From: Jay Rolette <rolette@infinite.io>
To: "Wiles, Keith" <keith.wiles@intel.com>
Cc: Yuanhan Liu <yuanhan.liu@linux.intel.com>,
Thomas Monjalon <thomas.monjalon@6wind.com>,
"dev@dpdk.org" <dev@dpdk.org>,
"Richardson, Bruce" <bruce.richardson@intel.com>,
"Tan, Jianfeng" <jianfeng.tan@intel.com>,
Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>,
Christian Ehrhardt <christian.ehrhardt@canonical.com>,
Panu Matilainen <pmatilai@redhat.com>,
Olivier Matz <olivier.matz@6wind.com>
Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC] Yet another option for DPDK options
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2016 10:58:41 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CADNuJVp8oF9f4b6RpY8s3noCpt+hjF3ZZQkdcSjuEjvV7YNS_A@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <C508AAA8-E813-4F2D-A2A4-1E2D5E34BF66@intel.com>
On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 10:00 AM, Wiles, Keith <keith.wiles@intel.com> wrote:
> Started from the link below, but did not want to highjack the thread.
> http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-June/040021.html
>
> I was thinking about this problem from a user perspective and command line
> options are very difficult to manage specifically when you have a large
> number of options as we have in dpdk. I see all of these options as a type
> of database of information for the DPDK and the application, because the
> application command line options are also getting very complex as well.
>
> I have been looking at a number of different options here and the
> direction I was thinking was using a file for the options and
> configurations with the data in a clean format. It could have been a INI
> file or JSON or XML, but they all seem to have some problems I do not like.
> The INI file is too flat and I wanted a hierarchy in the data, the JSON
> data is similar and XML is just hard to read. I wanted to be able to manage
> multiple applications and possible system the DPDK/app runs. The problem
> with the above formats is they are just data and not easy to make decisions
> about the system and applications at runtime.
>
INI format is simplest for users to read, but if you really need hierarchy,
JSON will do that just fine. Not sure what you mean by "JSON data is
similar"...
> If the “database” of information could be queried by the EAL, drivers and
> application then we do not need to try and create a complex command line.
> It would be nice to execute a DPDK applications like this:
>
> ./some_dpdk_app –config-file dpdk-config-filename
>
+1 much nicer than the mess that is EAL command line args today.
> The dpdk-config-filename could contain a lot of information and be able to
> startup multiple different applications. The dpdk-config-file could also
> include other config files to complete the configuration. The format of the
> data in the config file needs to be readable, but allow the user to put in
> new options, needs to be hierarchical in nature and have some simple
> functions to execute if required.
>
> The solution I was thinking is the file information is really just a
> fragment of a scripting language, which the DPDK application contains this
> scripting language interpreter. I was looking at using Lua lua.org as the
> scripting language interpreter it is small and easy to understand. Python
> and others are very big and require a lot of resources and Lua requires
> very few system resources. Also I did not want to have to write a parser
> (lex/yacc). The other nice feature of Lua is you can create a sandbox for
> the code to run in and limit the type of system resources and APIs that can
> be accessed by the application and configuration. Lua can be trimmed down
> to a fairly small size and builds on just about any system or we can just
> install Lua on the system without changes from a rpm or deb.
>
There are JSON and INI file parser libraries for pretty much any language
you care to use. That shouldn't be a factor in choosing file format.
The argument about "Python and others are very big and require a lot of
resources" doesn't end up mattering much since it is already required by a
couple of the DPDK tools (in particular, dpdk_nic_bind.py).
> I use Lua in pktgen at this time and the interface between ‘C’ and Lua is
> very simple and easy. Currently I include Lua in Pktgen, but I could have
> just used a system library.
>
> The data in the config file can be data statements along with some limited
> code to make some data changes at run time without having to modify the
> real application. Here is a simple config file I wrote: Some of the options
> do not make sense to be in the file at the same time, but wanted to see all
> of the options. The mk_lcore_list() and mk_coremap() are just Lua functions
> we can preload to help convert the simple strings into real data in this
> case tables of information. The application could be something like pktgen
> = { map = { … }, more_options = 1, } this allows the same file to possible
> contain many application configurations. Needs a bit more work.
>
> dpdk_default = {
>
<snip>
> }
>
> The EAL, driver, application, … would query an API to access the data and
> the application can change his options quickly without modifying the code.
>
> Anyway comments are welcome.
>
> Regards,
> Keith
>
I like the concept overall. I'd suggest separating out the Lua thing. Lua's
fine for scripting, but nothing here really requires it or saves a lot of
development work.
Jay
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-06-01 15:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 49+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-06-01 15:00 Wiles, Keith
2016-06-01 15:46 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-01 16:08 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-01 15:58 ` Jay Rolette [this message]
2016-06-01 16:18 ` Bruce Richardson
2016-06-01 16:21 ` Arnon Warshavsky
2016-06-01 18:13 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-01 18:31 ` Stephen Hemminger
2016-06-03 10:07 ` Yerden Zhumabekov
2016-06-01 18:51 ` Thomas Monjalon
2016-06-02 9:19 ` Marc
2016-06-02 7:56 ` Yuanhan Liu
2016-06-02 10:41 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-02 13:19 ` Thomas Monjalon
2016-06-02 13:53 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-02 17:11 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-02 19:33 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-02 19:41 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-02 20:08 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-02 20:53 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-02 22:34 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 2:17 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-03 9:57 ` Bruce Richardson
2016-06-03 10:06 ` Bruce Richardson
2016-06-03 12:03 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 10:29 ` Bruce Richardson
2016-06-03 11:01 ` Bruce Richardson
2016-06-03 11:50 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 12:01 ` Arnon Warshavsky
2016-06-03 12:53 ` Panu Matilainen
2016-06-03 14:31 ` Arnon Warshavsky
2016-06-03 16:04 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 16:10 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 17:44 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 18:29 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 18:38 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 18:52 ` Arnon Warshavsky
2016-06-03 19:00 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 19:07 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 19:18 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 19:23 ` Wiles, Keith
2016-06-03 19:28 ` Arnon Warshavsky
2016-06-03 21:42 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-03 21:41 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-05 0:19 ` Neil Horman
2016-06-03 21:40 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-03 21:38 ` Matthew Hall
2016-06-03 12:14 ` Panu Matilainen
2016-06-02 20:51 ` Matthew Hall
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