Re: [PATCH net-next v5 00/14] net: intel: start The Great Code Dedup + Page Pool for iavf

[Przemek Kitszel]

On 11/27/23 10:04, Jiri Pirko wrote:
> Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 04:47:18PM CET, aleksander.lobakin@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Here's a two-shot: introduce Intel Ethernet common library (libie) and
> > switch iavf to Page Pool. Details are in the commit messages; here's
> > a summary:
> >
> > Not a secret there's a ton of code duplication between two and more Intel
> > ethernet modules. Before introducing new changes, which would need to be
> > copied over again, start decoupling the already existing duplicate
> > functionality into a new module, which will be shared between several
> > Intel Ethernet drivers. The first name that came to my mind was
> > "libie" -- "Intel Ethernet common library". Also this sounds like
> > "lovelie" (-> one word, no "lib I E" pls) and can be expanded as
> > "lib Internet Explorer" :P
> > The series is only the beginning. From now on, adding every new feature
> > or doing any good driver refactoring will remove much more lines than add
> > for quite some time. There's a basic roadmap with some deduplications
> > planned already, not speaking of that touching every line now asks:
> > "can I share this?". The final destination is very ambitious: have only
> > one unified driver for at least i40e, ice, iavf, and idpf with a struct
> > ops for each generation. That's never gonna happen, right? But you still
> > can at least try.
> > PP conversion for iavf lands within the same series as these two are tied
> > closely. libie will support Page Pool model only, so that a driver can't
> > use much of the lib until it's converted. iavf is only the example, the
> > rest will eventually be converted soon on a per-driver basis. That is
> > when it gets really interesting. Stay tech.
>
> The world would not be the same without intel driver duplicates :/

:D

> Out of curiosity, what changed? I always thought this is
> done for sake of easier out of tree driver development and old device
> support dropping.

Some of Intel folks, with Olek as one of leading examples, really care
about our upstream drivers.

Recently (on HW-company timescale) Intel recognizes high costs of
current duplicated-SW model, and I believe we will follow more modern-SW
model where you apply such novel methodologies as code reuse via lib.
(Disclaimer: it's not an official statement).

OTOH our OOT drivers would benefit from libie too, but that was not a
driving force.