xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst (revision 3da59f30a23f2e795d2315f3d949e1b3e0ce0c3d)
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* ethdev: The flow API matching pattern structures, ``struct rte_flow_item_*``,
65  should start with relevant protocol header structure from lib/net/.
66  The individual protocol header fields and the protocol header struct
67  may be kept together in a union as a first migration step.
68  In future (target is DPDK 23.11), the protocol header fields will be cleaned
69  and only protocol header struct will remain.
70
71  These items are not compliant (not including struct from lib/net/):
72
73  - ``rte_flow_item_ah``
74  - ``rte_flow_item_e_tag``
75  - ``rte_flow_item_geneve``
76  - ``rte_flow_item_geneve_opt``
77  - ``rte_flow_item_gre``
78  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6``
79  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_na``
80  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_ns``
81  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt``
82  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt_sla_eth``
83  - ``rte_flow_item_icmp6_nd_opt_tla_eth``
84  - ``rte_flow_item_igmp``
85  - ``rte_flow_item_ipv6_ext``
86  - ``rte_flow_item_l2tpv3oip``
87  - ``rte_flow_item_mpls``
88  - ``rte_flow_item_nsh``
89  - ``rte_flow_item_nvgre``
90  - ``rte_flow_item_pfcp``
91  - ``rte_flow_item_pppoe``
92  - ``rte_flow_item_pppoe_proto_id``
93
94* ethdev: Queue specific stats fields will be removed from ``struct rte_eth_stats``.
95  Mentioned fields are: ``q_ipackets``, ``q_opackets``, ``q_ibytes``, ``q_obytes``,
96  ``q_errors``.
97  Instead queue stats will be received via xstats API. Current method support
98  will be limited to maximum 256 queues.
99  Also compile time flag ``RTE_ETHDEV_QUEUE_STAT_CNTRS`` will be removed.
100
101* ethdev: Flow actions ``PF`` and ``VF`` have been deprecated since DPDK 21.11
102  and are yet to be removed. That still has not happened because there are net
103  drivers which support combined use of either action ``PF`` or action ``VF``
104  with action ``QUEUE``, namely, i40e, ixgbe and txgbe (L2 tunnel rule).
105  It is unclear whether it is acceptable to just drop support for
106  such a complex use case, so maintainers of the said drivers
107  should take a closer look at this and provide assistance.
108
109* ethdev: Actions ``OF_DEC_NW_TTL``, ``SET_IPV4_SRC``, ``SET_IPV4_DST``,
110  ``SET_IPV6_SRC``, ``SET_IPV6_DST``, ``SET_TP_SRC``, ``SET_TP_DST``,
111  ``DEC_TTL``, ``SET_TTL``, ``SET_MAC_SRC``, ``SET_MAC_DST``, ``INC_TCP_SEQ``,
112  ``DEC_TCP_SEQ``, ``INC_TCP_ACK``, ``DEC_TCP_ACK``, ``SET_IPV4_DSCP``,
113  ``SET_IPV6_DSCP``, ``SET_TAG``, ``SET_META`` are marked as legacy and
114  superseded by the generic ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_MODIFY_FIELD``.
115  The legacy actions should be removed
116  once ``MODIFY_FIELD`` alternative is implemented in drivers.
117
118* cryptodev: The function ``rte_cryptodev_cb_fn`` will be updated
119  to have another parameter ``qp_id`` to return the queue pair ID
120  which got error interrupt to the application,
121  so that application can reset that particular queue pair.
122
123* eventdev: The single-event (non-burst) enqueue and dequeue operations,
124  used by static inline burst enqueue and dequeue functions in ``rte_eventdev.h``,
125  will be removed in DPDK 23.11.
126  This simplification includes changing the layout and potentially also
127  the size of the public ``rte_event_fp_ops`` struct, breaking the ABI.
128  Since these functions are not called directly by the application,
129  the API remains unaffected.
130
131* pipeline: The pipeline library legacy API (functions rte_pipeline_*)
132  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
133  Before this, the new pipeline library API (functions rte_swx_pipeline_*)
134  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
135
136* table: The table library legacy API (functions rte_table_*)
137  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
138  Before this, the new table library API (functions rte_swx_table_*)
139  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
140
141* port: The port library legacy API (functions rte_port_*)
142  will be deprecated and subsequently removed in DPDK 24.11 release.
143  Before this, the new port library API (functions rte_swx_port_*)
144  will gradually transition from experimental to stable status.
145