Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v4] doc: add new tables for rte flow items and actions support

[Asaf Penso <asafp@nvidia.com>]

Hello Ferruh, thanks for the reply and please see my below comments.

Regards,
Asaf Penso

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@intel.com>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 3:14 PM
>To: Asaf Penso <asafp@nvidia.com>; dev@dpdk.org
>Cc: NBU-Contact-Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>; Andrew
>Rybchenko <arybchenko@solarflare.com>
>Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v4] doc: add new tables for rte flow items and
>actions support
>
>On 2/7/2021 10:52 AM, Asaf Penso wrote:
>> In http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/overview.html, table 1.1 lists all
>> supported features.
>> It has a single line for "Flow API" that refers to rte_flow support.
>> rte_flow is composed of many items and actions that are not expressed
>> in this single line.
>>
>> The following new tables are suggested:
>> 1. rte_flow items
>> 2. rte_flow actions
>>
>
>Hi Asaf,
>
>I understand the intention, but I am not sure about this.
>
>The Flow API does not provide a capability or feature list in the API level, by
>design, because it is very hard to do it correct, but this patch tries to do it in the
>documentation level.
>
>This will be missing lots of details, the flow items and actions documented as
>supported may and may not be supported based on the details.
>

Which missing details are you referring to? All flow items and all actions are listed.

>It will be very hard to read this table (when it becomes full), also will be very hard
>to maintain.

As part of any documentation change in rte_flow the developer would also need to update this table.
Why would it be very hard to maintain?
>
>
>Let me start with a question, who do you think will be your consumer?
>Who will benefit from this table and how?

We get a lot of questions from users regarding rte_flow support and we do not have a single place with proper documentation.
I can ask the same about the overall feature table, right? There is a value to document the support.

>
>
>> Also, since each table needs a new section in the pmd ini
>> file that might not be relevant for all pmds, the print
>> error message for missing section in conf.py is removed.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Asaf Penso <asafp@nvidia.com>
>
><...>