Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v2 1/4] ethdev: allow negative values in flow rule types

[Gregory Etelson <getelson@nvidia.com>]

Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v2 1/4] ethdev: allow negative values in flow rule types
On 9/15/20 7:36 AM, Ajit Khaparde wrote:
On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 1:16 PM Gregory Etelson <getelson@nvidia.com<mailto:getelson@nvidia.com>> wrote:
From: Gregory Etelson <getelson@mellanox.com<mailto:getelson@mellanox.com>>

RTE flow items & actions use positive values in item & action type.
Negative values are reserved for PMD private types. PMD
items & actions usually are not exposed to application and are not
used to create RTE flows.

The patch allows applications with access to PMD flow
items & actions ability to integrate RTE and PMD items & actions
and use them to create flow rule.
While we are reviewing this, some quick comment/questions..

Doesn't this go against the above "PMD
items & actions usually are not exposed to application and are not
used to create RTE flows."?
Why would an application try to use PMD specific private types?
Isn't this contrary to having a standard API?

+1
PMD items and actions obtained in that patch are not intended to be used by application.
In general, application is not aware about content it receives from PMD. This is a special case when application
receives opaque element from PMD and passes it back.