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 a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
111 A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
112 MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.
114 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
116 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
117 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
118 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
119 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
120 a common implementation.
122 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
124 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
125 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
126 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
127 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
128 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
130 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
132 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
133 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
134 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
135 to reconfigure queues.
137 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
139 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
140 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
141 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
142 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
143 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
144 enqueue/dequeue operations.
150 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
152 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
153 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
156 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
157 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
158 =========================================================
160 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
161 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
162 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
163 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
164 over internal DPDK memory.
165 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
166 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
167 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
168 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
169 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
170 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
173 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
174 were removed in 18.11:
175 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
176 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
178 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
179 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
181 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
182 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
183 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
185 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
186 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
187 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
188 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
189 important for bonding.
191 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
192 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
193 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
194 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
197 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
198 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
204 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
206 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
207 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
208 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
211 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
212 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
213 =========================================================
215 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
216 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
217 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
219 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
220 supporting external memory in DPDK:
221 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
222 of memory addressed by the segment list
223 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
224 the memseg list refers to external memory
225 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
226 ID the malloc heap belongs to
227 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
228 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
229 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
230 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
231 socket ID for externally allocated segments
233 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
234 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
235 device structures of all buses.
241 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
243 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
246 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
247 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
248 =========================================================
251 Shared Library Versions
252 -----------------------
254 .. Update any library version updated in this release
255 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
258 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
261 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
262 =========================================================
264 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
270 librte_bitratestats.so.2
272 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
273 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
274 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
275 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
276 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
277 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
280 librte_common_octeontx.so.1
281 librte_compressdev.so.1
282 librte_cryptodev.so.5
283 librte_distributor.so.1
286 + librte_eventdev.so.6
287 librte_flow_classify.so.1
295 librte_latencystats.so.1
308 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
309 librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
310 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
312 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
313 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
314 + librte_pmd_netvsc.so.1
330 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
332 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
334 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
335 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
337 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
338 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
339 =========================================================
341 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
342 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
343 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
349 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
354 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
359 * Other relevant details...
361 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
362 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
363 =========================================================