[ovs-dev] [PATCH RFCv4 0/4] AF_XDP netdev support for OVS

Ben Pfaff blp at ovn.org
Tue Apr 16 19:55:14 UTC 2019


On Mon, Apr 01, 2019 at 03:46:48PM -0700, William Tu wrote:
> The patch series introduces AF_XDP support for OVS netdev.
> AF_XDP is a new address family working together with eBPF.
> In short, a socket with AF_XDP family can receive and send
> packets from an eBPF/XDP program attached to the netdev.
> For more details about AF_XDP, please see linux kernel's
> Documentation/networking/af_xdp.rst

I'm glad to see some more revisions of this series!

AF_XDP is a faster way to access the existing kernel devices.  If we
take that point of view, then it would be ideal if AF_XDP were
automatically used when it was available, instead of adding a new
network device type.  Is there a reason that this point of view is
wrong?  That is, when AF_XDP is available, is there a reason not to use
it?

You said that your goal for the next version is to improve performance
and add optimizations.  Do you think that is important before we merge
the series?  We can continue to improve performance after it is merged.

If we set performance aside, do you have a reason to want to wait to
merge this?  (I wasn't able to easily apply this series to current
master, so it'll need at least a rebase before we apply it.  And I have
only skimmed it, not fully reviewed it.)

It might make sense to squash all of these into a single patch.  I am
not sure that they are really distinct conceptually.


More information about the dev mailing list