xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/prog_guide/regexdev.rst (revision 41dd9a6bc2d9c6e20e139ad713cc9d172572dd43)
1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2   Copyright 2020 Mellanox Technologies, Ltd
3
4Regular Expression (RegEx) Device Library
5=========================================
6
7The RegEx library provides a RegEx device framework for management and
8provisioning of hardware and software RegEx poll mode drivers, defining generic
9APIs which support a number of different RegEx operations.
10
11
12Design Principles
13-----------------
14
15The RegEx library follows the same basic principles as those used in DPDK's
16Ethernet Device framework and the Crypto framework. The RegEx framework provides
17a generic Crypto device framework which supports both physical (hardware)
18and virtual (software) RegEx devices as well as a generic RegEx API which allows
19RegEx devices to be managed and configured and supports RegEx operations to be
20provisioned on RegEx poll mode driver.
21
22
23Device Management
24-----------------
25
26Device Creation
27~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
28
29Physical RegEx devices are discovered during the PCI probe/enumeration of the
30EAL function which is executed at DPDK initialization, based on
31their PCI device identifier, each unique PCI BDF (bus/bridge, device,
32function). Specific physical ReEx devices, like other physical devices in DPDK
33can be listed using the EAL command line options.
34
35
36Device Identification
37~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
38
39Each device, whether virtual or physical is uniquely designated by two
40identifiers:
41
42- A unique device index used to designate the RegEx device in all functions
43  exported by the regexdev API.
44
45- A device name used to designate the RegEx device in console messages, for
46  administration or debugging purposes.
47
48
49Device Configuration
50~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
51
52The configuration of each RegEx device includes the following operations:
53
54- Allocation of resources, including hardware resources if a physical device.
55- Resetting the device into a well-known default state.
56- Initialization of statistics counters.
57
58The rte_regexdev_configure API is used to configure a RegEx device.
59
60.. code-block:: c
61
62   int rte_regexdev_configure(uint8_t dev_id,
63                              const struct rte_regexdev_config *cfg);
64
65The ``rte_regexdev_config`` structure is used to pass the configuration
66parameters for the RegEx device for example  number of queue pairs, number of
67groups, max number of matches and so on.
68
69.. code-block:: c
70
71   struct rte_regexdev_config {
72        uint16_t nb_max_matches;
73        /**< Maximum matches per scan configured on this device.
74         * This value cannot exceed the *max_matches*
75         * which previously provided in rte_regexdev_info_get().
76         * The value 0 is allowed, in which case, value 1 used.
77         * @see struct rte_regexdev_info::max_matches
78         */
79        uint16_t nb_queue_pairs;
80        /**< Number of RegEx queue pairs to configure on this device.
81         * This value cannot exceed the *max_queue_pairs* which previously
82         * provided in rte_regexdev_info_get().
83         * @see struct rte_regexdev_info::max_queue_pairs
84         */
85        uint32_t nb_rules_per_group;
86        /**< Number of rules per group to configure on this device.
87         * This value cannot exceed the *max_rules_per_group*
88         * which previously provided in rte_regexdev_info_get().
89         * The value 0 is allowed, in which case,
90         * struct rte_regexdev_info::max_rules_per_group used.
91         * @see struct rte_regexdev_info::max_rules_per_group
92         */
93        uint16_t nb_groups;
94        /**< Number of groups to configure on this device.
95         * This value cannot exceed the *max_groups*
96         * which previously provided in rte_regexdev_info_get().
97         * @see struct rte_regexdev_info::max_groups
98         */
99        const char *rule_db;
100        /**< Import initial set of prebuilt rule database on this device.
101         * The value NULL is allowed, in which case, the device will not
102         * be configured prebuilt rule database. Application may use
103         * rte_regexdev_rule_db_update() or rte_regexdev_rule_db_import() API
104         * to update or import rule database after the
105         * rte_regexdev_configure().
106         * @see rte_regexdev_rule_db_update(), rte_regexdev_rule_db_import()
107         */
108        uint32_t rule_db_len;
109        /**< Length of *rule_db* buffer. */
110        uint32_t dev_cfg_flags;
111        /**< RegEx device configuration flags, See RTE_REGEXDEV_CFG_*  */
112    };
113
114
115Configuration of Rules Database
116~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
117
118Each Regex device should be configured with the rule database.
119There are two modes of setting the rule database, online or offline.
120The online mode means, that the rule database in being compiled by the
121RegEx PMD while in the offline mode the rule database is compiled by external
122compiler, and is being loaded to the PMD as a buffer.
123The configuration mode is depended on the PMD capabilities.
124
125Online rule configuration is done using the following API functions:
126``rte_regexdev_rule_db_update`` which add / remove rules from the rules
127precompiled list.
128
129Offline rule configuration can be done by adding a pointer to the compiled
130rule database in the configuration step, or by using
131``rte_regexdev_rule_db_import`` API.
132
133
134Configuration of Queue Pairs
135~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
136
137Each RegEx device can be configured with number of queue pairs.
138Each queue pair is configured using ``rte_regexdev_queue_pair_setup``
139
140
141Logical Cores, Memory and Queues Pair Relationships
142~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
143
144Multiple logical cores should never share the same queue pair for enqueuing
145operations or dequeuing operations on the same RegEx device since this would
146require global locks and hinder performance.
147
148
149Device Features and Capabilities
150---------------------------------
151
152RegEx devices may support different feature set.
153In order to get the supported PMD feature ``rte_regexdev_info_get``
154API which return the info of the device and it's supported features.
155
156
157Enqueue / Dequeue Burst APIs
158~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
159
160The burst enqueue API uses a RegEx device identifier and a queue pair
161identifier to specify the device queue pair to schedule the processing on.
162The ``nb_ops`` parameter is the number of operations to process which are
163supplied in the ``ops`` array of ``rte_regex_ops`` structures.
164The enqueue function returns the number of operations it actually enqueued for
165processing, a return value equal to ``nb_ops`` means that all packets have been
166enqueued.
167
168Data pointed in each op, should not be released until the dequeue of for that
169op.
170
171The dequeue API uses the same format as the enqueue API of processed but
172the ``nb_ops`` and ``ops`` parameters are now used to specify the max processed
173operations the user wishes to retrieve and the location in which to store them.
174The API call returns the actual number of processed operations returned, this
175can never be larger than ``nb_ops``.
176