Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v5 00/14] dpdk: Separate compile time linkage between eal lib and pmd's

[Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com>]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 10:59:25AM -0400, Neil Horman wrote:
> Disconnect compile time linkage between eal library / applications and pmd's
> 
> I noticed that, while tinkering with dpdk, building for shared libraries still
> resulted in all the test applications linking to all the built pmd's, despite
> not actually needing them all.  We are able to tell an application at run time
> (via the -d/--blacklist/--whitelist/--vdev options) which pmd's we want to use,
> and so have no need to link them at all. The only reason they get pulled in is
> because rte_eal_non_pci_init_etherdev and rte_pmd_init_all contain static lists
> to the individual pmd init functions. The result is that, even when building as
> DSO's, we have to load all the pmd libraries, which is space inefficient and
> defeating of some of the purpose of shared objects.
> 
> To correct this, I developed this patch series, which introduces a new macro,
> PMD_REGISTER_DRIVER, which wraps up Oliviers work using constructors on the
> virtual device pmds, then expands on it to include the physical device pmds,
> allowing us to break linkages between dpdk applications and pmd's almost
> entirely (save for the ring and xenvirt drivers, which have additional api's
> outside of the standard dpdk code that we need to further fix).  This also
> allows us to completely remove the rte_pmd_init_all routine, hiding its function
> internally to the rte_eal_init path.
> 
> I've tested this feature using the igb and pcap pmd's, both statically and
> dynamically linked with the test and testpmd sample applications, and it seems
> to work well.
> 
> Note, I encountered  a few bugs along the way, which I fixed and noted in the
> series.
> 
> Regards
> Neil
> 
> Change Notes:
> 
> 1) Reposted the entire series.  Recent changes permeated accross several
> patches, and since a few patches already had multiple versions, I've reposted
> the entire series and bumped the version number to 5, whcih skips a few
> versions, but ensures this series is seen as the most recent.
> 
> 2) Merged the PMD_REGISTER_DRIVER macro into rte_dev.h, which is a better
> location for it.  Required removing include of rte_pmd.h across most of the
> patches in the series.
> 
> 3) Cleaned up various leftover "virtual" comments in the driver registration api
> that no longer belong there after making it generic
> 
> 4) Fixed the LINK_USING_CC check in rte.lib.mk so it works like other uses
> 
> 5) Fixed CPU_LDFLAGS conversion to use -Wl in case we link with gcc.
> 
> 
> 

Ping, so whats the status on the rest of this series?  You said you would
integrate it with 1.7.0, but you've applied several dozen patches ahead of it
(many of which were posted after it), and as a result, it no longer applies.  I
assume you're planning on fixing all of this up?

Neil