[dpdk-dev] virtio: crash when using multiple processes (16.04 regression)

[Yoni Gilad]

Hi,

We have encountered a crash in virtio_xmit_pkts (specifically, in the call to virtqueue_notify) when running DPDK in a multi-process setup. This is a regression in DPDK 16.04.

The culprit seems to be the field vtpci_ops in the virtio_hw structure. This field is stored in shared memory, but points to a struct in the primary process's address space. If the same struct was loaded in a different address in the secondary process, it will lead to a crash or other issues when this field is dereferenced there. The referenced virtio_pci_ops struct contains function pointers, which can also be different in the secondary process.

Regards,
Yoni Gilad