Re: [dpdk-dev] DPDK API/ABI Stability

[Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>]

On Wed, 9 Apr 2014 14:39:52 -0400
Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com> wrote:

> Hey all-
> 	I was going to include this as an addendum to the packaging thread on
> this list, but I can't seem to find it in my inbox, so forgive me starting a new
> one.
> 
> 	I wanted to broach the subject of ABI/API stability on the list here.
> Given the recent great efforts to make dpdk packagable by disributions, I think
> we probably need to discuss API stability in more depth and come up with a plan
> to implement it.  Has anyone started looking into this?  If not, it seems to me
> to be reasonable to start by placing a line in the sand with the functions
> documented here:
> 
> http://dpdk.org/doc/api/
> 
> It seems to me we can start reviewing the API library by library, enusring only
> those functions are exported, making sure the data types are appropriate for
> export, and marking them with a linker script to version them appropriately.

To what level? source? binary, internal functions?

Some of the API's could be stablized without much impact but others such
as the device driver interface is incomplete and freezing it would make
live hard.