Re: [dpdk-dev, RFC] drivers: advertise kmod dependencies in pmdinfo

[Olivier Matz <olivier.matz@6wind.com>]

Hi,

Thank you everyone for all these comments. I'll try to summarize them here:

a- the kmod information should be per-device instead of per-driver
(modalias-like)
b- there is no need to specify kmod dependencies (i.e. "uio_pci_generic"
is enough, not "uio & uio_pci_generic") since it is available via modinfo
c- the syntax with commas and colons is not ideal, we have no better
consensus for now, but maybe "&" and "|" are better.
d- the information provided is not complete:
   - some drivers requires module parameters or writing is /sys
   - choosing between one kmod or another is a system choice
  -> this info could be optional for this reason
e- for usual drivers having a "<generic-uio>" tag instead of a kmod list
may be more simple (I'm not sure of it though)


So we could either:

- drop this RFC, and like today everyone shoule handle the loading of
kmods on its own

- keep the approach of this RFC, enhance it with a- b- c- e-

   Examples of string to manage specify the devices wildcards:
     /* kmod list for all pci devices */
     "pci:v*:d*:sv*:sd*:vfio|uio_pci_generic|igb_uio"
     /* if we need device-specific modules: */
     "pci:v8086:d1234:sv*:sd*:some_kmod"
     "pci:v8086:d4321:sv*:sd*:some_other_kmod"

   this is not a perfect solution, but I think it would make the
   development of an kmod autoload script easier.


Any other idea?

Thanks,
Olivier