[Xen-devel] [PATCH v6 1/2] public/io/netif.h: clarifications to wire formats

[Paul Durrant <paul.durrant@xxxxxxxxxx>]

My previous patch 03809ae7 "document transmit and receive wire formats
separately" improved documentation of the receive and transmit wire
formats but further clarifications were requested.

This patch adds those clarifications.

Signed-off-by: Paul Durrant <paul.durrant@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Keir Fraser <keir@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Tim Deegan <tim@xxxxxxx>
---

v6:
 - v4 of the original patch was committed so this is an
   incremental version of the patch in v5.

v5:
 - Add extra clarifications.
---
 xen/include/public/io/netif.h | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/xen/include/public/io/netif.h b/xen/include/public/io/netif.h
index 1790ea0..0a3272f 100644
--- a/xen/include/public/io/netif.h
+++ b/xen/include/public/io/netif.h
@@ -154,19 +154,29 @@
  * Guest transmit
  * ==============
  *
- * This is the 'wire' format for packets:
+ * This is the 'wire' format for transmit (frontend -> backend) packets:
+ *
  *  Fragment 1: netif_tx_request_t  - flags = NETTXF_*
  *                                    size = total packet size
  * [Extra 1: netif_extra_info_t]    - (only if fragment 1 flags include
  *                                     NETTXF_extra_info)
+ *  ...
  * [Extra N: netif_extra_info_t]    - (only if extra N-1 flags include
  *                                     XEN_NETIF_EXTRA_MORE)
  *  ...
  *  Fragment N: netif_tx_request_t  - (only if fragment N-1 flags include
- *                                     NETTXF_more_data)
+ *                                     NETTXF_more_data - flags on preceding
+ *                                     extras are not relevent here)
  *                                    flags = 0
  *                                    size = fragment size
  *
+ * NOTE:
+ *
+ * This format slightly is different from that used for receive
+ * (backend -> frontend) packets. Specifically, in a multi-fragment
+ * packet the actual size of fragment 1 can only be determined by
+ * subtracting the sizes of fragments 2..N from the total packet size.
+ *
  * Ring slot size is 12 octets, however not all request/response
  * structs use the full size.
  *
@@ -202,19 +212,29 @@
  * Guest receive
  * =============
  *
- * This is the 'wire' format for packets:
+ * This is the 'wire' format for receive (backend -> frontend) packets:
+ *
  *  Fragment 1: netif_rx_request_t  - flags = NETRXF_*
  *                                    size = fragment size
  * [Extra 1: netif_extra_info_t]    - (only if fragment 1 flags include
  *                                     NETRXF_extra_info)
+ *  ...
  * [Extra N: netif_extra_info_t]    - (only if extra N-1 flags include
  *                                     XEN_NETIF_EXTRA_MORE)
  *  ...
  *  Fragment N: netif_rx_request_t  - (only if fragment N-1 flags include
- *                                     NETRXF_more_data)
+ *                                     NETRXF_more_data - flags on preceding
+ *                                     extras are not relevent here)
  *                                    flags = 0
  *                                    size = fragment size
  *
+ * NOTE:
+ *
+ * This format slightly is different from that used for transmit
+ * (frontend -> backend) packets. Specifically, in a multi-fragment
+ * packet the size of the packet can only be determined by summing the
+ * sizes of fragments 1..N.
+ *
  * Ring slot size is 8 octets.
  *
  * rx request (netif_rx_request_t)
-- 
2.1.4


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