17. ABI and API Deprecation

See the guidelines document for details of the ABI policy. API and ABI deprecation notices are to be posted here.

17.1. Deprecation Notices

  • linux: Linux kernel version 3.2 (which is the current minimum required version for the DPDK) is not maintained anymore. Therefore the planned minimum required kernel version for DPDK 19.02 will be the next oldest Long Term Stable (LTS) version which is 3.16, but compatibility for recent distribution kernels will be kept.
  • kvargs: The function rte_kvargs_process will get a new parameter for returning key match count. It will ease handling of no-match case.
  • eal: function rte_bsf64 in rte_bitmap.h has been renamed to rte_bsf64_safe and moved to rte_common.h. A new rte_bsf64 function will be added in the next release in rte_common.h that follows convention set by existing rte_bsf32 function.
  • eal: both declaring and identifying devices will be streamlined in v18.11. New functions will appear to query a specific port from buses, classes of device and device drivers. Device declaration will be made coherent with the new scheme of device identification. As such, rte_devargs device representation will change.
    • The enum rte_devtype was used to identify a bus and will disappear.
    • Functions previously deprecated will change or disappear:
      • rte_eal_devargs_type_count
  • pci: Several exposed functions are misnamed. The following functions are deprecated starting from v17.11 and are replaced:
    • eal_parse_pci_BDF replaced by rte_pci_addr_parse
    • eal_parse_pci_DomBDF replaced by rte_pci_addr_parse
    • rte_eal_compare_pci_addr replaced by rte_pci_addr_cmp
  • dpaa2: removal of rte_dpaa2_memsegs structure which has been replaced by a pa-va search library. This structure was earlier being used for holding memory segments used by dpaa2 driver for faster pa->va translation. This structure would be made internal (or removed if all dependencies are cleared) in future releases.
  • mbuf: The opaque mbuf->hash.sched field will be updated to support generic definition in line with the ethdev TM and MTR APIs. Currently, this field is defined in librte_sched in a non-generic way. The new generic format will contain: queue ID, traffic class, color. Field size will not change.
  • sched: Some API functions will change prototype due to the above deprecation note for mbuf->hash.sched, e.g. rte_sched_port_pkt_write() and rte_sched_port_pkt_read() will likely have an additional parameter of type struct rte_sched_port.
  • mbuf: the macro RTE_MBUF_INDIRECT() will be removed in v18.08 or later and replaced with RTE_MBUF_CLONED() which is already added in v18.05. As EXT_ATTACHED_MBUF is newly introduced in v18.05, RTE_MBUF_INDIRECT() can no longer be mutually exclusive with RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() if the new experimental API rte_pktmbuf_attach_extbuf() is used. Removal of the macro is to fix this semantic inconsistency.
  • ethdev: the legacy filter API, including rte_eth_dev_filter_supported(), rte_eth_dev_filter_ctrl() as well as filter types MACVLAN, ETHERTYPE, FLEXIBLE, SYN, NTUPLE, TUNNEL, FDIR, HASH and L2_TUNNEL, is superseded by the generic flow API (rte_flow) in PMDs that implement the latter. Target release for removal of the legacy API will be defined once most PMDs have switched to rte_flow.
  • ethdev: Maximum and minimum MTU values vary between hardware devices. In hardware agnostic DPDK applications access to such information would allow a more accurate way of validating and setting supported MTU values on a per device basis rather than using a defined default for all devices. To resolve this, the following members will be added to rte_eth_dev_info. Note: these can be added to fit a hole in the existing structure for amd64 but not for 32-bit, as such ABI change will occur as size of the structure will increase.
    • Member uint16_t min_mtu the minimum MTU allowed.
    • Member uint16_t max_mtu the maximum MTU allowed.
  • security: New field uint64_t opaque_data is planned to be added into rte_security_session structure. That would allow upper layer to easily associate/de-associate some user defined data with the security session.
  • cryptodev: several API and ABI changes are planned for rte_cryptodev in v19.02:
    • The size and layout of rte_cryptodev_sym_session will change to fix existing issues.
    • The size and layout of rte_cryptodev_qp_conf and syntax of rte_cryptodev_queue_pair_setup will change to to allow to use two different mempools for crypto and device private sessions.
  • pdump: As we changed to use generic IPC, some changes in APIs and structure are expected in subsequent release.
    • rte_pdump_set_socket_dir will be removed;
    • The parameter, path, of rte_pdump_init will be removed;
    • The enum rte_pdump_socktype will be removed.