1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright(c) 2010-2017 Intel Corporation.
4 Introduction to the DPDK Sample Applications
5 ============================================
7 The DPDK Sample Applications are small standalone applications which
8 demonstrate various features of DPDK. They can be considered as a cookbook of
9 DPDK features. Users interested in getting started with DPDK can take the
10 applications, try out the features, and then extend them to fit their needs.
13 Running Sample Applications
14 ---------------------------
16 Some sample applications may have their own command-line parameters described in
17 their respective guides, however all of them also share the same EAL parameters.
18 Please refer to :doc:`EAL parameters (Linux) <../linux_gsg/linux_eal_parameters>`
19 or :doc:`EAL parameters (FreeBSD) <../freebsd_gsg/freebsd_eal_parameters>` for
20 a list of available EAL command-line options.
23 The DPDK Sample Applications
24 ----------------------------
26 There are many sample applications available in the examples directory of DPDK.
27 These examples range from simple to reasonably complex but most are designed
28 to demonstrate one particular feature of DPDK. Some of the more interesting
29 examples are highlighted below.
32 * :doc:`Hello World<hello_world>`: As with most introductions to a
33 programming framework a good place to start is with the Hello World
34 application. The Hello World example sets up the DPDK Environment Abstraction
35 Layer (EAL), and prints a simple "Hello World" message to each of the DPDK
36 enabled cores. This application doesn't do any packet forwarding but it is a
37 good way to test if the DPDK environment is compiled and set up properly.
39 * :doc:`Basic Forwarding/Skeleton Application<skeleton>`: The Basic
40 Forwarding/Skeleton contains the minimum amount of code required to enable
41 basic packet forwarding with DPDK. This allows you to test if your network
42 interfaces are working with DPDK.
44 * :doc:`Network Layer 2 forwarding<l2_forward_real_virtual>`: The Network Layer 2
45 forwarding, or ``l2fwd`` application does forwarding based on Ethernet MAC
46 addresses like a simple switch.
48 * :doc:`Network Layer 3 forwarding<l3_forward>`: The Network Layer3
49 forwarding, or ``l3fwd`` application does forwarding based on Internet
50 Protocol, IPv4 or IPv6 like a simple router.
52 * :doc:`Hardware packet copying<ioat>`: The Hardware packet copying,
53 or ``ioatfwd`` application demonstrates how to use IOAT rawdev driver for
54 copying packets between two threads.
56 * :doc:`Packet Distributor<dist_app>`: The Packet Distributor
57 demonstrates how to distribute packets arriving on an Rx port to different
58 cores for processing and transmission.
60 * :doc:`Multi-Process Application<multi_process>`: The
61 multi-process application shows how two DPDK processes can work together using
62 queues and memory pools to share information.
64 * :doc:`RX/TX callbacks Application<rxtx_callbacks>`: The RX/TX
65 callbacks sample application is a packet forwarding application that
66 demonstrates the use of user defined callbacks on received and transmitted
67 packets. The application calculates the latency of a packet between RX
68 (packet arrival) and TX (packet transmission) by adding callbacks to the RX
69 and TX packet processing functions.
71 * :doc:`IPsec Security Gateway<ipsec_secgw>`: The IPsec Security
72 Gateway application is minimal example of something closer to a real world
73 example. This is also a good example of an application using the DPDK
76 * :doc:`Precision Time Protocol (PTP) client<ptpclient>`: The PTP
77 client is another minimal implementation of a real world application.
78 In this case the application is a PTP client that communicates with a PTP
79 master clock to synchronize time on a Network Interface Card (NIC) using the
82 * :doc:`Quality of Service (QoS) Scheduler<qos_scheduler>`: The QoS
83 Scheduler application demonstrates the use of DPDK to provide QoS scheduling.
85 There are many more examples shown in the following chapters. Each of the
86 documented sample applications show how to compile, configure and run the
87 application as well as explaining the main functionality of the code.