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 * kvargs: The function ``rte_kvargs_process`` will get a new parameter
15 for returning key match count. It will ease handling of no-match case.
17 * eal: The function ``rte_eal_remote_launch`` will return new error codes
18 after read or write error on the pipe, instead of calling ``rte_panic``.
20 * eal: The lcore state ``FINISHED`` will be removed from
21 the ``enum rte_lcore_state_t``.
22 The lcore state ``WAIT`` is enough to represent the same state.
24 * eal: Making ``struct rte_intr_handle`` internal to avoid any ABI breakages
27 * rte_atomicNN_xxx: These APIs do not take memory order parameter. This does
28 not allow for writing optimized code for all the CPU architectures supported
29 in DPDK. DPDK has adopted the atomic operations from
30 https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/_005f_005fatomic-Builtins.html. These
31 operations must be used for patches that need to be merged in 20.08 onwards.
32 This change will not introduce any performance degradation.
34 * rte_smp_*mb: These APIs provide full barrier functionality. However, many
35 use cases do not require full barriers. To support such use cases, DPDK has
36 adopted atomic operations from
37 https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/_005f_005fatomic-Builtins.html. These
38 operations and a new wrapper ``rte_atomic_thread_fence`` instead of
39 ``__atomic_thread_fence`` must be used for patches that need to be merged in
40 20.08 onwards. This change will not introduce any performance degradation.
42 * mbuf: The mbuf offload flags ``PKT_*`` will be renamed as ``RTE_MBUF_F_*``.
43 A compatibility layer will be kept until DPDK 22.11, except for the flags
44 that are already deprecated (``PKT_RX_L4_CKSUM_BAD``, ``PKT_RX_IP_CKSUM_BAD``,
45 ``PKT_RX_EIP_CKSUM_BAD``, ``PKT_TX_QINQ_PKT``) which will be removed.
47 * pci: To reduce unnecessary ABIs exposed by DPDK bus driver, "rte_bus_pci.h"
48 will be made internal in 21.11 and macros/data structures/functions defined
49 in the header will not be considered as ABI anymore. This change is inspired
50 by the RFC https://patchwork.dpdk.org/project/dpdk/list/?series=17176.
52 * lib: will fix extending some enum/define breaking the ABI. There are multiple
53 samples in DPDK that enum/define terminated with a ``.*MAX.*`` value which is
54 used by iterators, and arrays holding these values are sized with this
55 ``.*MAX.*`` value. So extending this enum/define increases the ``.*MAX.*``
56 value which increases the size of the array and depending on how/where the
57 array is used this may break the ABI.
58 ``RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX`` is one sample of the mentioned case, adding a new flow
59 type will break the ABI because of ``flex_mask[RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX]`` array
60 usage in following public struct hierarchy:
61 ``rte_eth_fdir_flex_conf -> rte_fdir_conf -> rte_eth_conf (in the middle)``.
62 Need to identify this kind of usages and fix in 20.11, otherwise this blocks
63 us extending existing enum/define.
64 One solution can be using a fixed size array instead of ``.*MAX.*`` value.
66 * ethdev: Will add ``RTE_ETH_`` prefix to all ethdev macros/enums in v21.11.
67 Macros will be added for backward compatibility.
68 Backward compatibility macros will be removed on v22.11.
69 A few old backward compatibility macros from 2013 that does not have
70 proper prefix will be removed on v21.11.
72 * ethdev: The flow director API, including ``rte_eth_conf.fdir_conf`` field,
73 and the related structures (``rte_fdir_*`` and ``rte_eth_fdir_*``),
74 will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
76 * ethdev: New offload flags ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_FLOW_MARK`` will be added in 19.11.
77 This will allow application to enable or disable PMDs from updating
78 ``rte_mbuf::hash::fdir``.
79 This scheme will allow PMDs to avoid writes to ``rte_mbuf`` fields on Rx and
80 thereby improve Rx performance if application wishes do so.
81 In 19.11 PMDs will still update the field even when the offload is not
84 * ethdev: ``uint32_t max_rx_pkt_len`` field of ``struct rte_eth_rxmode``, will be
85 replaced by a new ``uint32_t mtu`` field of ``struct rte_eth_conf`` in v21.11.
86 The new ``mtu`` field will be used to configure the initial device MTU via
87 ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` API.
88 Later MTU can be changed by ``rte_eth_dev_set_mtu()`` API as done now.
89 The existing ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->mtu`` variable will be used to store
90 the configured ``mtu`` value,
91 and this new ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->dev_conf.mtu`` variable will
92 be used to store the user configuration request.
93 Unlike ``max_rx_pkt_len``, which was valid only when ``JUMBO_FRAME`` enabled,
94 ``mtu`` field will be always valid.
95 When ``mtu`` config is not provided by the application, default ``RTE_ETHER_MTU``
97 ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->mtu`` should be updated after MTU set successfully,
98 either by ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` or ``rte_eth_dev_set_mtu()``.
100 An application may need to configure device for a specific Rx packet size, like for
101 cases ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_SCATTER`` is not supported and device received packet size
102 can't be bigger than Rx buffer size.
103 To cover these cases an application needs to know the device packet overhead to be
104 able to calculate the ``mtu`` corresponding to a Rx buffer size, for this
105 ``(struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_rx_pktlen`` will be kept,
106 the device packet overhead can be calculated as:
107 ``(struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_rx_pktlen - (struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_mtu``
109 * ethdev: ``rx_descriptor_done`` dev_ops and ``rte_eth_rx_descriptor_done``
110 will be removed in 21.11.
111 Existing ``rte_eth_rx_descriptor_status`` and ``rte_eth_tx_descriptor_status``
112 APIs can be used as replacement.
114 * ethdev: The port mirroring API can be replaced with a more fine grain flow API.
115 The structs ``rte_eth_mirror_conf``, ``rte_eth_vlan_mirror`` and the functions
116 ``rte_eth_mirror_rule_set``, ``rte_eth_mirror_rule_reset`` will be marked
117 as deprecated in DPDK 20.11, along with the associated macros ``ETH_MIRROR_*``.
118 This API will be fully removed in DPDK 21.11.
120 * ethdev: Attribute ``shared`` of the ``struct rte_flow_action_count``
121 is deprecated and will be removed in DPDK 21.11. Shared counters should
122 be managed using shared actions API (``rte_flow_shared_action_create`` etc).
124 * ethdev: The flow API matching pattern structures, ``struct rte_flow_item_*``,
125 should start with relevant protocol header.
126 Some matching pattern structures implements this by duplicating protocol header
127 fields in the struct. To clarify the intention and to be sure protocol header
128 is intact, will replace those fields with relevant protocol header struct.
129 In v21.02 both individual protocol header fields and the protocol header struct
130 will be added as union, target is switch usage to the protocol header by time.
131 In v21.11 LTS, protocol header fields will be cleaned and only protocol header
134 * ethdev: Queue specific stats fields will be removed from ``struct rte_eth_stats``.
135 Mentioned fields are: ``q_ipackets``, ``q_opackets``, ``q_ibytes``, ``q_obytes``,
137 Instead queue stats will be received via xstats API. Current method support
138 will be limited to maximum 256 queues.
139 Also compile time flag ``RTE_ETHDEV_QUEUE_STAT_CNTRS`` will be removed.
141 * ethdev: The offload flag ``PKT_RX_EIP_CKSUM_BAD`` will be removed and
142 replaced by the new flag ``PKT_RX_OUTER_IP_CKSUM_BAD``. The new name is more
143 consistent with existing outer header checksum status flag naming, which
144 should help in reducing confusion about its usage.
146 * i40e: As there are both i40evf and iavf pmd, the functions of them are
147 duplicated. And now more and more advanced features are developed on iavf.
148 To keep consistent with kernel driver's name
149 (https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/970154/), i40evf is no need to maintain.
150 Starting from 21.05, the default VF driver of i40e will be iavf, but i40evf
151 can still be used if users specify the devarg "driver=i40evf". I40evf will
152 be deleted in DPDK 21.11.
154 * net: ``s_addr`` and ``d_addr`` fields of ``rte_ether_hdr`` structure
155 will be renamed in DPDK 21.11 to avoid conflict with Windows Sockets headers.
157 * net: The structure ``rte_ipv4_hdr`` will have two unions.
158 The first union is for existing ``version_ihl`` byte
159 and new bitfield for version and IHL.
160 The second union is for existing ``fragment_offset``
161 and new bitfield for fragment flags and offset.
163 * compressdev: ``min`` and ``max`` fields of ``rte_param_log2_range`` structure
164 will be renamed in DPDK 21.11 to avoid conflict with Windows Sockets headers.
166 * cryptodev: ``min`` and ``max`` fields of ``rte_crypto_param_range`` structure
167 will be renamed in DPDK 21.11 to avoid conflict with Windows Sockets headers.
169 * cryptodev: The field ``dataunit_len`` of the ``struct rte_crypto_cipher_xform``
170 has a limited size ``uint16_t``.
171 It will be moved and extended as ``uint32_t`` in DPDK 21.11.
173 * cryptodev: The structure ``rte_crypto_sym_vec`` would be updated to add
174 ``dest_sgl`` to support out of place processing.
175 This field will be null for inplace processing.
176 This change is targeted for DPDK 21.11.
178 * cryptodev: The structure ``rte_crypto_vec`` would be updated to add
179 ``tot_len`` to support total buffer length.
180 This is required for security cases like IPsec and PDCP encryption offload
181 to know how much additional memory space is available in buffer other than
182 data length so that driver/HW can write expanded size data after encryption.
183 This change is targeted for DPDK 21.11.
185 * cryptodev: The interface between library and drivers will be marked
186 as internal in DPDK 21.11.
188 * security: Hide structure ``rte_security_session`` and expose an opaque
189 pointer for the private data to the application which can be attached
190 to the packet while enqueuing.
192 * security: The IPsec configuration structure
193 ``struct rte_security_ipsec_xform`` will be updated with new members to allow
194 SA lifetime configuration. A new structure would be introduced to replace the
195 current member, ``esn_soft_limit``.
197 * security: The IPsec SA config options ``struct rte_security_ipsec_sa_options``
198 will be updated with new fields to support new features like IPsec inner
199 checksum, tunnel header verification, TSO in case of protocol offload.
201 * eventdev: The file ``rte_eventdev_pmd.h`` will be renamed to ``eventdev_driver.h``
202 to make the driver interface as internal and the structures ``rte_eventdev_data``,
203 ``rte_eventdev`` and ``rte_eventdevs`` will be moved to a new file named
204 ``rte_eventdev_core.h`` in DPDK 21.11.
205 The ``rte_`` prefix for internal structures and functions will be removed across the
207 The experimental eventdev trace APIs and ``rte_event_vector_pool_create``,
208 ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_vector_limits_get`` will be promoted to stable.
209 An 8-byte reserved field will be added to the structure ``rte_event_timer`` to
210 support future extensions.
212 * eventdev: The structure ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_conf`` will be
213 extended to include ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_event_vector_config`` elements
214 and the function ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_event_vector_config`` will
215 be removed in DPDK 21.11.
217 An application can enable event vectorization by passing the desired vector
218 values to the function ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_add`` using
219 the structure ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_add``.
221 * eventdev: Reserved bytes of ``rte_event_crypto_request`` is a space holder
222 for ``response_info``. Both should be decoupled for better clarity.
223 New space for ``response_info`` can be made by changing
224 ``rte_event_crypto_metadata`` type to structure from union.
225 This change is targeted for DPDK 21.11.
227 * metrics: The function ``rte_metrics_init`` will have a non-void return
228 in order to notify errors instead of calling ``rte_exit``.
230 * cmdline: ``cmdline`` structure will be made opaque to hide platform-specific
231 content. On Linux and FreeBSD, supported prior to DPDK 20.11,
232 original structure will be kept until DPDK 21.11.
234 * security: The functions ``rte_security_set_pkt_metadata`` and
235 ``rte_security_get_userdata`` will be made inline functions and additional
236 flags will be added in structure ``rte_security_ctx`` in DPDK 21.11.
238 * cryptodev: The structure ``rte_crypto_op`` would be updated to reduce
239 reserved bytes to 2 (from 3), and use 1 byte to indicate warnings and other
240 information from the crypto/security operation. This field will be used to
241 communicate events such as soft expiry with IPsec in lookaside mode.