Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v2 1/1] pci: default to whitelist mode

["Gaëtan Rivet" <gaetan.rivet@6wind.com>]

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 01:20:00PM +0100, Bruce Richardson wrote:
>On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 02:01:29PM +0200, Gaetan Rivet wrote:
>> Expects all devices to be explicitly defined before being probed.
>>
>> The blacklist mode can be prone to errors, coaxing users in capturing
>> devices that could be used for management or otherwise.
>> The whitelist mode offers users more control and highlight mistakes by
>> making them visible on the command line.
>>
>> This is more useful to have a clear idea of the state of the system used,
>> which is better in the context of standalone / headless applications.
>>
>> Using the -b option will revert to the original behavior.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Gaetan Rivet <gaetan.rivet@6wind.com>
>> ---
>> v2: justify this default behavior evolution.
>> ---
>
>I don't have major objections to this patch, though it does make it
>mandatory to use port parameters where before it was not. The one
>suggestion I will make is that, if we take this approach, we should
>probably add a --wl-all (whitelist-all) flag to go back to having all
>ports automatically bound, if so desired.
>

Are there use cases where the blacklist mode would be used without 
blacklisting any device? The current -b option is almost enough for the 
same level of functionality.

If there is an actual need to a full PCI probe, adding this option is 
certainly possible. I was thinking otherwise of allowing "all" as an 
argument to -w, which would have our users using -wall or -w=all, which 
seems clear enough. This would essentially be the inverse of the 
--no-pci parameter.

Which could probably be removed if this patch is accepted.

-- 
Gaëtan Rivet
6WIND