On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 09:29:47 +0100 Morten Brørup <m...@smartsharesystems.com> wrote:
> > From: Stephen Hemminger [mailto:step...@networkplumber.org] > > Sent: Friday, 16 February 2024 04.05 > > > > On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 23:38:07 +0100 > > Morten Brørup <m...@smartsharesystems.com> wrote: > > > > > > From: Stephen Hemminger [mailto:step...@networkplumber.org] > > > > Sent: Thursday, 11 January 2024 20.55 > > > > > > > > On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:26:56 +0100 > > > > Morten Brørup <m...@smartsharesystems.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > When the documentation specifies a minimum required kernel > > version, > > > > it implicitly claims that DPDK works with that kernel version. > > > > > > > > > > So we should either test with the specified kernel version (which > > > > requires significant effort to set up, so I’m not going to ask for > > > > it!), or add a big fat disclaimer/warning that DPDK is not tested > > with > > > > the mentioned kernel version, and list the kernel versions actually > > > > tested. > > > > > > > > It is much less of an issue than it used to be since there should > > be no > > > > need for > > > > DPDK specific kernel components. The kernel API/ABI is stable > > across > > > > releases > > > > (with the notable exception of BPF). Therefore the DPDK kernel > > version > > > > dependency > > > > is much less than it used to be. > > > > There are three issues here: > > > > 1. Supporting out of date kernel also means supporting out of date > > build environments > > that maybe missing headers. The recent example was the TAP device > > requiring (or cloning > > which is worse) the headers to the FLOWER classifier. If we move > > the kernel version > > to current LTS, then FLOWER is always present. > > 2. Supporting out of date kernel means more test infrastructure. Some > > CI needs to build > > test on older environments. > > 3. The place it impacts current CI is the building on CentOS7. CentOS7 > > is end of life > > do we have to keep it? The compiler also lack good C11 support so > > not sure how CI keeps working. > > > > The way I view it, if you are on an old system, then stick to old DPDK > > LTS version. > > We don't want to here about regressions on end of life systems. > > The system requirements in the Getting Started Guide [1] says: > > Kernel version >= 4.14 > The kernel version required is based on the oldest long term stable kernel > available at kernel.org when the DPDK version is in development. > Compatibility for recent distribution kernels will be kept, notably > RHEL/CentOS 7. We need to drop CentOS 7 soon. https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/linux/centos-linux-eol CentOS Linux 7 will reach end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024.
