[dpdk-dev] rte_ctrlmbuf_init() and CTRL_MBUF_FLAG are not used - shouldn't they be removed and deprecated ?

[Olivier MATZ]

Hi Kevin,

On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 01:43:17PM +0200, Kevin Wilson wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> >Let's see if someone complains, and if no, we can plan to remove it
> >for 17.11.
> 
> Well, unless I missed it, I did not encounter any complaints, and
> 17.11 was already released.
> And the status is of course the same (meaning that in the DPDK tree it
> is not used).
> Maybe now that 17.11 was just released several days ago, it is a good
> time to start deprecation
> process for these control MBUF stuff ? I know for sure that for DPDK
> newbies who read the programmer's guide
> and encounter it, this is a bit confusing (like in
> 
> "2.3.3. Network Packet Buffer Management (librte_mbuf)"
> in
>  http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/prog_guide/overview.html#network-packet-buffer-management-librte-mbuf)
> ...
> ...
> "This library provides an API to allocate/free mbufs, manipulate
> control message buffers (ctrlmbuf) which
> are generic message buffers, and packet buffers (pktmbuf) which are
> used to carry network packets."
> ...
> ...
> and of course also confusing those who delve into the code.
> 

I agree.
I'll send a RFC soon, and a deprecation notice for 18.02, planning
a removal for 18.05.

Thanks for spotting it again.

Olivier