Re: [dpdk-dev] RFC: hiding struct rte_eth_dev

["Ananyev, Konstantin" <konstantin.ananyev@intel.com>]

Hi everyone,

> >
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > The ABI Stability proposals should be pretty well known at this point.
> > The latest rev is here ...
> >
> > http://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/1565864619-17206-1-git-send-email-mdr@ashroe.eu/
> >
> > As has been discussed public data structure's are risky for ABI
> > stability, as any changes to a data structure can change the ABI. As a
> > general rule you want to expose as few as possible (ideally none), and
> > keep them as small as possible.
> >
> > One of the key data structures in DPDK is `struct rte_eth_dev`. In this
> > case, rte_eth_dev is exposed public-ally, as a side-effect of the
> > inlining of the [rx,tx]_burst functions.
> >
> > Marcin Zapolski has been looking at what to do about it, with no current
> > consensus on a path forward. The options on our table is:-
> >
> > 1. Do nothing, live with the risk to DPDK v20 ABI stability.
> >
> > 2. Pad rte_eth_dev, add some extra bytes to the structure "in case" we
> > need to add a field during the v20 ABI (through to 20.11).
> >
> > 3. Break rte_eth_dev into public and private structs.
> >   - See
> > http://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/20190906131813.1343-1-marcinx.a.zapolski@intel.com/
> >   - This ends up quiet an invasive patch, late in the cycle, however it
> > does have no performance penalty.
> >
> > 4. Uninline [rx,tx]_burst functions
> >  -  See
> > http://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/20190730124950.1293-1-marcinx.a.zapolski@intel.com/
> >  - This has a performance penalty of ~2% with testpmd, impact on a "real
> > workload" is likely to be in the noise.
> >
> > We need to agree an approach for v19.11, and that may be we agree to do
> > nothing. My personal vote is 4. as the simplest with minimal impact.
> 
> My preference NOT to do #4. Reasons are:
> - I have seen performance drop from 1.5% to 3.5% based on the arm64
> cores in use(Embedded vs Server cores)
> -  We need the correct approach to cater to cryptodev and eventdev as
> well. If #4 is checked in, We will
> take shotcut for cryptodev and eventdev
> 
> My preference  #1, do nothing, is probably ok and could live with #2,
> adding padding,
> and fix properly with #3 as when needed and use #3 scheme for crypto
> dev and eventdev as well.
> 
> 

My preference would be #4 also.
If that's not an option, then I suppose #1 for 19.11 and #3 for next release
when ABI breakage would be allowed.
BTW, good point that we need similar thing for other dev types too.
Konstantin