Process for removing __rte_experimental

Process for removing __rte_experimental

[Shreyansh Jain]

While reading through [1], I couldn't understand if __rte_experimental 
and EXPERIMENTAL tag removed from code and map file, respectively, are 
categorized under ABI breakage or not. Thus, whether deprecation for 
them should be sent or not in a release cycle for removal in subsequent 
release.

Logically, EXPERIMENTAL APIs are not part of stable APIs/ABIs and hence 
they don't really break an ABI. Thus, deprecation for them doesn't make 
sense. (or, as Luca noted on IRC, removing experimental is like 
de-deprecation :) )

On IRC, Luca pointed out that in one of the Tech Board meeting minutes 
[2], this was recorded but that too has slight ambiguity to it.

Any thoughts on this? Or, was this documented somewhere other than [1]?

[1] http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/contributing/versioning.html
[2] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2017-October/079961.html (Section 2-b)

Re: Process for removing __rte_experimental

[Thomas Monjalon]

25/05/2018 11:35, Shreyansh Jain:
> While reading through [1], I couldn't understand if __rte_experimental 
> and EXPERIMENTAL tag removed from code and map file, respectively, are 
> categorized under ABI breakage or not. Thus, whether deprecation for 
> them should be sent or not in a release cycle for removal in subsequent 
> release.
> 
> Logically, EXPERIMENTAL APIs are not part of stable APIs/ABIs and hence 
> they don't really break an ABI. Thus, deprecation for them doesn't make 
> sense. (or, as Luca noted on IRC, removing experimental is like 
> de-deprecation :) )

I agree, no need for prior notice, in my opinion.


> On IRC, Luca pointed out that in one of the Tech Board meeting minutes 
> [2], this was recorded but that too has slight ambiguity to it.
> 
> Any thoughts on this? Or, was this documented somewhere other than [1]?
> 
> [1] http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/contributing/versioning.html
> [2] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2017-October/079961.html (Section 2-b)
> 

Re: Process for removing __rte_experimental

[Luca Boccassi]

On Fri, 2018-05-25 at 11:49 +0200, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> 25/05/2018 11:35, Shreyansh Jain:
> > While reading through [1], I couldn't understand if
> > __rte_experimental 
> > and EXPERIMENTAL tag removed from code and map file, respectively,
> > are 
> > categorized under ABI breakage or not. Thus, whether deprecation
> > for 
> > them should be sent or not in a release cycle for removal in
> > subsequent 
> > release.
> > 
> > Logically, EXPERIMENTAL APIs are not part of stable APIs/ABIs and
> > hence 
> > they don't really break an ABI. Thus, deprecation for them doesn't
> > make 
> > sense. (or, as Luca noted on IRC, removing experimental is like 
> > de-deprecation :) )
> 
> I agree, no need for prior notice, in my opinion.

Yeah that makes sense for me as well.

> > On IRC, Luca pointed out that in one of the Tech Board meeting
> > minutes 
> > [2], this was recorded but that too has slight ambiguity to it.
> > 
> > Any thoughts on this? Or, was this documented somewhere other than
> > [1]?
> > 
> > [1] http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/contributing/versioning.html
> > [2] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2017-October/079961.html
> > (Section 2-b)

-- 
Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

Re: Process for removing __rte_experimental

[Shreyansh Jain]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Luca Boccassi [mailto:bluca@debian.org]
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 3:47 PM
> To: Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>; Shreyansh Jain
> <shreyansh.jain@nxp.com>
> Cc: dev@dpdk.org; Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@intel.com>;
> nhorman@tuxdriver.com
> Subject: Re: Process for removing __rte_experimental
> 
> On Fri, 2018-05-25 at 11:49 +0200, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > 25/05/2018 11:35, Shreyansh Jain:
> > > While reading through [1], I couldn't understand if
> > > __rte_experimental
> > > and EXPERIMENTAL tag removed from code and map file, respectively,
> > > are
> > > categorized under ABI breakage or not. Thus, whether deprecation
> > > for
> > > them should be sent or not in a release cycle for removal in
> > > subsequent
> > > release.
> > >
> > > Logically, EXPERIMENTAL APIs are not part of stable APIs/ABIs and
> > > hence
> > > they don't really break an ABI. Thus, deprecation for them doesn't
> > > make
> > > sense. (or, as Luca noted on IRC, removing experimental is like
> > > de-deprecation :) )
> >
> > I agree, no need for prior notice, in my opinion.
> 
> Yeah that makes sense for me as well.

[...]

Ok. I will send across a small documentation edit for this clarification.

Re: Process for removing __rte_experimental

[Neil Horman]

On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 03:05:34PM +0530, Shreyansh Jain wrote:
> While reading through [1], I couldn't understand if __rte_experimental and
> EXPERIMENTAL tag removed from code and map file, respectively, are
> categorized under ABI breakage or not. Thus, whether deprecation for them
> should be sent or not in a release cycle for removal in subsequent release.
> 
> Logically, EXPERIMENTAL APIs are not part of stable APIs/ABIs and hence they
> don't really break an ABI. Thus, deprecation for them doesn't make sense.
> (or, as Luca noted on IRC, removing experimental is like de-deprecation :) )
> 
> On IRC, Luca pointed out that in one of the Tech Board meeting minutes [2],
> this was recorded but that too has slight ambiguity to it.
> 
> Any thoughts on this? Or, was this documented somewhere other than [1]?
> 
> [1] http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/contributing/versioning.html
> [2] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2017-October/079961.html (Section 2-b)
> 
Concur with Thomas and Luca.  Use of __rte_experimental denotes APIs that are
not bound by ABI requirements.  Removing the experimental tag is,as you say
de-deprication.