On Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:45:08 +0100
Bruce Richardson <[email protected]> wrote:
> This patchset reworks how configuration is stored and managed in EAL.
> The existing "internal_config", "rte_config", "lcore_config" structures,
> which sometimes have arbitrary separation between them (especially the
> first two) are replaced by three new structures with clearly defined
> roles:
>
> - eal_platform_info - contains the raw HW info for the system, details
> of CPUs and hugepage mounts. This is initialized on first use - even
> before EAL init is called - and is then immutable, since our HW should
> not change much underneath us. Its early availability means that it
> can be used to sanity check the contents of the other structs as they
> are being built up.
>
> - eal_user_cfg - contains the config settings passed in by the user. For
> existing rte_eal_init, this is built up in the arg parse stage, and
> it's contents verified against the platform info, e.g. to check core
> masks are valid etc. Once argument parsing is completed, is also
> immutable.
>
> - runtime_cfg - basically all the runtime settings that need to be there
> for DPDK to run, or which change over time. Largely combined content
> of the old rte_config, internal_config and lcore_config structs. This
> is initialized from the other two structs by eal initialization and
> can be modified by EAL at any time.
>
> Once that is done, we have a clean separation between user provided
> configuration and the rest of EAL, we can split EAL init into two parts,
> the first of which parses cmdline arguments and then calls the second
> which takes the eal_user_cfg struct result of that parse and does the
> actual initialization. The longer-term objective is to have other
> first-stage functions that prepare the user_cfg struct for
> initialization, so that we can move away from argc/argv as the only
> method of configuring DPDK initialization.
>
> Bruce Richardson (39):
> telemetry: make cpuset init parameter const
> argparse: check for range overflow in CPU lists
> eal: define new functionally distinct config structs
> eal: move memory request fields to user config
> eal: move NUMA request fields to user config
> eal: move hugepage policy fields to user config
> eal: move process policy fields to user config
> eal: move hugepage limit fields to new config structs
> eal: move advanced user config options to user cfg struct
> eal: move hugepage size info to platform info struct
> eal: move runtime state to appropriate structure
> eal: record details of all cpus in platform info
> eal: use platform info for lcore lookups
> eal: add macro for lowest set CPU bit in a set
> eal: store lcore configuration in runtime data
> eal: move core indices bitset to runtime state
> eal: cleanup CPU init function
> eal: move NUMA node information to platform info struct
> eal: move lcore role and count to runtime state
> eal: make lcore role a field in lcore config struct
> eal: move main lcore setting to runtime config struct
> eal: move IOVA mode and process type to runtime cfg
> eal: move memory config pointer to runtime state struct
> eal: remove rte_config structure
> eal: separate runtime state update from arg parsing
> eal: move device options staging list into user cfg
> eal: separate plugin paths from loaded plugin objects
> eal: simplify internal driver path iteration APIs
> eal: move trace config into user config struct
> eal: record service cores in user config struct
> eal: store user-provided lcore info in user config struct
> eal: clarify docs on params taking lcore IDs
> eal: remove internal config reset function
> eal: move functions setting runtime state
> eal: initialize platform info on first use
> eal: remove duplicated scan of sysfs for hugepage details
> eal: add utilities for working with user config struct
> eal: split EAL init into two stages
> eal: provide hooks for init with externally supplied config
>
> app/test/process.h | 4 +-
> app/test/test_argparse.c | 10 +
> doc/guides/linux_gsg/eal_args.include.rst | 38 +-
> lib/argparse/rte_argparse.c | 5 +
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_bus.c | 4 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_config.c | 264 ++++++-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_dev.c | 10 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_dynmem.c | 70 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_fbarray.c | 10 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_launch.c | 25 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_lcore.c | 267 ++++---
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_mcfg.c | 44 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_memalloc.c | 5 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_memory.c | 104 ++-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_memzone.c | 24 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_options.c | 899 ++++++++--------------
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_proc.c | 43 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_tailqs.c | 6 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_thread.c | 67 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_timer.c | 2 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_trace.c | 30 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_common_trace_utils.c | 104 ---
> lib/eal/common/eal_hugepages.h | 8 +
> lib/eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h | 386 ++++++++--
> lib/eal/common/eal_memcfg.h | 3 +
> lib/eal/common/eal_option_list.h | 6 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_options.h | 8 +-
> lib/eal/common/eal_private.h | 121 ++-
> lib/eal/common/eal_trace.h | 11 -
> lib/eal/common/malloc_elem.c | 15 +-
> lib/eal/common/malloc_heap.c | 41 +-
> lib/eal/common/malloc_mp.c | 2 +-
> lib/eal/common/rte_malloc.c | 14 +-
> lib/eal/common/rte_service.c | 17 +-
> lib/eal/freebsd/eal.c | 287 ++++---
> lib/eal/freebsd/eal_hugepage_info.c | 78 +-
> lib/eal/freebsd/eal_lcore.c | 16 +-
> lib/eal/freebsd/eal_memory.c | 46 +-
> lib/eal/freebsd/include/rte_os.h | 2 +
> lib/eal/include/rte_eal.h | 35 +-
> lib/eal/include/rte_memzone.h | 10 +-
> lib/eal/include/rte_tailq.h | 2 +-
> lib/eal/linux/eal.c | 296 ++++---
> lib/eal/linux/eal_hugepage_info.c | 231 +++---
> lib/eal/linux/eal_lcore.c | 43 ++
> lib/eal/linux/eal_memalloc.c | 168 ++--
> lib/eal/linux/eal_memory.c | 168 ++--
> lib/eal/linux/eal_timer_hpet.c | 21 +-
> lib/eal/linux/eal_vfio.c | 11 +-
> lib/eal/linux/include/rte_os.h | 10 +
> lib/eal/unix/eal_unix_thread.c | 11 +-
> lib/eal/windows/eal.c | 193 +++--
> lib/eal/windows/eal_hugepages.c | 60 +-
> lib/eal/windows/eal_lcore.c | 6 +
> lib/eal/windows/eal_memalloc.c | 37 +-
> lib/eal/windows/eal_memory.c | 14 +-
> lib/eal/windows/eal_thread.c | 11 +-
> lib/eal/windows/eal_windows.h | 8 -
> lib/eal/windows/include/rte_os.h | 1 +
> lib/eal/windows/include/sched.h | 10 +
> lib/telemetry/telemetry.c | 4 +-
> lib/telemetry/telemetry_internal.h | 2 +-
> 62 files changed, 2499 insertions(+), 1949 deletions(-)
>
> --
> 2.53.0
>
Ran deeper AI review on this and it found a couple small things:
Review of "eal: rework EAL initialization" (39 patches)
Series applies cleanly to main (9231dc7). All 39 commits build individually
with -Dwerror=true, so bisect is safe. Findings verified against the merged
tree rather than the diffs alone.
Patch 02/39 - argparse: check for range overflow in CPU lists
Warning: missing Fixes: and Cc: stable.
This is an out-of-bounds write, not a cleanup - CPU_SET(min, cpuset) with
min >= CPU_SETSIZE writes past the end of rte_cpuset_t. The introducing
commit is in v25.11, so it needs backporting:
Fixes: d78103fb9488 ("argparse: support core lists")
Cc: [email protected]
The fix itself is correct and complete: all three branches assign max before
the new check, min >= 0 is guaranteed by the isdigit() gate, and min <= max
holds in every branch, so the CPU_SET loop is fully bounded.
Patch 33/39 - eal: remove internal config reset function
Error: removing eal_reset_internal_config() drops the lock_descriptor = -1
preset, which can lead to close(0) on stdin. Linux only.
The deleted function did:
for (i = 0; i < MAX_HUGEPAGE_SIZES; i++) {
memset(&internal_cfg->hugepage_info[i], 0, ...);
internal_cfg->hugepage_info[i].lock_descriptor = -1;
}
That -1 was the invariant eal_hugedirs_unlock() relied on. hugepage_info[]
now lives in eal_runtime_state, which is a static initialised only with
.mem_config, so every lock_descriptor starts at 0 - a valid fd.
This patch compensates by widening the guard:
if (hugepage_info[i].hugepage_sz == 0 ||
hugepage_info[i].lock_descriptor < 0)
continue;
but hugepage_sz == 0 is not a sufficient proxy. In hugepage_info_init()
(lib/eal/linux/eal_hugepage_info.c) hpi->hugepage_sz is assigned *before*
the mountpoint check, and the no-mountpoint path continues without ever
assigning lock_descriptor:
hpi = &rs->hugepage_info[num_sizes];
hpi->hugepage_sz = hps->size; /* set first */
if (get_hugepage_dir(...) < 0) {
if (user_cfg->in_memory) {
calc_num_pages(hpi, hps, 0);
num_sizes++; /* entry accepted */
}
continue; /* lock_descriptor never set */
}
hpi->lock_descriptor = open(hpi->hugedir, O_RDONLY);
Two reachable cases:
(a) --in-memory with a reserved-but-unmounted size (e.g. 1G reserved,
only 2M mounted). The entry is accepted with hugepage_sz != 0 and
lock_descriptor == 0.
(b) Default mode where the *last* size has no mountpoint. num_sizes is
not incremented, so slot [num_sizes] keeps a nonzero hugepage_sz with
lock_descriptor == 0. eal_hugedirs_unlock() iterates to
MAX_HUGEPAGE_SIZES, not num_hugepage_sizes, so it still visits it.
In both, the guard passes and the code runs flock(0, LOCK_UN) followed by
close(0) on the normal init path (lib/eal/linux/eal.c:831, unconditional
after rte_eal_memory_init()). Confirmed with a standalone harness
reproducing the two functions' control flow.
FreeBSD is unaffected (single entry, fd assigned unconditionally, no
unlock loop); Windows sets -1 explicitly in eal_hugepages.c.
Simplest fix is to restore the invariant rather than widen the guard - set
lock_descriptor = -1 for all MAX_HUGEPAGE_SIZES entries when runtime state
is set up, or initialise the entry immediately after hugepage_sz is
assigned in hugepage_info_init(). Bounding the unlock loop by
num_hugepage_sizes would fix (b) but not (a).
The other non-zero defaults from the deleted function are all preserved
correctly: hugepage_file.unlink_existing, no_hpet, and
max_simd_bitwidth.bitwidth are in EAL_USER_CFG_INITIALIZER, and
RTE_IOVA_DC / RTE_INTR_MODE_NONE / RTE_PROC_PRIMARY are all genuinely 0.
lock_descriptor is the only one lost.
Patch 29/39 - eal: move trace config into user config struct
Warning: --trace-dir accumulate semantics changed, plus a leak on repeat.
The old path went through trace_dir_update(), which concatenated onto any
existing value:
asprintf(&dir, "%s%s", trace->dir != NULL ? trace->dir : "", str);
The new code does a plain asprintf into user_cfg->trace_dir. Passing
--trace-dir more than once now replaces rather than appends, and the
earlier allocation leaks since trace_dir is overwritten without a free.
If the replace behaviour is intended, worth saying so in the commit
message; otherwise free the previous value first.
Patch 39/39 - eal: provide hooks for init with externally supplied config
Error: rte_eal_runtime_init() returns -1 without setting rte_errno on the
platform-info path. Identical in all three platform copies:
if (rte_eal_get_platform_info() == NULL) {
rte_eal_init_alert("Platform information is not available.");
return -1; /* rte_errno not set */
}
The other two error paths in the same function set EINVAL and EALREADY,
and the equivalent path in rte_eal_init() sets ENOTSUP. A caller checking
rte_errno gets a stale value. Suggest rte_errno = ENOTSUP to match.
Warning: the stated purpose is not reachable as posted.
The commit message says the hooks let "other libraries init EAL by passing
in that structure pre-configured", but struct eal_user_cfg and both new
prototypes live in lib/eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h. lib/meson.build:143
only adds eal/common to the include path when RTE_LIB_EAL is not yet set,
i.e. for EAL's own sub-build; afterwards dependent libraries get
deps += ['eal'], which exposes only EAL's public include dirs. No in-tree
library can declare the type or call the function without the explicit
include_directories() hack used by drivers/common/mlx5/linux/meson.build.
Either make the header reachable or note that a follow-up is required.
Warning: both new __rte_internal symbols have no in-tree consumer and no
test, so the deep-copy path in eal_user_cfg_copy() is never exercised by
anything. A test driving rte_eal_runtime_init() with a hand-populated
config would be worth adding alongside.
Info: eal_internal_cfg.h uses #include "rte_compat.h" while every other
public RTE header in the same file uses angle brackets.
Checked and found correct
Recording these so they are not re-reviewed:
- eal_user_cfg_copy() deep copy is sound. device_option uses a flexible
char arg[], so calloc(1, sizeof(*copy) + arglen) is right;
eal_plugin_path uses a fixed char name[PATH_MAX], so malloc(sizeof(*p))
plus memcpy(..., sizeof(name)) is right. Both lists, trace patterns, all
four heap strings and the per-lcore cpusets are deep-copied, so cleaning
up both user_cfg_from_args and the global config is not a double free.
The error path calls eal_user_cfg_cleanup(dst), which is idempotent, so
the later eal_cleanup_config() in eal_runtime_init()'s err_out is safe.
- EAL_USER_CFG_INITIALIZER(self): the self-referencing
TAILQ_HEAD_INITIALIZER((self).devopt_list) is legal - the object's scope
begins after its declarator, and tqh_last correctly points at the final
object rather than the compound-literal temporary.
- rte_eal_get_platform_info() double-checked locking has correct
acquire/release pairing under a spinlock.
- rte_eal_cpu_init() error paths all free and NULL both cpu_info and
numa_nodes, so the caller's fail label cannot double-free. No leak on the
numa_node_count > RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES path.
- eal_expand_cpuset_to_map() and the --lcores parser both NULL entries as
they free, so the later eal_user_cfg_cleanup() is safe.
- Every added malloc/calloc/strdup/asprintf checks its return.
sprintf(pattern, "%s*", ...) into calloc(1, len + 2) is exactly sized.
- No public ABI change; the only new exports are two
RTE_EXPORT_INTERNAL_SYMBOLs and no version.map is hand-edited.
