[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v3] doc: announce API and ABI change for ethdev

[Zhiyong Yang]

This is an API/ABI change notice for DPDK 17.11 announcing the redefinition
of port_id. port_id is currently defined as uint8_t, which is limited to
the range 0 to 255. A larger range is required for vdev scalability.

It is necessary for a redefinition of port_id to extend it from 1 bytes to
2 bytes. All ethdev APIs and usages related to port_id will be changed at
the same time.

cc: jianfeng.tan at intel.com
cc: yliu at fridaylinux.org
cc: jerin.jacob at caviumnetworks.com
cc: thomas at monjalon.net
cc: remy.horton at intel.com

Signed-off-by: Zhiyong Yang <zhiyong.yang at intel.com>
Acked-by: Jianfeng Tan <jianfeng.tan at intel.com>
Acked-by: Yuanhan Liu <yliu at fridaylinux.org>
Acked-by: Jerin Jacob <jerin.jacob at caviumnetworks.com>
Acked-by: Remy Horton <remy.horton at intel.com>
---

Change in V3.
update the commit log. Thanks for Remy's comment.

Change in V2.
1. remove indent of paragraph in commit log.
2. add more description about API/ABI according to yuanhan's comments.

 doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst | 6 ++++++
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
index 72aa40495..4edaf92fb 100644
--- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/deprecation.rst
@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ Deprecation Notices
   Target release for removal of the legacy API will be defined once most
   PMDs have switched to rte_flow.
 
+* ABI/API changes are planned for 17.11 in all structures which include port_id
+  definition such as "rte_eth_dev_data", "rte_port_ethdev_reader_params",
+  "rte_port_ethdev_writer_params", and so on. The definition of port_id will be
+  changed from 8 bits to 16 bits in order to support more than 256 ports in
+  DPDK. All APIs which have port_id parameter will be changed at the same time.
+
 * librte_table: The ``key_mask`` parameter will be added to all the hash tables
   that currently do not have it, as well as to the hash compute function prototype.
   The non-"do-sig" versions of the hash tables will be removed
-- 
2.13.3