On Tue, Sep 14, 2021 at 08:58:31AM +0100, Ferruh Yigit wrote: > On 9/10/2021 6:57 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote: > > I could not find anything in the documentation that says what > > testpmd does. This should save other people time trying to > > figure that out in the future. > > > > Signed-off-by: Ben Pfaff <b...@ovn.org> > > --- > > doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/run_app.rst | 6 ++++++ > > 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+) > > > > diff --git a/doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/run_app.rst > > b/doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/run_app.rst > > index 6061674239..7c3406f72b 100644 > > --- a/doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/run_app.rst > > +++ b/doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/run_app.rst > > @@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ a list of available EAL command-line options. > > Testpmd Command-line Options > > ---------------------------- > > > > +By default, testpmd receives packets on each configured port and > > +forwards the received packets to its paired port. Ports 0 and 1 are > > +paired, as are ports 2 and 3, and so on. With an odd number of ports, > > +the last port is paired with itself: packets received on the port are > > +sent back out on the same port. > Hi Ben, > > testpmd has the concept of 'forwarding engine' (struct fwd_engine), which is > decoupled from testpmd logic and can be changed in the runtime. What you > described above is the 'io' (default) forwarding engine. > There are forwarding engines like 'flowgen' that generates and send L3 > packets, > so behaves like a very simple packet generator, etc... > > And even for the 'io' forwarding engine, the paired port description above is > controlled by "--port-topology=<paired|chained|loop>", so for example if the > 'chained' topology is selected, packets will be forwarded as 0 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 > .. > > > Overall, I understand the intention to briefly describe the testpmd, but I > think > it is not correct to reduce the description to packet forwarding, although > that > is an important function of testpmd, it is not only function and testpmd does > much more, it has many control path functions.
I think that someone who maintains testpmd needs to take this patch over, then. I don't know it well enough.
