3. Running the Application

3.1. EAL Command-line Options

Please refer to EAL parameters (Linux) or EAL parameters (FreeBSD) for a list of available EAL command-line options.

3.2. Testpmd Command-line Options

The following are the command-line options for the testpmd applications. They must be separated from the EAL options, shown in the previous section, with a -- separator:

sudo ./dpdk-testpmd -l 0-3 -n 4 -- -i --portmask=0x1 --nb-cores=2

The command line options are:

-i, --interactive

Run testpmd in interactive mode. In this mode, the testpmd starts with a prompt that can be used to start and stop forwarding, configure the application and display stats on the current packet processing session. See Testpmd Runtime Functions for more details.

In non-interactive mode, the application starts with the configuration specified on the command-line and immediately enters forwarding mode.
-h, --help

Display a help message and quit.
-a, --auto-start

Start forwarding on initialization.
--tx-first

Start forwarding, after sending a burst of packets first.

Note

This flag should be only used in non-interactive mode.

--stats-period PERIOD

Display statistics every PERIOD seconds, if interactive mode is disabled. The default value is 0, which means that the statistics will not be displayed.
--nb-cores=N

Set the number of forwarding cores, where 1 <= N <= “number of cores” or RTE_MAX_LCORE from the configuration file. The default value is 1.
--nb-ports=N

Set the number of forwarding ports, where 1 <= N <= “number of ports” on the board or RTE_MAX_ETHPORTS from the configuration file. The default value is the number of ports on the board.
--coremask=0xXX

Set the hexadecimal bitmask of the cores running the packet forwarding test. The main lcore is reserved for command line parsing only and cannot be masked on for packet forwarding.
--portmask=0xXX

Set the hexadecimal bitmask of the ports used by the packet forwarding test.
--portlist=X

Set the forwarding ports based on the user input used by the packet forwarding test. ‘-‘ denotes a range of ports to set including the two specified port IDs ‘,’ separates multiple port values. Possible examples like –portlist=0,1 or –portlist=0-2 or –portlist=0,1-2 etc
--numa

Enable NUMA-aware allocation of RX/TX rings and of RX memory buffers (mbufs). [Default setting]
--no-numa

Disable NUMA-aware allocation of RX/TX rings and of RX memory buffers (mbufs).
--port-numa-config=(port,socket)[,(port,socket)]

Specify the socket on which the memory pool to be used by the port will be allocated.
--ring-numa-config=(port,flag,socket)[,(port,flag,socket)]

Specify the socket on which the TX/RX rings for the port will be allocated. Where flag is 1 for RX, 2 for TX, and 3 for RX and TX.
--socket-num=N

Set the socket from which all memory is allocated in NUMA mode, where 0 <= N < number of sockets on the board.
--mbuf-size=N[,N1[,...Nn]

Set the data size of the mbufs used to N bytes, where N < 65536. The default value is 2048. If multiple mbuf-size values are specified the extra memory pools will be created for allocating mbufs to receive packets with buffer splittling features.
--total-num-mbufs=N

Set the number of mbufs to be allocated in the mbuf pools, where N > 1024.
--max-pkt-len=N

Set the maximum packet size to N bytes, where N >= 64. The default value is 1518.
--max-lro-pkt-size=N

Set the maximum LRO aggregated packet size to N bytes, where N >= 64.
--eth-peers-configfile=name

Use a configuration file containing the Ethernet addresses of the peer ports. The configuration file should contain the Ethernet addresses on separate lines:
```
XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:01
XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:02
...
```
--eth-peer=N,XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Set the MAC address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX of the peer port N, where 0 <= N < RTE_MAX_ETHPORTS.
--tx-ip=SRC,DST

Set the source and destination IP address used when doing transmit only test. The defaults address values are source 198.18.0.1 and destination 198.18.0.2. These are special purpose addresses reserved for benchmarking (RFC 5735).
--tx-udp=SRC[,DST]

Set the source and destination UDP port number for transmit test only test. The default port is the port 9 which is defined for the discard protocol (RFC 863).
--pkt-filter-mode=mode

Set Flow Director mode where mode is either none (the default), signature or perfect. See flow_director_mask for more details.
--pkt-filter-report-hash=mode

Set Flow Director hash match reporting mode where mode is none, match (the default) or always.
--pkt-filter-size=N

Set Flow Director allocated memory size, where N is 64K, 128K or 256K. Sizes are in kilobytes. The default is 64.
--pkt-filter-flexbytes-offset=N

Set the flexbytes offset. The offset is defined in words (not bytes) counted from the first byte of the destination Ethernet MAC address, where N is 0 <= N <= 32. The default value is 0x6.
--pkt-filter-drop-queue=N

Set the drop-queue. In perfect filter mode, when a rule is added with queue = -1, the packet will be enqueued into the RX drop-queue. If the drop-queue does not exist, the packet is dropped. The default value is N=127.
--disable-crc-strip

Disable hardware CRC stripping.
--enable-lro

Enable large receive offload.
--enable-rx-cksum

Enable hardware RX checksum offload.
--enable-scatter

Enable scatter (multi-segment) RX.
--enable-hw-vlan

Enable hardware VLAN.
--enable-hw-vlan-filter

Enable hardware VLAN filter.
--enable-hw-vlan-strip

Enable hardware VLAN strip.
--enable-hw-vlan-extend

Enable hardware VLAN extend.
--enable-hw-qinq-strip

Enable hardware QINQ strip.
--enable-drop-en

Enable per-queue packet drop for packets with no descriptors.
--disable-rss

Disable RSS (Receive Side Scaling).
--port-topology=mode

Set port topology, where mode is paired (the default), chained or loop.

In paired mode, the forwarding is between pairs of ports, for example: (0,1), (2,3), (4,5).

In chained mode, the forwarding is to the next available port in the port mask, for example: (0,1), (1,2), (2,0).

The ordering of the ports can be changed using the portlist testpmd runtime function.

In loop mode, ingress traffic is simply transmitted back on the same interface.

--forward-mode=mode

Set the forwarding mode where mode is one of the following:

io (the default)
mac
macswap
flowgen
rxonly
txonly
csum
icmpecho
ieee1588
tm
noisy
5tswap

--rss-ip

Set RSS functions for IPv4/IPv6 only.
--rss-udp

Set RSS functions for IPv4/IPv6 and UDP.
--rxq=N

Set the number of RX queues per port to N, where 1 <= N <= 65535. The default value is 1.
--rxd=N

Set the number of descriptors in the RX rings to N, where N > 0. The default value is 128.
--txq=N

Set the number of TX queues per port to N, where 1 <= N <= 65535. The default value is 1.
--txd=N

Set the number of descriptors in the TX rings to N, where N > 0. The default value is 512.
--hairpinq=N

Set the number of hairpin queues per port to N, where 1 <= N <= 65535. The default value is 0. The number of hairpin queues are added to the number of TX queues and to the number of RX queues. then the first RX hairpin is binded to the first TX hairpin, the second RX hairpin is binded to the second TX hairpin and so on. The index of the first RX hairpin queue is the number of RX queues as configured using –rxq. The index of the first TX hairpin queue is the number of TX queues as configured using –txq.
--burst=N

Set the number of packets per burst to N, where 1 <= N <= 512. The default value is 32. If set to 0, driver default is used if defined. Else, if driver default is not defined, default of 32 is used.
--flowgen-clones=N

Set the number of each packet clones to be sent in flowgen mode. Sending clones reduces host CPU load on creating packets and may help in testing extreme speeds or maxing out Tx packet performance. N should be not zero, but less than ‘burst’ parameter.
--mbcache=N

Set the cache of mbuf memory pools to N, where 0 <= N <= 512. The default value is 16.
--rxpt=N

Set the prefetch threshold register of RX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 8.
--rxht=N

Set the host threshold register of RX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 8.
--rxfreet=N

Set the free threshold of RX descriptors to N, where 0 <= N < value of –rxd. The default value is 0.
--rxwt=N

Set the write-back threshold register of RX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 4.
--txpt=N

Set the prefetch threshold register of TX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 36.
--txht=N

Set the host threshold register of TX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 0.
--txwt=N

Set the write-back threshold register of TX rings to N, where N >= 0. The default value is 0.
--txfreet=N

Set the transmit free threshold of TX rings to N, where 0 <= N <= value of --txd. The default value is 0.
--txrst=N

Set the transmit RS bit threshold of TX rings to N, where 0 <= N <= value of --txd. The default value is 0.
--no-flush-rx

Don’t flush the RX streams before starting forwarding. Used mainly with the PCAP PMD.
--rxoffs=X[,Y]

Set the offsets of packet segments on receiving if split feature is engaged. Affects only the queues configured with split offloads (currently BUFFER_SPLIT is supported only).
--rxpkts=X[,Y]

Set the length of segments to scatter packets on receiving if split feature is engaged. Affects only the queues configured with split offloads (currently BUFFER_SPLIT is supported only). Optionally the multiple memory pools can be specified with –mbuf-size command line parameter and the mbufs to receive will be allocated sequentially from these extra memory pools.
--txpkts=X[,Y]

Set TX segment sizes or total packet length. Valid for tx-only and flowgen forwarding modes.
--txonly-multi-flow

Generate multiple flows in txonly mode.

--eth-link-speed

Set a forced link speed to the ethernet port:

- 10Mbps (not supported)
- 100Mbps (not supported)
- 1Gbps
- 10Gbps
- 25Gbps
- 40Gbps
- 50Gbps
100000 - 100Gbps
200000 - 200Gbps
...

--disable-link-check

Disable check on link status when starting/stopping ports.
--disable-device-start

Do not automatically start all ports. This allows testing configuration of rx and tx queues before device is started for the first time.
--no-lsc-interrupt

Disable LSC interrupts for all ports, even those supporting it.
--no-rmv-interrupt

Disable RMV interrupts for all ports, even those supporting it.
--bitrate-stats=N

Set the logical core N to perform bitrate calculation.
--print-event <unknown|intr_lsc|queue_state|intr_reset|vf_mbox|macsec|intr_rmv|dev_probed|dev_released|flow_aged|all>

Enable printing the occurrence of the designated event. Using all will enable all of them.
--mask-event <unknown|intr_lsc|queue_state|intr_reset|vf_mbox|macsec|intr_rmv|dev_probed|dev_released|flow_aged|all>

Disable printing the occurrence of the designated event. Using all will disable all of them.
--flow-isolate-all

Providing this parameter requests flow API isolated mode on all ports at initialization time. It ensures all traffic is received through the configured flow rules only (see flow command).

Ports that do not support this mode are automatically discarded.
--tx-offloads=0xXXXXXXXX

Set the hexadecimal bitmask of TX queue offloads. The default value is 0.
--rx-offloads=0xXXXXXXXX

Set the hexadecimal bitmask of RX queue offloads. The default value is 0.
--hot-plug

Enable device event monitor mechanism for hotplug.
--vxlan-gpe-port=N

Set the UDP port number of tunnel VXLAN-GPE to N. The default value is 4790.
--geneve-parsed-port=N

Set the UDP port number that is used for parsing the GENEVE protocol to N. HW may be configured with another tunnel Geneve port. The default value is 6081.
--mlockall

Enable locking all memory.
--no-mlockall

Disable locking all memory.
--mp-alloc <native|anon|xmem|xmemhuge>

Select mempool allocation mode:
- native: create and populate mempool using native DPDK memory
- anon: create mempool using native DPDK memory, but populate using anonymous memory
- xmem: create and populate mempool using externally and anonymously allocated area
- xmemhuge: create and populate mempool using externally and anonymously allocated hugepage area
--noisy-tx-sw-buffer-size

Set the number of maximum elements of the FIFO queue to be created for buffering packets. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--noisy-tx-sw-buffer-flushtime=N

Set the time before packets in the FIFO queue is flushed. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--noisy-lkup-memory=N

Set the size of the noisy neighbor simulation memory buffer in MB to N. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--noisy-lkup-num-reads=N

Set the number of reads to be done in noisy neighbor simulation memory buffer to N. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--noisy-lkup-num-writes=N

Set the number of writes to be done in noisy neighbor simulation memory buffer to N. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--noisy-lkup-num-reads-writes=N

Set the number of r/w accesses to be done in noisy neighbor simulation memory buffer to N. Only available with the noisy forwarding mode. The default value is 0.
--no-iova-contig

Enable to create mempool which is not IOVA contiguous. Valid only with –mp-alloc=anon. The default value is 0.
--rx-mq-mode

Set the hexadecimal bitmask of RX multi queue mode which can be enabled. The default value is 0x7:
```
ETH_MQ_RX_RSS_FLAG | ETH_MQ_RX_DCB_FLAG | ETH_MQ_RX_VMDQ_FLAG
```
--record-core-cycles

Enable measurement of CPU cycles per packet.
--record-burst-stats

Enable display of RX and TX burst stats.
--hairpin-mode=0xXX

Set the hairpin port mode with bitmask, only valid when hairpin queues number is set:
```
bit 4 - explicit Tx flow rule
bit 1 - two hairpin ports paired
bit 0 - two hairpin ports loop
```
The default value is 0. Hairpin will use single port mode and implicit Tx flow mode.