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 * **Added new Flow API actions to rewrite fields in packet headers.**
65 Added new Flow API actions to:
67 * Modify source and destination IP addresses in the outermost IPv4/IPv6
70 * **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**
72 Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:
74 * Match items: destination MAC address.
75 * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header.
77 * **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
78 A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
79 choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
80 can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.
82 * **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**
84 The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
85 SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
86 vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.
88 * **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**
90 Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
91 :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.
93 * **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**
95 Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
96 "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.
98 * **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**
100 Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:
102 * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
103 * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
104 * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
105 * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
106 datapaths implementation.
108 * **Updated failsafe driver.**
110 Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
112 * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
113 * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
114 * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
115 * Support multicast MAC address set.
117 * **Added a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
118 A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
119 MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.
121 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
123 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
124 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
125 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
126 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
127 a common implementation.
129 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
131 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
132 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
133 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
134 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
135 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
137 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
139 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
140 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
141 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
142 to reconfigure queues.
144 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
146 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
147 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
148 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
149 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
150 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
151 enqueue/dequeue operations.
157 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
159 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
160 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
163 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
164 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
165 =========================================================
167 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
168 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
169 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
170 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
171 over internal DPDK memory.
172 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
173 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
174 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
175 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
176 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
177 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
180 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
181 were removed in 18.11:
182 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
183 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
185 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
186 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
188 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
189 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
190 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
192 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
193 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
194 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
195 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
196 important for bonding.
198 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
199 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
200 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
201 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
204 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
205 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
211 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
213 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
214 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
215 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
218 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
219 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
220 =========================================================
222 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
223 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
224 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
226 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
227 supporting external memory in DPDK:
228 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
229 of memory addressed by the segment list
230 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
231 the memseg list refers to external memory
232 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
233 ID the malloc heap belongs to
234 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
235 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
236 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
237 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
238 socket ID for externally allocated segments
240 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
241 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
242 device structures of all buses.
248 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
250 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
253 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
254 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
255 =========================================================
258 Shared Library Versions
259 -----------------------
261 .. Update any library version updated in this release
262 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
265 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
268 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
269 =========================================================
271 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
277 librte_bitratestats.so.2
279 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
280 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
281 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
282 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
283 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
284 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
287 librte_common_octeontx.so.1
288 librte_compressdev.so.1
289 librte_cryptodev.so.5
290 librte_distributor.so.1
293 + librte_eventdev.so.6
294 librte_flow_classify.so.1
302 librte_latencystats.so.1
315 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
316 librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
317 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
319 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
320 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
321 + librte_pmd_netvsc.so.1
337 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
339 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
341 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
342 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
344 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
345 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
346 =========================================================
348 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
349 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
350 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
356 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
361 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
366 * Other relevant details...
368 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
369 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
370 =========================================================