[dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/8] service: rework for usability

[Neil Horman]

On Wed, Aug 16, 2017 at 12:07:11PM +0000, Van Haaren, Harry wrote:
> > From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Van Haaren, Harry
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 12:32 PM
> > To: Neil Horman <nhorman at tuxdriver.com>
> > Cc: dev at dpdk.org
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/8] service: rework for usability
> > 
> > > From: Neil Horman [mailto:nhorman at tuxdriver.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 12:16 PM
> > > To: Van Haaren, Harry <harry.van.haaren at intel.com>
> > > Cc: dev at dpdk.org
> > > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 0/8] service: rework for usability
> > >
> > > On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 01:32:32PM +0100, Harry van Haaren wrote:
> > > > This patchset reworks the service apis to be more user
> > > > friendly. In particular, the various rte_service_* functions
> > > > now take an integer id parameter instead of a service pointer.
> > > > This both reduces the API surface (no service_get_from_id()),
> > > > and allows easier debugging (gdb function calls with integer args),
> > > > and various other benefits (better encapsulation, less pointers :)
> > > >
> > > > Finally, some APIs are changed or renamed for consistency and
> > > > clarity of what they do. See commit messages for details.
> > > > Note that the service library is merged as EXPERIMENTAL in
> > > > the 17.08 release, allowing API improvements for 17.11 release.
> > > >
> > > > I hope to merge this patchset early in the 17.11 timeframe,
> > > > so please review ASAP to allow time for other DPDK components
> > > > to utilize services in this release :)
> > > >
> > > > Feedback and input welcome, -Harry
> > > >
> > > You need to add a deprecation note in the rel notes area so that people are
> > > aware of the upcomming ABI changes
> > 
> > Service cores was merged into 17.08 with the EXPERIMENTAL tag, which indicates that the
> > API and ABI are not stable. The version map file has the service cores functions added in
> > the Experimental staging area, instead of in the 17.08 stable ABI[1]. To make this very
> > visible to the users, the documentation has large "Warning: Experimental, this API may
> > change without prior notice" marks[2], and the MAINTAINERS file[3] has the Experimental
> > tag.
> > 
> > As far as I am aware, those are all the requirements to be able to remove / change /
> > update / fix APIs. It was discussed on #IRC that it would be better to merge service-cores
> > as experimental to allow faster iteration, and to get improvements out the door, and I'm
> > still of that opinion.
> > 
> > Given the above, I don't see any issue with merging service-core changes into the 17.11
> > release.
> > 
> > [1] http://dpdk.org/browse/dpdk/tree/lib/librte_eal/linuxapp/eal/rte_eal_version.map#n212
> > [2] http://dpdk.org/doc/api/rte__service_8h.html#aea7fce2a101bf2c00194dffb30bfc4ea
> > [3] http://dpdk.org/browse/dpdk/tree/MAINTAINERS#n138
> 
> Self-reply;
> 
> On re-reading, perhaps I understood you wrong; did you mean that I need to add a section to the Release notes that the service core APIs have been updated in 17.11 itself?
> 
> That's a very valid point - and I'll fix that in v2, (some other typo fixes to fix too).
> 
I hadn't noted the experimental tag, so you likely don't need a deprecation
warning, but yes, a release note to indicate the change to the API in 17.11
would be good.

Best
NEil

> -Harry
>