xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/linux_gsg/linux_eal_parameters.rst (revision 0dff3f26d6faad4e51f75e5245f0387ee9bb0c6d)

..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
    Copyright(c) 2018 Intel Corporation.

EAL parameters
==============

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

Common EAL parameters
---------------------

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

.. include:: eal_args.include.rst

Linux-specific EAL parameters
-----------------------------

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

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.

*   ``--vfio-vf-token <uuid>``

    Use specified VF token for devices bound to VFIO kernel driver.

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.

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. This can be
    a sub-directory within a hugetlbfs mountpoint.

*   ``--huge-unlink[=existing|always|never]``

    No ``--huge-unlink`` option or ``--huge-unlink=existing`` is the default:
    existing hugepage files are removed and re-created
    to ensure the kernel clears the memory and prevents any data leaks.

    With ``--huge-unlink`` (no value) or ``--huge-unlink=always``,
    hugepage files are also removed before mapping them,
    so that the application leaves no files in hugetlbfs.
    This mode implies no multi-process support.

    When ``--huge-unlink=never`` is specified, existing hugepage files
    are never removed, but are remapped instead, allowing hugepage reuse.
    This makes restart faster by saving time to clear memory at initialization,
    but it may slow down zeroed allocations later.
    Reused hugepages can contain data from previous processes that used them,
    which may be a security concern.
    Hugepage files created in this mode are also not removed
    when all the hugepages mapped from them are freed,
    which allows to reuse these files after a restart.

*   ``--match-allocations``

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

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