Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 09/11] device-args: replace use-device eal option by pci-whitelist and vdev

[Olivier MATZ <olivier.matz@6wind.com>]

Hi Bruce,

On 03/03/2014 06:14 PM, Richardson, Bruce wrote:
>> Subject: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 09/11] device-args: replace use-device eal
>> option by pci-whitelist and vdev
>>
> Reviewing the patch set, most of the changes make sense to me. This
> one I've a few comments on.

OK, thank you for your review.

> Is it really necessary and beneficial to split the --use-device option
> into two, and have two different ways for specifying the devices to
> use, based on whether they are pci or virtual devices? An alternative
> suggestion/idea: keep a common flag (be it --use-device, or something
> else) to specify a device to use and that device's parameters, for all
> device types, pretty much as now. Then, to solve the issue of not
> being able to use blacklisting plus virtual devices, that could be
> solved by adding the --pci-whitelist like you suggest, except instead
> of specifying the devices there, it simply means that only the pci
> devices passed to use-device get used. Without --pci-whitelist, all
> pci devices get used, whether or not they are explicitly called out
> with --use-device?

My initial concern was that --use-device has 2 different significations,
depending on the format of arguments:
   - instanciate a virtual driver if it looks like a vdev name
   - add a PCI device to the whitelist if it looks like a pci address
I also find strange that instanciating a virtual device changes the
PCI mode to whitelist, even if it could be fixed by adding a specific
argument for that.

Splitting into two different options looked clearer to me, but this is
of course not a blocking issue for me.

Regards,
Olivier