From: Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>
To: dev@dpdk.org
Cc: Long Li <longli@microsoft.com>,
Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>,
Anatoly Burakov <anatoly.burakov@intel.com>
Subject: [PATCH v5 4/4] doc: add warning about control threads
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:08:53 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260819191036.679330-5-stephen@networkplumber.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260819191036.679330-1-stephen@networkplumber.org>
It is not obvious enough that control threads must run for
DPDK to work correctly. Add a caveat to EAL documentation.
Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>
---
doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst | 14 ++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)
diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
index 0e1d044190..f36f9956c6 100644
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
@@ -819,6 +819,20 @@ controlled with tools like taskset (Linux) or cpuset (FreeBSD),
- with affinity restricted to 2-3, the Control Threads will end up on
CPU 2 (main lcore, which is the default when no CPU is available).
+DPDK uses control threads internally and those threads need to be able to run.
+If all available CPUs are used as dataplane lcores,
+control threads fall back to the main lcore and compete with a busy polling loop.
+Ensure that at least a part of one CPU that is available for handling control events.
+
+The effects of control thread starvation are not always obvious,
+and include delayed alarms, missed device and hotplug events, unresponsive telemetry,
+and multi-process requests timing out so that secondary processes fail to start.
+
+.. warning::
+ On Linux, if DPDK lcore threads run under a real-time scheduling policy
+ such as ``SCHED_FIFO`` or ``SCHED_RR`` on the same CPU as a control thread,
+ then kernel events will be missed.
+
.. _eal_known_issue_label:
Known Issues
--
2.53.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-19 19:11 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-13 20:16 [PATCH] eal/linux: harden uevent recv error handling Randy Tice
2026-08-13 22:57 ` Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-17 18:53 ` [PATCH v2] " Randy Tice
2026-08-17 19:23 ` [PATCH v3] " Randy Tice
2026-08-17 20:16 ` [PATCH v4] " Randy Tice
2026-08-18 2:15 ` Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-19 19:08 ` [PATCH v5 0/4] eal: uevent overrun mitigation Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-19 19:08 ` [PATCH v5 1/4] eal/linux: filter uevent Netlink in kernel Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-20 1:38 ` [EXTERNAL] " Long Li
2026-08-19 19:08 ` [PATCH v5 2/4] eal/linux: increase uevent socket buffer Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-20 1:39 ` [EXTERNAL] " Long Li
2026-08-19 19:08 ` [PATCH v5 3/4] eal/linux: report uevent socket overrun Stephen Hemminger
2026-08-20 1:41 ` [EXTERNAL] " Long Li
2026-08-19 19:08 ` Stephen Hemminger [this message]
2026-08-20 0:27 ` [EXTERNAL] [PATCH v5 0/4] eal: uevent overrun mitigation Long Li
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