[dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH 0/8] reduce header dependency on rte_mbuf.h

Bruce Richardson bruce.richardson at intel.com
Thu Apr 23 15:03:49 CEST 2015


A large number of our header files and libraries are dependent on one another, 
which can lead to problems with circular dependencies if trying to tie some of
those libraries together, e.g. when prototyping with pktdev, or other schemes
to get a common API for ethdev/rings/KNI. :-)

One small way to reduce issues when doing this is to eliminate #includes when
they are not needed. While most includes in our headers are necessary, one 
common pattern seen is where a library just takes mbufs as part of it's API,
but does not de-reference those in the header file. In cases like this, it's
not necessary to include the whole mbuf header file just to allow pointers to
mbuf structures - a forward declaration of "struct rte_mbuf" will do.
Including the mbuf header file, also triggers inclusion of the mempool headers
which causes the inclusion of the ring headers amongst others.

Therefore, I propose changing the header files for our libraries to just use
the forward declaration instead of the full header inclusion where possible.

Bruce Richardson (8):
  distributor: remove header inclusion of mbuf.h
  ethdev: remove inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  kni: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  ip_frag: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  pipeline: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  virtio: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  table: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h
  vhost: remove header inclusion of rte_mbuf.h

 app/test/test_distributor.c              | 2 ++
 app/test/test_distributor_perf.c         | 3 +++
 lib/librte_distributor/rte_distributor.h | 3 +--
 lib/librte_ether/rte_ethdev.h            | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_ip_frag/rte_ip_frag.h         | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.h                 | 2 +-
 lib/librte_pipeline/rte_pipeline.h       | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_pmd_virtio/virtqueue.h        | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_pmd_xenvirt/virtqueue.h       | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_table/rte_table.h             | 3 ++-
 lib/librte_vhost/rte_virtio_net.h        | 3 ++-
 11 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

-- 
2.1.0



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