[ovs-dev] [PATCH v2] ofp-util: Convert flow_metadata to match structure.

[Jesse Gross]

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 10:36 AM, Ben Pfaff <blp at nicira.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 01, 2015 at 01:49:30PM -0700, Jesse Gross wrote:
>> We have a special flow_metadata structure to represent the parts
>> of a packet that aren't carried in the payload itself. This is
>> used in the case where we need to send the packet as a Packet In
>> to an OpenFlow controller. This is a subset of the more general
>> struct flow.
>>
>> In practice, almost all operations we do on this structure involve
>> converting it to or from a match or have code that is the same as
>> a match. Serialization to NXM and back is done as a match. There
>> is special flow_metadata formatting code that is almost identical
>> to match formatting.
>>
>> The uses for struct flow_metadata aren't performance critical
>> when it comes to memory, so we can save quite a bit of code by
>> just using a match structure directly instead. In addition, as
>> metadata increases and becomes more complex (Geneve options require
>> some special handling beyond just additional fields), using the
>> match structure means we only have to do this work in one place.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Jesse Gross <jesse at nicira.com>
>> ---
>> v2: Add missing forward declaration for struct match in flow.h.
>
> Acked-by: Ben Pfaff <blp at nicira.com>

Thanks, applied to master.