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+ABI and API Deprecation
+=======================
+
+See the :doc:`guidelines document for details of the ABI policy </contributing/versioning>`.
+API and ABI deprecation notices are to be posted here.
+
+
+Deprecation Notices
+-------------------
+
+* The ethdev hotplug API is going to be moved to EAL with a notification
+  mechanism added to crypto and ethdev libraries so that hotplug is now
+  available to both of them. This API will be stripped of the device arguments
+  so that it only cares about hotplugging.
+
+* Structures embodying pci and vdev devices are going to be reworked to
+  integrate new common rte_device / rte_driver objects (see
+  http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-January/031390.html).
+  ethdev and crypto libraries will then only handle those objects so that they
+  do not need to care about the kind of devices that are being used, making it
+  easier to add new buses later.
+
+* The EAL function pci_config_space_set is deprecated in release 16.04
+  and will be removed from 16.07.
+  Macros CONFIG_RTE_PCI_CONFIG, CONFIG_RTE_PCI_EXTENDED_TAG and
+  CONFIG_RTE_PCI_MAX_READ_REQUEST_SIZE will be removed.
+  The /sys entries extended_tag and max_read_request_size created by igb_uio
+  will be removed.
+
+* ABI changes are planned for struct rte_pci_id, i.e., add new field ``class``.
+  This new added ``class`` field can be used to probe pci device by class
+  related info. This change should impact size of struct rte_pci_id and struct
+  rte_pci_device. The release 16.04 does not contain these ABI changes, but
+  release 16.07 will.
+
+* The following fields have been deprecated in rte_eth_stats:
+  ibadcrc, ibadlen, imcasts, fdirmatch, fdirmiss,
+  tx_pause_xon, rx_pause_xon, tx_pause_xoff, rx_pause_xoff
+
+* The xstats API and rte_eth_xstats struct will be changed to allow retrieval
+  of values without any string copies or parsing.
+  No backwards compatibility is planned, as it would require code duplication
+  in every PMD that supports xstats.
+
+* ABI changes are planned for adding four new flow types. This impacts
+  RTE_ETH_FLOW_MAX. The release 2.2 does not contain these ABI changes,
+  but release 2.3 will. [postponed]
+
+* ABI change is planned for the rte_mempool structure to allow mempool
+  cache support to be dynamic depending on the mempool being created
+  needing cache support. Saves about 1.5M of memory per rte_mempool structure
+  by removing the per lcore cache memory. Change will occur in DPDK 16.07
+  release and will skip the define RTE_NEXT_ABI in DPDK 16.04 release. The
+  code affected is app/test/test_mempool.c and librte_mempool/rte_mempool.[ch].
+  The rte_mempool.local_cache will be converted from an array to a pointer to
+  allow for dynamic allocation of the per lcore cache memory.
+
+* ABI will change for rte_mempool struct to move the cache-related fields
+  to the more appropriate rte_mempool_cache struct. The mempool API is
+  also changed to enable external cache management that is not tied to EAL
+  threads. Some mempool get and put calls are removed in favor of a more
+  compact API. The ones that remain are backwards compatible and use the
+  per-lcore default cache if available. This change targets release 16.07.
+
+* The rte_mempool struct will be changed in 16.07 to facilitate the new
+  external mempool manager functionality.
+  The ring element will be replaced with a more generic 'pool' opaque pointer
+  to allow new mempool handlers to use their own user-defined mempool
+  layout. Also newly added to rte_mempool is a handler index.
+  The existing API will be backward compatible, but there will be new API
+  functions added to facilitate the creation of mempools using an external
+  handler. The 16.07 release will contain these changes.
+
+* The rte_mempool allocation will be changed in 16.07:
+  allocation of large mempool in several virtual memory chunks, new API
+  to populate a mempool, new API to free a mempool, allocation in
+  anonymous mapping, drop of specific dom0 code. These changes will
+  induce a modification of the rte_mempool structure, plus a
+  modification of the API of rte_mempool_obj_iter(), implying a breakage
+  of the ABI.
+
+* ABI changes are planned for struct rte_port_source_params in order to
+  support PCAP file reading feature. The release 16.04 contains this ABI
+  change wrapped by RTE_NEXT_ABI macro. Release 16.07 will contain this
+  change, and no backwards compatibility is planned.
+
+* A librte_vhost public structures refactor is planned for DPDK 16.07
+  that requires both ABI and API change.
+  The proposed refactor would expose DPDK vhost dev to applications as
+  a handle, like the way kernel exposes an fd to user for locating a
+  specific file, and to keep all major structures internally, so that
+  we are likely to be free from ABI violations in future.