Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] lib/librte_ether: add support for port reset

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>]

21/04/2017 04:27, Yuanhan Liu:
> On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 09:17:24AM +0000, Zhao1, Wei wrote:
> > > > > Please explain exactly the responsibility of this function, and how
> > > > > it is different from calling stop/configure/start.
> > > > 
> > > > In this reset feature, reset function can do the calling
> > > > stop/configure/start process, but also It can also do some restore
> > > > work for the port, for example, it can restore the added parameters 
> > > > of
> > > 
> > > vlan,  mac_addrs, promisc_unicast_enabled falg and
> > > promisc_multicast_enabled flag.
> > > 
> > > > Maybe , I should add this explanation in the patch comments or
> > > > function
> > > 
> > > comments?
> > > 
> > > I'm curious why we have to do save & restore for a reset operation.
> > > Why some configures have to be saved and restored? Doesn't "reset"
> > > literally means reset everything?
> > 
> > Users maybe do not want to do a second configuration operation to waste
> > time after reset which lost all previous configuration. But he still want
> > these configuration valid after reset.
> > So, save & restore can help them to save this process time and effort.
> > 
> > > Even though, how do you tell what kind of configures need be restored
> > > and
> > > what should not? Again, even though, will all PMDs supports restoring
> > > the
> > > same set of configurations?
> > 
> > Yes, this is hard to say what may be need and what may be not for user.
> > Now, the kinds of supported is list in patch set comment. And only i40e
> > NIC support this feature.
> Why it's the configurations listed in patch 2? Because they are requested
> by customers?
> 
> Is that all could be saved? If not, are you going to save & restore all
> possible configurations?
> 
> Assuming the configurations saved & restored may differ from different
> PMD drivers, how could you keep the consistency then? And judging that the
> application has no idea about the difference (yet it knows nothing about
> what kind of configurations will be saved), how could the application know
> that some configurations are not saved & restored by the driver that it
> has to do re-configuration by itself?
> 
> > > While looking at your reset implementation for i40e, it looks more
> > > complex
> > > than necessary: just thinking we have to call "xxx_queue_setup"
> > > for all PMDs.
> > > 
> > > I'm thinking a simple hardware reset might be enough?
> > > 
> > >     /* literally reset the hardware: reset everything */
> > >     rte_eth_reset(port)
> > >     {
> > >     
> > >     	eth_dev->ops->reset();
> > >     
> > >     }
> > 
> > You mean just do a reset  and do not restore any configuration?
> > That may not meet the need for this feature from customer?
> 
> Right, I'm just aware of the configuration might be done by PF (but not
> only by the application), that the VF port may be not aware of those
> configurations. So the save & restore is needed. I don't quite like
> how it is done in this patch set though. I also don't think the API is
> well named: as said, reset should literally reset everything.
> 
> We may need think how to do it properly.
> 
> Thomas, Konstantin, what do you guys think of it?

I have the same concerns.
I think we should better document the current status of start/stop
and which configuration parameters are lost or saved.