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.
98 * **Updated failsafe driver.**
100 Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
102 * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
103 * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
104 * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
105 * Support multicast MAC address set.
107 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
109 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
110 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
111 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
112 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
113 a common implementation.
115 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
117 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
118 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
119 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
120 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
121 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
123 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
125 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
126 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
127 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
128 to reconfigure queues.
130 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
132 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
133 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
134 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
135 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
136 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
137 enqueue/dequeue operations.
143 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
145 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
146 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
149 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
150 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
151 =========================================================
153 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
154 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
155 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
156 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
157 over internal DPDK memory.
158 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
159 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
160 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
161 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
162 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
163 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
166 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
167 were removed in 18.11:
168 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
169 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
171 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
172 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
174 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
175 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
176 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
178 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
179 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
180 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
181 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
182 important for bonding.
184 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
185 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
186 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
187 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
190 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
191 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
197 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
199 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
200 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
201 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
204 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
205 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
206 =========================================================
208 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
209 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
210 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
212 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
213 supporting external memory in DPDK:
214 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
215 of memory addressed by the segment list
216 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
217 the memseg list refers to external memory
218 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
219 ID the malloc heap belongs to
220 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
221 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
222 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
223 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
224 socket ID for externally allocated segments
226 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
227 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
228 device structures of all buses.
234 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
236 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
239 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
240 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
241 =========================================================
244 Shared Library Versions
245 -----------------------
247 .. Update any library version updated in this release
248 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
251 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
254 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
255 =========================================================
257 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
263 librte_bitratestats.so.2
265 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
266 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
267 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
268 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
269 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
270 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
273 librte_common_octeontx.so.1
274 librte_compressdev.so.1
275 librte_cryptodev.so.5
276 librte_distributor.so.1
279 + librte_eventdev.so.6
280 librte_flow_classify.so.1
288 librte_latencystats.so.1
301 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
302 librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
303 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
305 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
306 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
307 + librte_pmd_netvsc.so.1
323 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
325 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
327 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
328 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
330 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
331 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
332 =========================================================
334 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
335 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
336 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
342 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
347 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
352 * Other relevant details...
354 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
355 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
356 =========================================================