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
69 * Modify source and destination port numbers in the outermost TCP/UDP
72 * **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**
74 Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:
76 * Match items: destination MAC address.
77 * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header.
79 * **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
80 A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
81 choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
82 can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.
84 * **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**
86 The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
87 SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
88 vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.
90 * **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**
92 Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
93 :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.
95 * **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**
97 Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
98 "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.
100 * **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**
102 Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:
104 * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
105 * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
106 * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
107 * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
108 datapaths implementation.
110 * **Updated failsafe driver.**
112 Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
114 * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
115 * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
116 * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
117 * Support multicast MAC address set.
119 * **Added a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
120 A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
121 MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.
123 * **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
125 Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that provides configuration and
126 data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
127 processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
128 transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
129 a common implementation.
131 * **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
133 Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
134 pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
135 among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
136 the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
137 gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
139 * **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
141 Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
142 ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
143 the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
144 to reconfigure queues.
146 * **Add a new sample for vDPA**
148 The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
149 vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
150 virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
151 datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
152 this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
153 enqueue/dequeue operations.
159 .. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
161 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
162 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
165 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
166 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
167 =========================================================
169 * eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
170 whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
171 for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
172 externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
173 over internal DPDK memory.
174 ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
175 as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
176 changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
177 kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
178 ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
179 instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
182 * eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
183 were removed in 18.11:
184 ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
185 ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
187 * eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
188 from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
190 * mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
191 functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
192 ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
194 * A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
195 actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
196 support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
197 flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
198 important for bonding.
200 * The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
201 offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
202 DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
203 To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
206 * eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
207 has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
213 .. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
215 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
216 that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
217 Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
220 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
221 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
222 =========================================================
224 * eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
225 ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
226 using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
228 * eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
229 supporting external memory in DPDK:
230 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
231 of memory addressed by the segment list
232 - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
233 the memseg list refers to external memory
234 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
235 ID the malloc heap belongs to
236 - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
237 resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
238 - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
239 - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
240 socket ID for externally allocated segments
242 * eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
243 It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
244 device structures of all buses.
250 .. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
252 * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
255 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
256 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
257 =========================================================
260 Shared Library Versions
261 -----------------------
263 .. Update any library version updated in this release
264 and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
267 + librte_cfgfile.so.2
270 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
271 =========================================================
273 The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
279 librte_bitratestats.so.2
281 + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
282 + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
283 + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
284 + librte_bus_pci.so.2
285 + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
286 + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
289 librte_common_octeontx.so.1
290 librte_compressdev.so.1
291 librte_cryptodev.so.5
292 librte_distributor.so.1
295 + librte_eventdev.so.6
296 librte_flow_classify.so.1
304 librte_latencystats.so.1
317 librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
318 librte_pmd_dpaa2_cmdif.so.1
319 librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
321 librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
322 librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
323 + librte_pmd_netvsc.so.1
339 .. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
341 * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
343 Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
344 in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
346 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
347 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
348 =========================================================
350 * When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
351 driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
352 unbound and passed to the DPDK.
358 .. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
363 * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
368 * Other relevant details...
370 This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
371 Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
372 =========================================================