[dpdk-dev] [PATCHv2 3/4] Makefiles: Add experimental tag check and warnings to trigger on use

Neil Horman nhorman at tuxdriver.com
Mon Dec 11 13:40:43 CET 2017


On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 11:35:57AM +0000, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 08, 2017 at 12:14:34PM -0500, Neil Horman wrote:
> > Add checks during build to ensure that all symbols in the EXPERIMENTAL
> > version map section have __experimental tags on their definitions, and
> > enable the warnings needed to announce their use.  Also add a
> > ALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_FUNCTIONS variable check to allow for in-tree dpdk
> > libraries to override those checks.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Neil Horman <nhorman at tuxdriver.com>
> > CC: Thomas Monjalon <thomas at monjalon.net>
> > CC: "Mcnamara, John" <john.mcnamara at intel.com>
> > ---
> 
> Hi Neil,
> 
> if I read the patch functionality correctly, the
> ALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_FUNCTIONS variable simply suppresses all errors for
> deprecated functions. However, what we really want is just to suppress
> the errors for the experimental functions, and not any that really are
> deprecated. While we may not have any now in DPDK, that doesn't mean it
> might not be useful to have some in future.
> 
Well, they are all deprecated by the stict definition of the term, which is to
say that their usage is discouraged/disapproved.  What I think you are saying is
that you would like to differentiate reasons for deprecation (i.e. deprecation
because an api is experimental, vs deprecation because an api is broken or going
to be removed).  I'm not sure I see that we will get there anytime soon, but
yes, that seems like it would be a good ability to add in here.

> Therefore, would an alternative scheme work where the experimental tag
> is set to empty if the ALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_FUNCTIONS define is set when
> compiling?
> 
Yes, I think that could work.  Perhaps what we can do is modify
ALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_FUNCTIONS to set a CFLAGS like:
-DSUPPRESS_EXPERIMENTAL

And use that to toggle the definition on rte_compat.h between something that
deprecates the API call and an empty definition

Neil

> /Bruce
> 


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