Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH 00/18] refactor eal driver registration code

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Fri, Sep 04, 2015 at 01:46:11PM +0100, Iremonger, Bernard wrote:
> Hi Bruce,
> <snip>
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH 00/18] refactor eal driver registration
> > code
> > 
> > On Fri, Sep 04, 2015 at 12:01:36PM +0100, Bernard Iremonger wrote:
> > > At present the eal driver registration code is more complicated than
> > > it needs to be.
> > >
> > > This RFC proposes to simplify the eal driver registration code.
> > >
> > > Remove the type field from the eal driver structure.
> > > Refactor the eal driver registration code to use the name field in the
> > > eal driver structure instead of the type field.
> > >
> > > Modify all PMD's to use the modified eal driver structure.
> > > Initialise the name field in the eal driver structure in some PMD's
> > > where it is not initialised at present.
> > >
> > >
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I don't think I like this approach very much. It seems very brittle to remove
> > the explicit type field and starting to rely on the drivers putting a prefix in the
> > name instead i.e. implicit typing.
> > 
> > What is the major concern with marking drivers as virtual or physical? My
> > thinking is that we should keep the type field, just perhaps change PDEV to
> > be more descriptive in identifying the type of physical device, e.g. DEV_PCI.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > /Bruce
> 
> The eth_  prefix is already required  for vdev's  for example:
> testpmd -c f -n 4 --vdev='eth_pcap0,iface=eth0'
> testpmd -c f -n 4 --vdev=eth_ring0
> 
> The eth_ prefix should not be used for pdev's.
> 
> Keeping the type field and name field is duplicating  information
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Bernard.

Hi Bernard,

It's duplicating information until such a time as we decide to relax the restriction
on having vdev's starting with "eth" or we want to have a driver for a physical
nic starting with "eth". :-)
Overall, I'm not seeing the need for this particular patchset right now. I think
your previous patchset - removing the need for a pci_dev structure on vdevs - as
being the more important change for cleaning up our code.

Regards,
/Bruce