13. dpdk-test-regex Tool

The dpdk-test-regex tool is a Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) application that allows functional testing and performance measurement for the RegEx PMDs.

It is based on precompiled rule file, and an input file, both of them can be selected using command-line options.

In general case, each PMD has its own rule file.

By default the test supports one QP per core, however a higher number of cores and QPs can be configured. The QPs are evenly distributed on the cores. All QPs are assigned the same number of segments of input file to parse. Given n QPs (per core) - the enqueue/dequeue RegEx operations are interleaved as follows:

enqueue(QP #1)
enqueue(QP #2)
...
enqueue(QP #n)
dequeue(QP #1)
dequeue(QP #2)
...
dequeue(QP #n)

The test outputs the following data per QP and core:

• Performance, in gigabit per second.
• Matching results (rule id, position, length), for each job.
• Matching results in absolute location (rule id, position , length), relative to the start of the input data.

13.1. Limitations

• Supports only precompiled rules.

13.2. Application Options

--rules NAME

precompiled rule file

--data NAME

data file to use

--nb_jobs N

number of jobs to use

--nb_qps N

number of QPs to use

--nb_lcores N

number of cores to use

--perf N

only outputs the performance data

--nb_iter N

number of iteration to run

--nb_segs N

number of mbuf segment

--match_mode N

match mode: 0 - None (default), 1 - Highest Priority, 2 - Stop on Any

--help

print application options

13.2.1. Running the Tool

Step 1: Compile a rule file

In order for the RegEx to work it must have a precompiled rule file. to generate this file there is a need to use a RegEx compiler that matches the RegEx PMD.

Step 2: Generate a data file

The data file, will be used as a source data for the RegEx to work on.

Step 3: Run the tool

The tool has a number of command line options. Here is the sample command line:

./dpdk-test-regex -a 83:00.0 -- --rules rule_file.rof2 --data data_file.txt --job 100 \
  --nb_qps 4 --nb_lcores 2