to DMB, rte_cio_*mb APIs provide the same functionality as rte_io_*mb
91 APIs (taking all platforms into consideration). rte_io_*mb APIs should be
92 used in the place of rte_cio_*mb APIs. The rte_cio_*mb APIs will be
93 deprecated in 20.11 release.
95 * igb_uio: In the view of reducing the kernel dependency from the main tree,
96 as a first step, the Technical Board decided to move ``igb_uio``
97 kernel module to the dpdk-kmods repository in the /linux/igb_uio/ directory
99 Minutes of Technical Board Meeting of `2019-11-06
100 <https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2019-November/151763.html>`_.
102 * lib: will fix extending some enum/define breaking the ABI. There are multiple
103 samples in DPDK that enum/define terminated with a ``.*MAX.*`` value which is
104 used by iterators, and arrays holding these values are sized with this
105 ``.*MAX.*`` value. So extending this enum/define increases the ``.*MAX.*``
106 value which increases the size of the array and depending on how/where the
107 array is used this may break the ABI.
108 ``RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX`` is one sample of the mentioned case, adding a new flow
109 type will break the ABI because of ``flex_mask[RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX]`` array
110 usage in following public struct hierarchy:
111 ``rte_eth_fdir_flex_conf -> rte_fdir_conf -> rte_eth_conf (in the middle)``.
112 Need to identify this kind of usages and fix in 20.11, otherwise this blocks
113 us extending existing enum/define.
114 One solution can be using a fixed size array instead of ``.*MAX.*`` value.
116 * pci: The PCI resources map API (``pci_map_resource`` and
117 ``pci_unmap_resource``) was not abstracting the Unix mmap flags (see the
118 workaround for Windows support implemented in the commit
119 9d2b24593724 ("pci: keep API compatibility with mmap values")).
120 This API will be removed from the public API in 20.11 and moved to the PCI
121 bus driver along with the PCI resources lists and associated structures
122 (``pci_map``, ``pci_msix_table``, ``mapped_pci_resource`` and
123 ``mapped_pci_res_list``).
124 With this removal, there won't be a need for the mentioned workaround which
127 * mbuf: Some fields will be converted to dynamic API in DPDK 20.11
128 in order to reserve more space for the dynamic fields, as explained in
129 `this presentation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttl6MlhmzWY>`_.
130 The following static fields will be moved as dynamic:
133 - ``userdata`` / ``udata64``
136 As a consequence, the layout of the ``struct rte_mbuf`` will be re-arranged,
137 avoiding impact on vectorized implementation of the driver datapaths,
138 while evaluating performance gains of a better use of the first cache line.
140 * ethdev: Split the ``struct eth_dev_ops`` struct to hide it as much as possible
141 will be done in 20.11.
142 Currently the ``struct eth_dev_ops`` struct is accessible by the application
143 because some inline functions, like ``rte_eth_tx_descriptor_status()``,
144 access the struct directly.
145 The struct will be separate in two, the ops used by inline functions will be
146 moved next to Rx/Tx burst functions, rest of the ``struct eth_dev_ops`` struct
147 will be moved to header file for drivers to hide it from applications.
149 * ethdev: the legacy filter API, including
150 ``rte_eth_dev_filter_supported()``, ``rte_eth_dev_filter_ctrl()`` as well
151 as filter types MACVLAN, ETHERTYPE, FLEXIBLE, SYN, NTUPLE, TUNNEL, FDIR,
152 HASH and L2_TUNNEL, is superseded by the generic flow API (rte_flow) in
153 PMDs that implement the latter.
154 The legacy API will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
156 * ethdev: The flow director API, including ``rte_eth_conf.fdir_conf`` field,
157 and the related structures (``rte_fdir_*`` and ``rte_eth_fdir_*``),
158 will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
160 * ethdev: The legacy L2 tunnel filtering API is deprecated as the rest of
161 the legacy filtering API.
162 The functions ``rte_eth_dev_l2_tunnel_eth_type_conf`` and
163 ``rte_eth_dev_l2_tunnel_offload_set`` which were not marked as deprecated,
164 will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
166 * ethdev: Update API functions returning ``void`` to return ``int`` with
167 negative errno values to indicate various error conditions (e.g.
168 invalid port ID, unsupported operation, failed operation):
170 - ``rte_eth_dev_stop``
171 - ``rte_eth_dev_close``
173 * ethdev: The temporary flag RTE_ETH_DEV_CLOSE_REMOVE will be removed in 20.11.
174 As a consequence, the new behaviour introduced in 18.11 will be effective
175 for all drivers: generic port resources are freed on close operation.
176 Private resources are expected to be released in the ``dev_close`` callback.
177 More details in http://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/5248162.j6AOsuQRmx@thomas/
179 * ethdev: New offload flags ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_FLOW_MARK`` will be added in 19.11.
180 This will allow application to enable or disable PMDs from updating
181 ``rte_mbuf::hash::fdir``.
182 This scheme will allow PMDs to avoid writes to ``rte_mbuf`` fields on Rx and
183 thereby improve Rx performance if application wishes do so.
184 In 19.11 PMDs will still update the field even when the offload is not
187 * ethdev: Add new fields to ``rte_eth_rxconf`` to configure the receiving
188 queues to split ingress packets into multiple segments according to the
189 specified lengths into the buffers allocated from the specified
190 memory pools. The backward compatibility to existing API is preserved.
192 * ethdev: The ``struct rte_eth_rxq_info`` will be modified to include
193 a new optional field, indicating the buffer size used in receiving packets
194 for HW. This change is planned for 20.11. For more details:
195 https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2020-July/176135.html.
197 * ethdev: ``rx_descriptor_done`` dev_ops and ``rte_eth_rx_descriptor_done``
198 will be deprecated in 20.11 and will be removed in 21.11.
199 Existing ``rte_eth_rx_descriptor_status`` and ``rte_eth_tx_descriptor_status``
200 APIs can be used as replacement.
202 * ethdev: The port mirroring API can be replaced with a more fine grain flow API.
203 The structs ``rte_eth_mirror_conf``, ``rte_eth_vlan_mirror`` and the functions
204 ``rte_eth_mirror_rule_set``, ``rte_eth_mirror_rule_reset`` will be marked
205 as deprecated in DPDK 20.11, along with the associated macros ``ETH_MIRROR_*``.
206 This API will be fully removed in DPDK 21.11.
208 * ethdev: The ``struct rte_flow_item_eth`` and ``struct rte_flow_item_vlan``
209 structs will be modified, to include an additional value, indicating existence
210 or absence of a VLAN header following the current header, as proposed in RFC
211 https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2020-August/177536.html.
213 * ethdev: The ``struct rte_flow_item_ipv6`` struct will be modified to include
214 additional values, indicating existence or absence of IPv6 extension headers
215 following the IPv6 header, as proposed in RFC
216 https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2020-August/177257.html.
218 * ethdev: Some internal APIs for driver usage are exported in the .map file.
219 Now DPDK has ``__rte_internal`` marker so we can mark internal APIs and move
220 them to the INTERNAL block in .map. Although these APIs are internal it will
221 break the ABI checks, that is why change is planned for 20.11.
222 The list of internal APIs are mainly ones listed in ``rte_ethdev_driver.h``.
224 * traffic manager: All traffic manager API's in ``rte_tm.h`` were mistakenly made
225 ABI stable in the v19.11 release. The TM maintainer and other contributors have
226 agreed to keep the TM APIs as experimental in expectation of additional spec
227 improvements. Therefore, all APIs in ``rte_tm.h`` will be marked back as
228 experimental in v20.11 DPDK release. For more details, please see `the thread
229 <https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2020-April/164970.html>`_.
231 * pmd_dpaa: The API ``rte_pmd_dpaa_set_tx_loopback`` will have extended
232 ``port_id`` definition from ``uint8_t`` to ``uint16_t``.
234 * vhost: Vhost-user dequeue zero-copy support will be removed in 20.11.
235 The only known user is OVS where the feature is still experimental,
236 and has not received any update for 2.5 years.
237 This feature faces reliability issues and is often conflicting with
238 new features being implemented.
240 * security: The API ``rte_security_session_create`` takes only single mempool
241 for session and session private data. So the application need to create
242 mempool for twice the number of sessions needed and will also lead to
243 wastage of memory as session private data need more memory compared to session.
244 Hence the API will be modified to take two mempool pointers - one for session
245 and one for private data.
247 * cryptodev: ``RTE_CRYPTO_AEAD_LIST_END`` from ``enum rte_crypto_aead_algorithm``,
248 ``RTE_CRYPTO_CIPHER_LIST_END`` from ``enum rte_crypto_cipher_algorithm`` and
249 ``RTE_CRYPTO_AUTH_LIST_END`` from ``enum rte_crypto_auth_algorithm``
252 * cryptodev: support for using IV with all sizes is added, J0 still can
253 be used but only when IV length in following structs ``rte_crypto_auth_xform``,
254 ``rte_crypto_aead_xform`` is set to zero. When IV length is greater or equal
255 to one it means it represents IV, when is set to zero it means J0 is used
256 directly, in this case 16 bytes of J0 need to be passed.
258 * scheduler: The functions ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_slave_attach``,
259 ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_slave_detach`` and
260 ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_slaves_get`` will be replaced in 20.11 by
261 ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_worker_attach``,
262 ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_worker_detach`` and
263 ``rte_cryptodev_scheduler_workers_get`` accordingly.
265 * eventdev: Following structures will be modified to support DLB PMD
266 and future extensions:
268 - ``rte_event_dev_info``
269 - ``rte_event_dev_config``
270 - ``rte_event_port_conf``
272 Patches containing justification, documentation, and proposed modifications
275 - https://patches.dpdk.org/patch/71457/
276 - https://patches.dpdk.org/patch/71456/
278 * acl: ``RTE_ACL_CLASSIFY_NUM`` enum value will be removed.
279 This enum value is not used inside DPDK, while it prevents to add new
280 classify algorithms without causing an ABI breakage.
282 * sched: To allow more traffic classes, flexible mapping of pipe queues to
283 traffic classes, and subport level configuration of pipes and queues
284 changes will be made to macros, data structures and API functions defined
285 in "rte_sched.h". These changes are aligned to improvements suggested in the
286 RFC https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2018-November/120035.html.
288 * sched: To allow dynamic configuration of the subport bandwidth profile,
289 changes will be made to data structures ``rte_sched_subport_params``,
290 ``rte_sched_port_params`` and new data structure, API functions will be
291 defined in ``rte_sched.h``. These changes are aligned as suggested in the
292 RFC https://mails.dpdk.org/archives/dev/2020-July/175161.html
294 * metrics: The function ``rte_metrics_init`` will have a non-void return
295 in order to notify errors instead of calling ``rte_exit``.
297 * power: ``rte_power_set_env`` function will no longer return 0 on attempt
298 to set new power environment if power environment was already initialized.
299 In this case the function will return -1 unless the environment is unset first
300 (using ``rte_power_unset_env``). Other function usage scenarios will not change.
302 * python: Since the beginning of 2020, Python 2 has officially reached
303 end-of-support: https://www.python.org/doc/sunset-python-2/.
304 Python 2 support will be completely removed in 20.11.
305 In 20.08, explicit deprecation warnings will be displayed when running
306 scripts with Python 2.
308 * dpdk-setup.sh: This old script relies on deprecated stuff, and especially
309 ``make``. Given environments are too much variables for such a simple script,
310 it will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
311 Some useful parts may be converted into specific scripts.