[dpdk-dev] [PATCH v3 1/4] ethdev: add firmware information get

[Wu, Jingjing]

> > Different HW may have different version format, so it is better to use string.
> >
> > And I prefer the API definition in your v2 patch like
> >
> > rte_eth_dev_fwver_get(uint8_t port_id, char *fw_version, int
> > fw_length);
> 
> The problem with this is the format and content of the string is not defined, as
> you said different HW has different version format. This is no problem if you will
> only print the string.
> 
> But this is a public API, if an application wants to call this API and do something
> useful according the FW version information, it will need to parse the string, and
> it will not able to parse it because format of the string is not defined. By making
> API fill some defined variables, app won't need to parse them, and API output
> won't be HW dependent.
> 

As my understand, the firmware version is specific things to each HW. The format
cannot be generic at all, or at least we have no standard to follow. I think
the API should not be HW dependent, but about the output, application should know
What the string's meaning. Otherwise why we need to provide the firmware info?

Thanks
Jingjing