Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH v2 3/5] librte_ether: add API's for VF management

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon@6wind.com>]

2016-09-15 16:46, Iremonger, Bernard:
> > > > Do we really need to expose VF specific functions here?
> > > > It can be generic(PF/VF) function indexed only through port_id.
> > > > (example: as rte_eth_dev_set_vlan_anti_spoof(uint8_t port_id,
> > > > uint8_t on)) For instance, In Thunderx PMD, We are not exposing a
> > > > separate port_id for PF. We only enumerate 0..N VFs as 0..N ethdev
> > > > port_id
> > >
> > > Our intention with this patch is to control the VF from the PF.
> > >
> > > The following librte_ether functions already work in a similar way:
> > >
> > > rte_eth_dev_set_vf_rxmode(uint8_t port_id,  uint16_t vf, uint16_t
> > > rx_mode, uint8_t on)
> > >
> > > rte_eth_dev_set_vf_rx(uint8_t port_id, uint16_t vf, uint8_t on)
> > >
> > > rte_eth_dev_set_vf_tx(uint8_t port_id, uint16_t vf, uint8_t on)
> > >
> > > int rte_eth_set_vf_rate_limit(uint8_t port_id, uint16_t vf, uint16_t
> > > tx_rate, uint64_t q_msk)
> > 
> > I have a bad feeling with these functions dedicated to VF from PF.
> > Are we sure there is no other way?
> > I mean we just need to know the VF with a port ID.
> 
> When the VF is used in a VM the port ID of the VF is not visible to the PF.
> I don't think there is another way to do this.

I don't understand why we could not assign a port id to the VF from the
host instead of having the couple PF port id / VF id.
Can we enumerate all the VFs associated to a PF?
Then can we allocate them a port id in the array rte_eth_devices?