7. EAL parameters

This document contains a list of all EAL parameters. These parameters can be used by any DPDK application running on Linux.

7.1. Common EAL parameters

The following EAL parameters are common to all platforms supported by DPDK.

7.1.5. Debugging options

  • --no-shconf

    No shared files created (implies no secondary process support).

  • --no-huge

    Use anonymous memory instead of hugepages (implies no secondary process support).

  • --log-level <type:val>

    Specify log level for a specific component. For example:

    --log-level eal:8
    

    Can be specified multiple times.

7.1.6. Other options

  • -h, --help

    Display help message listing all EAL parameters.

  • -v

    Display the version information on startup.

  • mbuf-pool-ops-name:

    Pool ops name for mbuf to use.

7.2. Linux-specific EAL parameters

In addition to common EAL parameters, there are also Linux-specific EAL parameters.

7.2.1. Device-related options

  • --create-uio-dev

    Create /dev/uioX files for devices bound to igb_uio kernel driver (usually done by the igb_uio driver itself).

  • --vmware-tsc-map

    Use VMware TSC map instead of native RDTSC.

  • --no-hpet

    Do not use the HPET timer.

  • --vfio-intr <legacy|msi|msix>

    Use specified interrupt mode for devices bound to VFIO kernel driver.

7.2.2. Multiprocessing-related options

  • --file-prefix <prefix name>

    Use a different shared data file prefix for a DPDK process. This option allows running multiple independent DPDK primary/secondary processes under different prefixes.

  • --base-virtaddr <address>

    Attempt to use a different starting address for all memory maps of the primary DPDK process. This can be helpful if secondary processes cannot start due to conflicts in address map.

7.2.3. Memory-related options

  • --legacy-mem

    Use legacy DPDK memory allocation mode.

  • --socket-mem <amounts of memory per socket>

    Preallocate specified amounts of memory per socket. The parameter is a comma-separated list of values. For example:

    --socket-mem 1024,2048
    

    This will allocate 1 gigabyte of memory on socket 0, and 2048 megabytes of memory on socket 1.

  • --socket-limit <amounts of memory per socket>

    Place a per-socket upper limit on memory use (non-legacy memory mode only). 0 will disable the limit for a particular socket.

  • --single-file-segments

    Create fewer files in hugetlbfs (non-legacy mode only).

  • --huge-dir <path to hugetlbfs directory>

    Use specified hugetlbfs directory instead of autodetected ones.

  • --huge-unlink

    Unlink hugepage files after creating them (implies no secondary process support).

  • --match-allocations

    Free hugepages back to system exactly as they were originally allocated.

7.2.4. Other options

  • --syslog <syslog facility>

    Set syslog facility. Valid syslog facilities are:

    auth
    cron
    daemon
    ftp
    kern
    lpr
    mail
    news
    syslog
    user
    uucp
    local0
    local1
    local2
    local3
    local4
    local5
    local6
    local7