Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/3] refresh NIC features matrix

["Zhang, Qi Z" <qi.z.zhang@intel.com>]

Hi Thomas:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2020 7:02 AM
> To: dev@dpdk.org
> Cc: rahul.lakkireddy@chelsio.com; Zhang, Qi Z <qi.z.zhang@intel.com>; Wang,
> Xiao W <xiao.w.wang@intel.com>; xavier.huwei@huawei.com; Xing, Beilei
> <beilei.xing@intel.com>; Lu, Wenzhuo <wenzhuo.lu@intel.com>; Yang, Qiming
> <qiming.yang@intel.com>; Ananyev, Konstantin
> <konstantin.ananyev@intel.com>; Yigit, Ferruh <ferruh.yigit@intel.com>;
> jerinj@marvell.com; rmody@marvell.com; shshaikh@marvell.com;
> maxime.coquelin@redhat.com; Ye, Xiaolong <xiaolong.ye@intel.com>
> Subject: [PATCH 0/3] refresh NIC features matrix
> 
> This series aims to clean-up the big table of ethdev features:
>   http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/overview.html#id1
> 
> We could reorganize the information in this table, maybe split it or add/remove
> some rows.
> Before going to such reorganization, we should clean it up.
> 
> The first patch is fixing the look & size of the table with recent sphinx.
> 
> The second and third patches are removing 8 columns which are clearly
> unneeded:
>   - bnx2x_vf
>   - bonding
>   - kni
>   - nfp_vf
>   - null
>   - ring
>   - softnic
>   - vdev_netvsc
> 
> More columns can be removed by merging PF/VF and vector datapaths.
> If a feature cannot be supported in all cases, it should be marked as partially
> supported (P).
> If a feature is PF-specific (like flow control), that's OK to mark it fully supported
> because it's obviously impossible for VF.
> There are also some features which were probably marked in some columns
> and missed in its VF or vector counterpart.
> Please work to merge and drop these 16 columns:
>   - cxgbevf
>   - fm10k_vf
>   - hns3_vf
>   - i40e_vec
>   - i40e_vf
>   - i40e_vf_vec
>   - iavf_vec
>   - ice_vec
>   - igb_vf
>   - ixgbe_vec
>   - ixgbe_vf
>   - ixgbe_vf_vec
>   - octeontx2_vec
>   - octeontx2_vf
>   - qede_vf
>   - virtio_vec
> 
> The total gain is to reduce the table size from 71 to 47 columns.

I agree to remove all the column with "vec", since vector PMD can be regarded as a feature of the a PMD.
But I'm not sure if it is a good idea to merge VF and PF into one column.
From my view, for intel device, VF driver and PF driver just share the code, but they actually are running at two different context.
And likely they will support different feature, merge into one column may confuse our customer if they want to understand what exactly the PMD support.

Thanks
Qi

> 
> Please send patches for Chelsio, Huawei, Intel, Marvell and virtio.
> 
> 
> Thomas Monjalon (3):
>   doc: fix matrix CSS for recent sphinx
>   doc: remove empty columns from NIC features matrix
>   doc: remove similar columns from NIC features matrix
> 
>  doc/guides/conf.py                       | 16 +++++++++----
>  doc/guides/nics/features/bnx2x.ini       |  1 +
>  doc/guides/nics/features/bnx2x_vf.ini    | 18 ---------------
>  doc/guides/nics/features/bonding.ini     |  6 -----
>  doc/guides/nics/features/kni.ini         |  7 ------
>  doc/guides/nics/features/nfp_vf.ini      | 29 ------------------------
>  doc/guides/nics/features/null.ini        |  6 -----
>  doc/guides/nics/features/ring.ini        |  6 -----
>  doc/guides/nics/features/softnic.ini     |  9 --------
>  doc/guides/nics/features/vdev_netvsc.ini | 12 ----------
>  10 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 97 deletions(-)  delete mode 100644
> doc/guides/nics/features/bnx2x_vf.ini
>  delete mode 100644 doc/guides/nics/features/bonding.ini
>  delete mode 100644 doc/guides/nics/features/kni.ini  delete mode 100644
> doc/guides/nics/features/nfp_vf.ini
>  delete mode 100644 doc/guides/nics/features/null.ini  delete mode 100644
> doc/guides/nics/features/ring.ini  delete mode 100644
> doc/guides/nics/features/softnic.ini
>  delete mode 100644 doc/guides/nics/features/vdev_netvsc.ini
> 
> --
> 2.25.1