xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst (revision 8484d74bd656bc0e951a3ed4e0816ee0fea5e593)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
3
4ABI and API Deprecation
5=======================
6
7See the guidelines document for details of the :doc:`ABI policy
8<../contributing/abi_policy>`.
9
10With DPDK 23.11, there will be a new major ABI version: 24.
11This means that during the development of 23.11,
12new items may be added to structs or enums,
13even if those additions involve an ABI compatibility breakage.
14
15Other API and ABI deprecation notices are to be posted below.
16
17Deprecation Notices
18-------------------
19
20* build: The ``enable_kmods`` option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
21  Setting/clearing the option has no impact on the build.
22  Instead, kernel modules will be always built for OS's where out-of-tree kernel modules
23  are required for DPDK operation.
24  Currently, this means that modules will only be built for FreeBSD.
25  No modules are shipped with DPDK for either Linux or Windows.
26
27* kvargs: The function ``rte_kvargs_process`` will get a new parameter
28  for returning key match count. It will ease handling of no-match case.
29
30* telemetry: The functions ``rte_tel_data_add_array_u64`` and ``rte_tel_data_add_dict_u64``,
31  used by telemetry callbacks for adding unsigned integer values to be returned to the user,
32  are renamed to ``rte_tel_data_add_array_uint`` and ``rte_tel_data_add_dict_uint`` respectively.
33  As such, the old function names are deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
34
35* rte_atomicNN_xxx: These APIs do not take memory order parameter. This does
36  not allow for writing optimized code for all the CPU architectures supported
37  in DPDK. DPDK has adopted the atomic operations from
38  https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/_005f_005fatomic-Builtins.html. These
39  operations must be used for patches that need to be merged in 20.08 onwards.
40  This change will not introduce any performance degradation.
41
42* rte_smp_*mb: These APIs provide full barrier functionality. However, many
43  use cases do not require full barriers. To support such use cases, DPDK has
44  adopted atomic operations from
45  https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/_005f_005fatomic-Builtins.html. These
46  operations and a new wrapper ``rte_atomic_thread_fence`` instead of
47  ``__atomic_thread_fence`` must be used for patches that need to be merged in
48  20.08 onwards. This change will not introduce any performance degradation.
49
50* lib: will fix extending some enum/define breaking the ABI. There are multiple
51  samples in DPDK that enum/define terminated with a ``.*MAX.*`` value which is
52  used by iterators, and arrays holding these values are sized with this
53  ``.*MAX.*`` value. So extending this enum/define increases the ``.*MAX.*``
54  value which increases the size of the array and depending on how/where the
55  array is used this may break the ABI.
56  ``RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX`` is one sample of the mentioned case, adding a new flow
57  type will break the ABI because of ``flex_mask[RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX]`` array
58  usage in following public struct hierarchy:
59  ``rte_eth_fdir_flex_conf -> rte_eth_fdir_conf -> rte_eth_conf (in the middle)``.
60  Need to identify this kind of usages and fix in 20.11, otherwise this blocks
61  us extending existing enum/define.
62  One solution can be using a fixed size array instead of ``.*MAX.*`` value.
63
64* net, ethdev: The flow item ``RTE_FLOW_ITEM_TYPE_VXLAN_GPE``
65  is replaced with ``RTE_FLOW_ITEM_TYPE_VXLAN``.
66  The struct ``rte_flow_item_vxlan_gpe`` and its mask ``rte_flow_item_vxlan_gpe_mask``
67  are replaced with ``rte_flow_item_vxlan`` and ``rte_flow_item_vxlan_mask``.
68  The flow item ``RTE_FLOW_ITEM_TYPE_VXLAN_GPE``,
69  the structs ``rte_flow_item_vxlan_gpe``, ``rte_flow_item_vxlan_gpe_mask``,
70  and the header struct ``rte_vxlan_gpe_hdr`` with the macro ``RTE_ETHER_VXLAN_GPE_HLEN``
71  will be removed in DPDK 25.11.
72
73* ethdev: The flow API matching pattern structures, ``struct rte_flow_item_*``,
74  should start with relevant protocol header structure from lib/net/.
75  The individual protocol header fields and the protocol header struct
76  may be kept together in a union as a first migration step.
77  In future (target is DPDK 23.11), the protocol header fields will be cleaned
78  and only protocol header struct will remain.
79
80  These items are not compliant (not including struct from lib/net/):
81
82  - ``rte_flow_item_ah``
83  - ``rte_flow_item_e_tag``
84  - ``rte_flow_item_geneve``
85  - ``rte_flow_item_geneve_opt``
86  - ``rte_flow_item_gre``
87  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6``
88  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_na``
89  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_ns``
90  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt``
91  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt_sla_eth``
92  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt_tla_eth``
93  - ``rte_flow_item_igmp``
94  - ``rte_flow_item_ipv6_ext``
95  - ``rte_flow_item_l2tpv3oip``
96  - ``rte_flow_item_mpls``
97  - ``rte_flow_item_nsh``
98  - ``rte_flow_item_nvgre``
99  - ``rte_flow_item_pfcp``
100  - ``rte_flow_item_pppoe``
101  - ``rte_flow_item_pppoe_proto_id``
102
103* ethdev: Queue specific stats fields will be removed from ``struct rte_eth_stats``.
104  Mentioned fields are: ``q_ipackets``, ``q_opackets``, ``q_ibytes``, ``q_obytes``,
105  ``q_errors``.
106  Instead queue stats will be received via xstats API. Current method support
107  will be limited to maximum 256 queues.
108  Also compile time flag ``RTE_ETHDEV_QUEUE_STAT_CNTRS`` will be removed.
109
110* ethdev: Flow actions ``PF`` and ``VF`` have been deprecated since DPDK 21.11
111  and are yet to be removed. That still has not happened because there are net
112  drivers which support combined use of either action ``PF`` or action ``VF``
113  with action ``QUEUE``, namely, i40e, ixgbe and txgbe (L2 tunnel rule).
114  It is unclear whether it is acceptable to just drop support for
115  such a complex use case, so maintainers of the said drivers
116  should take a closer look at this and provide assistance.
117
118* ethdev: Actions ``OF_DEC_NW_TTL``, ``SET_IPV4_SRC``, ``SET_IPV4_DST``,
119  ``SET_IPV6_SRC``, ``SET_IPV6_DST``, ``SET_TP_SRC``, ``SET_TP_DST``,
120  ``DEC_TTL``, ``SET_TTL``, ``SET_MAC_SRC``, ``SET_MAC_DST``, ``INC_TCP_SEQ``,
121  ``DEC_TCP_SEQ``, ``INC_TCP_ACK``, ``DEC_TCP_ACK``, ``SET_IPV4_DSCP``,
122  ``SET_IPV6_DSCP``, ``SET_TAG``, ``SET_META`` are marked as legacy and
123  superseded by the generic ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_MODIFY_FIELD``.
124  The legacy actions should be removed
125  once ``MODIFY_FIELD`` alternative is implemented in drivers.
126
127* pipeline: The pipeline library legacy API (functions rte_pipeline_*)
128  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
129  Before this, the new pipeline library API (functions rte_swx_pipeline_*)
130  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
131
132* table: The table library legacy API (functions rte_table_*)
133  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
134  Before this, the new table library API (functions rte_swx_table_*)
135  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
136
137* port: The port library legacy API (functions rte_port_*)
138  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
139  Before this, the new port library API (functions rte_swx_port_*)
140  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
141