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 * mempool: Helper macro ``MEMPOOL_HEADER_SIZE()`` is deprecated and will
43 be removed in DPDK 22.11. The replacement macro
44 ``RTE_MEMPOOL_HEADER_SIZE()`` is internal only.
46 * mempool: Macro to register mempool driver ``MEMPOOL_REGISTER_OPS()`` is
47 deprecated and will be removed in DPDK 22.11. Use replacement macro
48 ``RTE_MEMPOOL_REGISTER_OPS()``.
50 * mempool: The mempool API macros ``MEMPOOL_PG_*`` are deprecated and
51 will be removed in DPDK 22.11.
53 * mbuf: The mbuf offload flags ``PKT_*`` will be renamed as ``RTE_MBUF_F_*``.
54 A compatibility layer will be kept until DPDK 22.11, except for the flags
55 that are already deprecated (``PKT_RX_L4_CKSUM_BAD``, ``PKT_RX_IP_CKSUM_BAD``,
56 ``PKT_RX_EIP_CKSUM_BAD``, ``PKT_TX_QINQ_PKT``) which will be removed.
58 * pci: To reduce unnecessary ABIs exposed by DPDK bus driver, "rte_bus_pci.h"
59 will be made internal in 21.11 and macros/data structures/functions defined
60 in the header will not be considered as ABI anymore. This change is inspired
61 by the RFC https://patchwork.dpdk.org/project/dpdk/list/?series=17176.
63 * lib: will fix extending some enum/define breaking the ABI. There are multiple
64 samples in DPDK that enum/define terminated with a ``.*MAX.*`` value which is
65 used by iterators, and arrays holding these values are sized with this
66 ``.*MAX.*`` value. So extending this enum/define increases the ``.*MAX.*``
67 value which increases the size of the array and depending on how/where the
68 array is used this may break the ABI.
69 ``RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX`` is one sample of the mentioned case, adding a new flow
70 type will break the ABI because of ``flex_mask[RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX]`` array
71 usage in following public struct hierarchy:
72 ``rte_eth_fdir_flex_conf -> rte_fdir_conf -> rte_eth_conf (in the middle)``.
73 Need to identify this kind of usages and fix in 20.11, otherwise this blocks
74 us extending existing enum/define.
75 One solution can be using a fixed size array instead of ``.*MAX.*`` value.
77 * ethdev: Will add ``RTE_ETH_`` prefix to all ethdev macros/enums in v21.11.
78 Macros will be added for backward compatibility.
79 Backward compatibility macros will be removed on v22.11.
80 A few old backward compatibility macros from 2013 that does not have
81 proper prefix will be removed on v21.11.
83 * ethdev: The flow director API, including ``rte_eth_conf.fdir_conf`` field,
84 and the related structures (``rte_fdir_*`` and ``rte_eth_fdir_*``),
85 will be removed in DPDK 20.11.
87 * ethdev: New offload flags ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_FLOW_MARK`` will be added in 19.11.
88 This will allow application to enable or disable PMDs from updating
89 ``rte_mbuf::hash::fdir``.
90 This scheme will allow PMDs to avoid writes to ``rte_mbuf`` fields on Rx and
91 thereby improve Rx performance if application wishes do so.
92 In 19.11 PMDs will still update the field even when the offload is not
95 * ethdev: ``uint32_t max_rx_pkt_len`` field of ``struct rte_eth_rxmode``, will be
96 replaced by a new ``uint32_t mtu`` field of ``struct rte_eth_conf`` in v21.11.
97 The new ``mtu`` field will be used to configure the initial device MTU via
98 ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` API.
99 Later MTU can be changed by ``rte_eth_dev_set_mtu()`` API as done now.
100 The existing ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->mtu`` variable will be used to store
101 the configured ``mtu`` value,
102 and this new ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->dev_conf.mtu`` variable will
103 be used to store the user configuration request.
104 Unlike ``max_rx_pkt_len``, which was valid only when ``JUMBO_FRAME`` enabled,
105 ``mtu`` field will be always valid.
106 When ``mtu`` config is not provided by the application, default ``RTE_ETHER_MTU``
108 ``(struct rte_eth_dev)->data->mtu`` should be updated after MTU set successfully,
109 either by ``rte_eth_dev_configure()`` or ``rte_eth_dev_set_mtu()``.
111 An application may need to configure device for a specific Rx packet size, like for
112 cases ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_SCATTER`` is not supported and device received packet size
113 can't be bigger than Rx buffer size.
114 To cover these cases an application needs to know the device packet overhead to be
115 able to calculate the ``mtu`` corresponding to a Rx buffer size, for this
116 ``(struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_rx_pktlen`` will be kept,
117 the device packet overhead can be calculated as:
118 ``(struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_rx_pktlen - (struct rte_eth_dev_info).max_mtu``
120 * ethdev: Announce moving from dedicated modify function for each field,
121 to using the general ``rte_flow_modify_field`` action.
123 * ethdev: The struct ``rte_flow_action_modify_data`` will be modified
124 to support modifying fields larger than 64 bits.
125 In addition, documentation will be updated to clarify byte order.
127 * ethdev: Definition of the flow API action ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_PORT_ID``
128 is ambiguous and needs clarification.
129 Structure ``rte_flow_action_port_id`` will be extended to specify
130 traffic direction to the represented entity or ethdev port itself
133 * ethdev: Flow API documentation is unclear if ethdev port used to create
134 a flow rule adds any implicit match criteria in the case of transfer rules.
135 The semantics will be clarified in DPDK 21.11 and it will require fixes in
136 drivers and applications which interpret it in a different way.
138 * ethdev: The flow API matching pattern structures, ``struct rte_flow_item_*``,
139 should start with relevant protocol header.
140 Some matching pattern structures implements this by duplicating protocol header
141 fields in the struct. To clarify the intention and to be sure protocol header
142 is intact, will replace those fields with relevant protocol header struct.
143 In v21.02 both individual protocol header fields and the protocol header struct
144 will be added as union, target is switch usage to the protocol header by time.
145 In v21.11 LTS, protocol header fields will be cleaned and only protocol header
148 * ethdev: Add new Rx queue offload flag ``RTE_ETH_RX_OFFLOAD_SHARED_RXQ`` and
149 ``shared_group`` field to ``struct rte_eth_rxconf``.
151 * ethdev: Queue specific stats fields will be removed from ``struct rte_eth_stats``.
152 Mentioned fields are: ``q_ipackets``, ``q_opackets``, ``q_ibytes``, ``q_obytes``,
154 Instead queue stats will be received via xstats API. Current method support
155 will be limited to maximum 256 queues.
156 Also compile time flag ``RTE_ETHDEV_QUEUE_STAT_CNTRS`` will be removed.
158 * net: The structure ``rte_ipv4_hdr`` will have two unions.
159 The first union is for existing ``version_ihl`` byte
160 and new bitfield for version and IHL.
161 The second union is for existing ``fragment_offset``
162 and new bitfield for fragment flags and offset.
164 * vhost: ``rte_vdpa_register_device``, ``rte_vdpa_unregister_device``,
165 ``rte_vhost_host_notifier_ctrl`` and ``rte_vdpa_relay_vring_used`` vDPA
166 driver interface will be marked as internal in DPDK v21.11.
168 * vhost: rename ``struct vhost_device_ops`` to ``struct rte_vhost_device_ops``
171 * vhost: The experimental tags of ``rte_vhost_driver_get_protocol_features``,
172 ``rte_vhost_driver_get_queue_num``, ``rte_vhost_crypto_create``,
173 ``rte_vhost_crypto_free``, ``rte_vhost_crypto_fetch_requests``,
174 ``rte_vhost_crypto_finalize_requests``, ``rte_vhost_crypto_set_zero_copy``,
175 ``rte_vhost_va_from_guest_pa``, ``rte_vhost_extern_callback_register``,
176 and ``rte_vhost_driver_set_protocol_features`` functions will be removed
177 and the API functions will be made stable in DPDK 21.11.
179 * cryptodev: Hide structures ``rte_cryptodev_sym_session`` and
180 ``rte_cryptodev_asym_session`` to remove unnecessary indirection between
181 session and the private data of session. An opaque pointer can be exposed
182 directly to application which can be attached to the ``rte_crypto_op``.
184 * security: Hide structure ``rte_security_session`` and expose an opaque
185 pointer for the private data to the application which can be attached
186 to the packet while enqueuing.
188 * eventdev: The file ``rte_eventdev_pmd.h`` will be renamed to ``eventdev_driver.h``
189 to make the driver interface as internal and the structures ``rte_eventdev_data``,
190 ``rte_eventdev`` and ``rte_eventdevs`` will be moved to a new file named
191 ``rte_eventdev_core.h`` in DPDK 21.11.
192 The ``rte_`` prefix for internal structures and functions will be removed across the
194 The experimental eventdev trace APIs and ``rte_event_vector_pool_create``,
195 ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_vector_limits_get`` will be promoted to stable.
196 An 8-byte reserved field will be added to the structure ``rte_event_timer`` to
197 support future extensions.
199 * eventdev: The structure ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_conf`` will be
200 extended to include ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_event_vector_config`` elements
201 and the function ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_event_vector_config`` will
202 be removed in DPDK 21.11.
204 An application can enable event vectorization by passing the desired vector
205 values to the function ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_add`` using
206 the structure ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_queue_add``.
208 * metrics: The function ``rte_metrics_init`` will have a non-void return
209 in order to notify errors instead of calling ``rte_exit``.
211 * cmdline: ``cmdline`` structure will be made opaque to hide platform-specific
212 content. On Linux and FreeBSD, supported prior to DPDK 20.11,
213 original structure will be kept until DPDK 21.11.