path: root/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.rst

..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
    Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors

DPDK Release 18.11
==================

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New Features
------------

.. This section should contain new features added in this release.
   Sample format:

   * **Add a title in the past tense with a full stop.**

     Add a short 1-2 sentence description in the past tense.
     The description should be enough to allow someone scanning
     the release notes to understand the new feature.

     If the feature adds a lot of sub-features you can use a bullet list
     like this:

     * Added feature foo to do something.
     * Enhanced feature bar to do something else.

     Refer to the previous release notes for examples.

     Suggested order in release notes items:
     * Core libs (EAL, mempool, ring, mbuf, buses)
     * Device abstraction libs and PMDs
       - ethdev (lib, PMDs)
       - cryptodev (lib, PMDs)
       - eventdev (lib, PMDs)
       - etc
     * Other libs
     * Apps, Examples, Tools (if significative)

     This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
     Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
     =========================================================

* **Added support for using externally allocated memory in DPDK.**

  DPDK has gained support for creating new ``rte_malloc`` heaps referencing
  memory that was created outside of DPDK's own page allocator, and using that
  memory natively with any other DPDK library or data structure.

* **Added check for ensuring allocated memory addressable by devices.**

  Some devices can have addressing limitations so a new function,
  ``rte_mem_check_dma_mask``, has been added for checking allocated memory is
  not out of the device range. Because now memory can be dynamically allocated
  after initialization, a dma mask is kept and any new allocated memory will be
  checked out against that dma mask and rejected if out of range. If more than
  one device has addressing limitations, the dma mask is the more restricted one.

* **Updated the C11 memory model version of ring library.**

  The latency is decreased for architectures using the C11 memory model
  version of the ring library.

  On Cavium ThunderX2 platform, the changes decreased latency by 27~29%
  and 3~15% for MPMC and SPSC cases respectively (with 2 lcores). The
  real improvements may vary with the number of contending lcores and
  the size of ring.

* **Added hot-unplug handle mechanism.**

  ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_enable`` and ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_disable`` are
  for enabling or disabling hotplug handle mechanism.

* **Support device multi-process hotplug.**

  Hotplug and hot-unplug for devices will now be supported in multiprocessing
  scenario. Any ethdev devices created in the primary process will be regarded
  as shared and will be available for all DPDK processes. Synchronization
  between processes will be done using DPDK IPC.

* **Added new Flow API actions to rewrite fields in packet headers.**

  Added new Flow API actions to:

  * Modify source and destination IP addresses in the outermost IPv4/IPv6
    headers.
  * Modify source and destination port numbers in the outermost TCP/UDP
    headers.

* **Added new Flow API action to swap MAC addresses in Ethernet header.**

  Added new Flow API action to swap the source and destination MAC
  addresses in the outermost Ethernet header.

* **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**

  Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:

  * Match items: destination MAC address.
  * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header,
    rewrite IP addresses in outermost IPv4/IPv6 header,
    rewrite port numbers in outermost TCP/UDP header,
    swap MAC addresses in outermost Ethernet header.

* **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
  A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
  choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
  can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.

* **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**

  The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
  SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
  vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.

* **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**

  Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
  :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.

* **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**

  Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
  "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.

* **Added Ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia aQtion family of 10G devices.**

  Added the new ``atlantic`` ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia XGBE devices.
  See the :doc:`../nics/atlantic` nic driver guide for more details on this
  driver.

* **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**

  Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:

  * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
  * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
  * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
  * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
    datapaths implementation.

* **Updated the enic driver.**

  * Added AVX2-based vectorized Rx handler.
  * Added VLAN and checksum offloads to the simple Tx handler.
  * Added the count flow action.
  * Enabled the virtual address IOVA mode.

* **Updated failsafe driver.**

  Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:

  * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
  * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
  * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
  * Support multicast MAC address set.

* **Added a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
  A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
  MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.

* **Added TAP Rx/Tx queues sharing with a secondary process.**

  A secondary process can attach a TAP device created in the primary process,
  probe the queues, and process Rx/Tx in a secondary process.

* **Added classification and metering support to SoftNIC PMD.**

  Added support for flow classification (rte_flow API), and metering and
  policing (rte_mtr API) to the SoftNIC PMD.

* **Added Crypto support to Softnic PMD.**

  The Softnic is now capable of processing symmetric crypto workloads such
  as cipher, cipher-authentication chaining, and aead encryption and
  decryption. This is achieved by calling DPDK Cryptodev APIs.

* **Added cryptodev port to port library.**

  Cryptodev port is a shim layer in the port library that interacts with DPDK
  Cryptodev PMDs including burst enqueuing and dequeuing crypto operations.

* **Added symmetric cryptographic actions to the pipeline library.**

  In the pipeline library an added symmetric crypto action parsing and action
  handler are implemented. The action allows automatically preparing the crypto
  operation with the rules specified such as algorithm, key, and IV, etc for
  the cryptodev port to process.

* **Added support for GEN3 devices to Intel QAT driver .**

  Added support for the third generation of Intel QuickAssist devices.

* **Updated the QAT PMD.**

  The QAT PMD was updated with additional support for:

  * AES-CMAC algorithm.

* **Updated the AESNI MB PMD.**

  The AESNI MB PMD has been updated with additional support for AES-GCM
  algorithm support.

* **Added NXP CAAM JR PMD.**

  Added the new caam job ring driver for NXP platforms. See the
  "NXP CAAM JOB RING (caam_jr)" document for more details on this new driver.

* **Added support for Dynamic Huffman Encoding to Intel QAT comp PMD.**

  The Intel QuickAssist (QAT) compression PMD has been updated with support
  for Dynamic Huffman Encoding for the Deflate algorithm.

* **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**

  Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that  provides configuration and
  data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
  processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
  transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
  a common implementation.

* **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**

  Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
  pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
  among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
  the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
  gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.

* **Added extendable bucket feature to hash library (rte_hash).**

  This new “extendable bucket” feature provides 100% insertion guarantee to
  the capacity specified by the user by extending hash table with extra
  buckets when needed to accommodate the unlikely event of intensive hash
  collisions.  In addition, the internal hashing algorithm was changed to use
  partial-key hashing to improve memory efficiency and lookup performance.

* **Added lock free reader/writer concurrency to hash library (rte_hash).**

  Lock free reader/writer concurrency prevents the readers from getting
  blocked due to a pre-empted writer thread. This allows the hash library
  to be used in scenarios where the writer thread runs on control plane.

* **Added Traffic Pattern Aware Power Control Library**

  Added an experimental library. This extend Power Library and provide
  empty_poll APIs. This feature measure how many times empty_poll are
  executed per core, use the number of empty polls as a hint for system
  power management.

  See the :doc:`../prog_guide/power_man` section of the DPDK Programmers
  Guide document for more information.

* **Added JSON power policy interface for containers.**

  Extended the Power Library and vm_power_manager sample app to allow power
  policies to be submitted via a FIFO using JSON formatted strings. Previously
  limited to Virtual Machines, this feature extends power policy functionality
  to containers and host applications that need to have their cores frequency
  controlled based on the rules contained in the policy.

* **Added Telemetry API.**

  Added the telemetry API which allows applications to transparently expose
  their telemetry via a UNIX socket in JSON. The JSON can be consumed by any
  Service Assurance agent, such as CollectD.

* **Updated KNI kernel module, rte_kni library, and KNI sample application.**

  Updated the KNI kernel module with a new kernel module parameter,
  ``carrier=[on|off]`` to allow the user to control the default carrier
  state of KNI kernel network interfaces.  The default carrier state
  is now set to ``off``, so the interfaces cannot be used until the
  carrier state is set to ``on`` via ``rte_kni_update_link`` or
  by writing ``1`` to ``/sys/devices/virtual/net/<iface>/carrier``.
  In previous versions the default carrier state was left undefined.
  See :doc:`../prog_guide/kernel_nic_interface` for more information.

  Added the new API function ``rte_kni_update_link`` to allow the user
  to set the carrier state of the KNI kernel network interface.

  Added a new command line flag ``-m`` to the KNI sample application to
  monitor and automatically reflect the physical NIC carrier state to the
  KNI kernel network interface with the new ``rte_kni_update_link`` API.
  See :doc:`../sample_app_ug/kernel_nic_interface` for more information.

* **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**

  Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
  ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
  the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
  to reconfigure queues.

* **Add a new sample for vDPA**

  The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
  vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
  virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
  datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
  this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
  enqueue/dequeue operations.

* **Added cryptodev FIPS validation example application.**

  Added an example application to parse and perform symmetric cryptography
  computation to the NIST Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP)
  test vectors.

* **Allow unit test binary to take parameters from the environment**

  The unit test "test", or "dpdk-test", binary is often called from scripts,
  which can make passing additional parameters, such as a coremask, to it more
  awkward. Support has been added to the application to allow it to take
  additional command-line parameter values from the "DPDK_TEST_PARAMS"
  environment variable to make this application easier to use.


API Changes
-----------

.. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
     Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
     Use the past tense.

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================

* eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
  whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
  for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
  externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
  over internal DPDK memory.
  ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
  as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
  changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
  kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
  ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
  instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
  valid one.

* eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
  were removed in 18.11:
  ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
  ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.

* eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
  from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.

* eal: The deprecated functions attach/detach were removed in 18.11.
  ``rte_eal_dev_attach`` can be replaced by
  ``rte_dev_probe`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_add``.
  ``rte_eal_dev_detach`` can be replaced by
  ``rte_dev_remove`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove``.

* eal: The scope of ``rte_eal_hotplug_add()``/``rte_dev_probe()``
  and ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove()``/``rte_dev_remove()`` is extended.
  In multi-process model, they will guarantee that the device is
  attached or detached on all processes.

* mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
  functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
  ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.

* ethdev: The deprecated functions attach/detach were removed in 18.11.
  ``rte_eth_dev_attach`` can be replaced by ``RTE_ETH_FOREACH_MATCHING_DEV``
  and ``rte_dev_probe`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_add``.
  ``rte_eth_dev_detach`` can be replaced by
  ``rte_dev_remove`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove``.

* ethdev: A call to ``rte_eth_dev_release_port()`` has been added in
  ``rte_eth_dev_close()``. As a consequence, a closed port is freed
  and seen as invalid because of its state ``RTE_ETH_DEV_UNUSED``.
  This new behaviour is enabled per driver for a migration period.

* A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
  actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
  support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
  flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
  important for bonding.

* The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
  offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
  DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
  To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
  offload.

* eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
  has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.

* kni: By default, interface carrier status is ``off`` which means there won't
  be any traffic. It can be set to ``on`` via ``rte_kni_update_link()`` API
  or via ``sysfs`` interface:
  ``echo 1 > /sys/class/net/vEth0/carrier``.
  Note interface should be ``up`` to be able to read/write sysfs interface.
  When KNI sample application is used, ``-m`` parameter can be used to
  automatically update the carrier status for the interface.

* kni: When ethtool support enabled (``CONFIG_RTE_KNI_KMOD_ETHTOOL=y``)
  ethtool commands ``ETHTOOL_GSET & ETHTOOL_SSET`` are no more supported for the
  kernels that has ``ETHTOOL_GLINKSETTINGS & ETHTOOL_SLINKSETTINGS`` support.
  This means ``ethtool "-a|--show-pause", "-s|--change"`` won't work, and
  ``ethtool <iface>`` output will have less information.


ABI Changes
-----------

.. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
     that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
     Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
     Use the past tense.

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================

* eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
       ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
       using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.

* eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
       supporting external memory in DPDK:
         - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
           of memory addressed by the segment list
         - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
           the memseg list refers to external memory
         - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
           ID the malloc heap belongs to
         - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
           resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
         - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
         - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
           socket ID for externally allocated segments

* eal: Added ``dma_maskbits`` to ``rte_mem_config`` for keeping more restricted
       dma mask based on devices addressing limitations.

* eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
  It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
  device structures of all buses.


Removed Items
-------------

.. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:

   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
     in the past tense.

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================


Shared Library Versions
-----------------------

.. Update any library version updated in this release
   and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:

     librte_acl.so.2
   + librte_cfgfile.so.2
     librte_cmdline.so.2

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   =========================================================

The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.

.. code-block:: diff

     librte_acl.so.2
     librte_bbdev.so.1
     librte_bitratestats.so.2
     librte_bpf.so.1
   + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
   + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
   + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
   + librte_bus_pci.so.2
   + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
   + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
     librte_cfgfile.so.2
     librte_cmdline.so.2
     librte_compressdev.so.1
     librte_cryptodev.so.5
     librte_distributor.so.1
   + librte_eal.so.9
     librte_efd.so.1
   + librte_ethdev.so.11
   + librte_eventdev.so.6
     librte_flow_classify.so.1
     librte_gro.so.1
     librte_gso.so.1
     librte_hash.so.2
     librte_ip_frag.so.1
     librte_jobstats.so.1
     librte_kni.so.2
     librte_kvargs.so.1
     librte_latencystats.so.1
     librte_lpm.so.2
     librte_mbuf.so.4
     librte_member.so.1
     librte_mempool.so.5
     librte_meter.so.2
     librte_metrics.so.1
     librte_net.so.1
     librte_pci.so.1
     librte_pdump.so.2
     librte_pipeline.so.3
     librte_pmd_bnxt.so.2
     librte_pmd_bond.so.2
     librte_pmd_i40e.so.2
     librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
     librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
     librte_pmd_ring.so.2
     librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
     librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
     librte_port.so.3
     librte_power.so.1
     librte_rawdev.so.1
     librte_reorder.so.1
     librte_ring.so.2
     librte_sched.so.1
     librte_security.so.1
     librte_table.so.3
     librte_timer.so.1
     librte_vhost.so.4


Known Issues
------------

.. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:

   * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**

     Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
     in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================

* When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
  driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
  unbound and passed to the DPDK.

* IBM Power8 is not supported by this release of DPDK. IBM Power9 is supported.


Tested Platforms
----------------

.. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
   with this release.

   The format is:

   * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations

     * List of CPU
     * List of OS
     * List of devices
     * Other relevant details...

   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
   =========================================================