Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v2 0/2] ethdev: add support for raw flow type for flow director

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>]

04/10/2017 21:47, Ferruh Yigit:
> On 10/4/2017 6:56 PM, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > 04/10/2017 19:44, Ferruh Yigit:
> >> On 10/4/2017 5:57 PM, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> >>> 03/10/2017 21:02, Ferruh Yigit:
> >>>> On 9/20/2017 9:42 AM, Kirill Rybalchenko wrote:
> >>>>> For complex packets use raw flow type with pre-constructed packet buffer
> >>>>> instead of creating a packet internally in PMD.
> >>>
> >>> Sorry for not catching this series before.
> >>>
> >>> As it has been said several times on this mailing list,
> >>> the flow director API is deprecated.
> >>> I think everybody here knows that it is going to be replaced
> >>> by rte_flow.
> >>>
> >>> That's why it does not make sense to extend flow director.
> >>> We are not going to update PMDs to support a new type
> >>> of legacy flow director.
> >>> Please focus your efforts on rte_flow.
> >>
> >> As far as I can see this is not to to extend flow director. But driver
> >> uses this struct and adding a new feature into driver requires update in
> >> this struct.
> >>
> >> I guess idea was for new filter functionalities PMD should use rte_flow,
> >> that is the new shiny method we have, I see the point here. But I don't
> >> see the point of making these structs under use completely immutable.
> > 
> > I don't know what is RTE_ETH_FLOW_RAW.
> > Let's start by explaining it, how it is used by users,
> > and why this struct is needed.
> 
> Let me answer as much as I get from patches, if something is missing or
> wrong Kirill needs to correct it.
> 
> Driver (i40e) works with static pre-defined flow and pctypes. But new
> feature DDP lets loading custom profiles and work with custom and
> perhaps not yet defined flow and pctypes. So there are a few other
> patches to make driver more dynamic.
> 
> For this case I40E_VALID_FLOW() fails with custom flow types, and
> RTE_ETH_FLOW_RAW used as kind of (void *) to be able to work with new
> dynamic types.

So the application could use a new flow type?
If an application has to be modified for this, it can use rte_flow.
Again, no new feature in legacy flow director.