Part 2: Development Environment

31. Source Organization

This section describes the organization of sources in the DPDK framework.

31.1. Makefiles and Config

Note

In the following descriptions, RTE_SDK is the environment variable that points to the base directory into which the tarball was extracted. See Useful Variables Provided by the Build System for descriptions of other variables.

Makefiles that are provided by the DPDK libraries and applications are located in $(RTE_SDK)/mk.

Config templates are located in $(RTE_SDK)/config. The templates describe the options that are enabled for each target. The config file also contains items that can be enabled and disabled for many of the DPDK libraries, including debug options. The user should look at the config file and become familiar with the options. The config file is also used to create a header file, which will be located in the new build directory.

31.2. Libraries

Libraries are located in subdirectories of $(RTE_SDK)/lib. By convention, we call a library any code that provides an API to an application. Typically, it generates an archive file (.a), but a kernel module should also go in the same directory.

The lib directory contains:

lib
+-- librte_cmdline      # command line interface helper
+-- librte_distributor  # packet distributor
+-- librte_eal          # environment abstraction layer
+-- librte_ether        # generic interface to poll mode driver
+-- librte_hash         # hash library
+-- librte_ip_frag      # IP fragmentation library
+-- librte_ivshmem      # QEMU IVSHMEM library
+-- librte_kni          # kernel NIC interface
+-- librte_kvargs       # argument parsing library
+-- librte_lpm          # longest prefix match library
+-- librte_malloc       # malloc-like functions
+-- librte_mbuf         # packet and control mbuf manipulation library
+-- librte_mempool      # memory pool manager (fixedsized objects)
+-- librte_meter        # QoS metering library
+-- librte_net          # various IP-related headers
+-- librte_pmd_bond     # bonding poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_e1000    # 1GbE poll mode drivers (igb and em)
+-- librte_pmd_ixgbe    # 10GbE poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_i40e     # 40GbE poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_pcap     # PCAP poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_ring     # ring poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_virtio   # virtio poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_vmxnet3  # VMXNET3 poll mode driver
+-- librte_pmd_xenvirt  # Xen virtio poll mode driver
+-- librte_power        # power management library
+-- librte_ring         # software rings (act as lockless FIFOs)
+-- librte_sched        # QoS scheduler and dropper library
+-- librte_timer        # timer library

31.3. Applications

Applications are sources that contain a main() function. They are located in the $(RTE_SDK)/app and $(RTE_SDK)/examples directories.

The app directory contains sample applications that are used to test the DPDK (autotests). The examples directory contains sample applications that show how libraries can be used.

app
+-- chkincs            # test prog to check include depends
+-- test               # autotests, to validate DPDK features
`-- test-pmd           # test and bench poll mode driver examples

examples
+-- cmdline            # Example of using cmdline library
+-- dpdk_qat           # Example showing integration with Intel QuickAssist
+-- exception_path     # Sending packets to and from Linux ethernet device (TAP)
+-- helloworld         # Helloworld basic example
+-- ip_reassembly      # Example showing IP Reassembly
+-- ip_fragmentation   # Example showing IPv4 Fragmentation
+-- ipv4_multicast     # Example showing IPv4 Multicast
+-- kni                # Kernel NIC Interface example
+-- l2fwd              # L2 Forwarding example with and without SR-IOV
+-- l3fwd              # L3 Forwarding example
+-- l3fwd-power        # L3 Forwarding example with power management
+-- l3fwd-vf           # L3 Forwarding example with SR-IOV
+-- link_status_interrupt # Link status change interrupt example
+-- load_balancer      # Load balancing across multiple cores/sockets
+-- multi_process      # Example applications with multiple DPDK processes
+-- qos_meter          # QoS metering example
+-- qos_sched          # QoS scheduler and dropper example
+-- timer              # Example of using librte_timer library
+-- vmdq_dcb           # Intel 82599 Ethernet Controller VMDQ and DCB receiving
+-- vmdq               # Example of VMDQ receiving for both Intel 10G (82599) and 1G (82576, 82580 and I350) Ethernet Controllers
`-- vhost              # Example of userspace vhost and switch

Note

The actual examples directory may contain additional sample applications to those shown above. Check the latest DPDK source files for details.