Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v3 1/1] ethdev: introduce indirect action APIs

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>]

15/04/2021 19:59, Ajit Khaparde:
> On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 8:52 AM Bing Zhao <bingz@nvidia.com> wrote:
> > There are two types of flow actions:
> > 1. the direct (normal) actions that could be created and stored
> >    within a flow rule. Such action is tied to its flow rule and
> >    cannot be reused.
> > 2. the indirect action, in the past, named shared_action. It is
> >    created from a direct actioni, like count or rss, and then used
> >    in the flow rules with an object handle. The PMD will take care
> >    of the retrieve from indirect action to the direct action
> >    when it is referenced.
[...]
> > The RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_SHARED is kept for now in order not to
> > break the ABI. All the implementations are changed by using
> > RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_INDIRECT.
> 
> When I read this somehow indirect did not feel right.
> But I don't have a strong suggestion either.
> Since it is a context of action or actions maybe we use action_context?

This is an action which is not directly described in the flow rule,
but in another object referenced by its handle.
It creates a level of indirection in the rule description.
I think the word "indirect" is accurate.