1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
7 .. **Read this first.**
9 The text in the sections below explains how to update the release notes.
11 Use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation in all sections.
13 Variable and config names should be quoted as fixed width text:
16 Build the docs and view the output file to ensure the changes are correct::
20 xdg-open build/doc/html/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.html
26 .. This section should contain new features added in this release.
29 * **Add a title in the past tense with a full stop.**
31 Add a short 1-2 sentence description in the past tense.
32 The description should be enough to allow someone scanning
33 the release notes to understand the new feature.
35 If the feature adds a lot of sub-features you can use a bullet list
38 * Added feature foo to do something.
39 * Enhanced feature bar to do something else.
41 Refer to the previous release notes for examples.
43 Suggested order in release notes items:
44 * Core libs (EAL, mempool, ring, mbuf, buses)
45 * Device abstraction libs and PMDs
47 - cryptodev (lib, PMDs)
48 - eventdev (lib, PMDs)
51 * Apps, Examples, Tools (if significative)
53 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
54 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
55 =========================================================
57 * **Added support for using externally allocated memory in DPDK.**
59 DPDK has gained support for creating new ``rte_malloc`` heaps referencing
60 memory that was created outside of DPDK's own page allocator, and using that
61 memory natively with any other DPDK library or data structure.
63 * **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**
65 Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:
67 * Match items: destination MAC address.
68 * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header.
70 * **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
71 A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
72 choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
73 can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.
75 * **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**
77 The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
78 SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
79 vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.
81 * **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**
83 Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
84 :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.
86 * **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**
88 Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
89 "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.
91 * **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**
93 Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:
95 * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
96 * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
97 * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
98 * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
99 datapaths implementation.
101 * **Updated failsafe driver.**
103 Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
105 * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
106 * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
107 * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
108 * Support multicast MAC address set.
110 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
112 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
113 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
114 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
115 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
116 a common implementation.
118 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
120 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
121 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
122 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
123 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
124 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
126 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
128 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
129 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
130 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
131 to reconfigure queues.
133 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
135 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
136 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
137 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
138 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
139 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
140 enqueue/dequeue operations.
146 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
148 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
149 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
152 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
153 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
154 =========================================================
156 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
157 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
158 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
159 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
160 over internal DPDK memory.
161 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
162 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
163 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
164 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
165 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
166 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
169 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
170 were removed in 18.11:
171 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
172 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
174 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
175 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
177 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
178 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
179 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
181 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
182 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
183 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
184 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
185 important for bonding.
187 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
188 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
189 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
190 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
193 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
194 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
200 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
202 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
203 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
204 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
207 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
208 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
209 =========================================================
211 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
212 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
213 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
215 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
216 supporting external memory in DPDK:
217 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
218 of memory addressed by the segment list
219 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
220 the memseg list refers to external memory
221 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
222 ID the malloc heap belongs to
223 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
224 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
225 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
226 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
227 socket ID for externally allocated segments
229 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
230 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
231 device structures of all buses.
237 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
239 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
242 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
243 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
244 =========================================================
247 Shared Library Versions
248 -----------------------
250 .. Update any library version updated in this release
251 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
254 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
257 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
258 =========================================================
260 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
266 librte_bitratestats.so.2
268 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
269 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
270 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
271 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
272 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
273 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
276 librte_common_octeontx.so.1
277 librte_compressdev.so.1
278 librte_cryptodev.so.5
279 librte_distributor.so.1
282 + librte_eventdev.so.6
283 librte_flow_classify.so.1
291 librte_latencystats.so.1
304 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
305 librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
306 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
308 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
309 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
310 + librte_pmd_netvsc.so.1
326 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
328 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
330 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
331 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
333 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
334 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
335 =========================================================
337 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
338 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
339 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
345 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
350 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
355 * Other relevant details...
357 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
358 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
359 =========================================================