From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mga09.intel.com (mga09.intel.com [134.134.136.24]) by dpdk.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6AC7D68F2 for ; Sun, 28 Feb 2016 21:16:34 +0100 (CET) Received: from fmsmga002.fm.intel.com ([10.253.24.26]) by orsmga102.jf.intel.com with ESMTP; 28 Feb 2016 12:16:33 -0800 X-ExtLoop1: 1 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.22,517,1449561600"; d="scan'208";a="925702904" Received: from jkollber-mobl1.ger.corp.intel.com (HELO [10.252.13.61]) ([10.252.13.61]) by fmsmga002.fm.intel.com with ESMTP; 28 Feb 2016 12:16:32 -0800 To: Avi Kivity , dev@dpdk.org References: <1453911849-16562-1-git-send-email-ferruh.yigit@intel.com> <1453911849-16562-2-git-send-email-ferruh.yigit@intel.com> <56D3137D.1090106@scylladb.com> From: Ferruh Yigit X-Enigmail-Draft-Status: N1110 Message-ID: <56D3559F.2000100@intel.com> Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 20:16:31 +0000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.5.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <56D3137D.1090106@scylladb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 1/3] kcp: add kernel control path kernel module X-BeenThere: dev@dpdk.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: patches and discussions about DPDK List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 20:16:34 -0000 On 2/28/2016 3:34 PM, Avi Kivity wrote: > On 01/27/2016 06:24 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote: >> This kernel module is based on KNI module, but this one is stripped >> version of it and only for control messages, no data transfer >> functionality provided. >> >> This Linux kernel module helps userspace application create virtual >> interfaces and when a control command issued into that virtual >> interface, module pushes the command to the userspace and gets the >> response back for the caller application. >> >> The Linux tools like ethtool/ifconfig/ip can be used on virtual >> interfaces but not ones for related data, like tcpdump. >> >> In long term this patch intends to replace the KNI and KNI will be >> depreciated. > > Instead of adding yet another out-of-tree kernel module, why not extend > the existing in-tree tap driver? This will make everyone's life easier. > > Since tap also supports data transfer, an application can also forward > packets not intended to it to the kernel, and forward packets from the > kernel through the device. > Hi Avi, KDP (Kernel Data Path) does what you have described, it is implemented as PMD and it benefits from tap driver to data transfer through the kernel. It also support custom kernel module for better performance. For KCP (Kernel Control Path), network driver forwards control commands to the userspace driver, I doubt this is something wanted for tun/tap driver, so extending tun/tap driver like this can be hard to upstream. We are investigating about adding a native support to Linux kernel for KCP, but there is no task started for this right now, any support is welcome. Thanks, ferruh