Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v2 (v20.11) 2/2] eal: improve device probing API

[Thomas Monjalon <thomas@monjalon.net>]

25/06/2020 10:04, Maxime Coquelin:
> This patch makes rte_dev_probe() to return the
> rte_device pointer on success and NULL on error
> instead of returning 0 on success and negative
> value on error.
> 
> The goal is to avoid that the calling application
> iterates the devices list afterwards to retrieve
> the pointer. Retrieving the pointer is required
> for calling rte_dev_remove() later.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin@redhat.com>
> ---
> --- a/lib/librte_eal/include/rte_dev.h
> +++ b/lib/librte_eal/include/rte_dev.h
> @@ -148,9 +148,9 @@ int rte_eal_hotplug_add(const char *busname, const char *devname,
>   * @param devargs
>   *   Device arguments including bus, class and driver properties.
>   * @return
> - *   0 on success, negative on error.
> + *   Generic device pointer on success, NULL on error.
>   */
> -int rte_dev_probe(const char *devargs);
> +struct rte_device *rte_dev_probe(const char *devargs);

Sorry for not catching it earlier, I think this change is against
the idea of having a generic devargs syntax.
One string could identify multiple devices.
And a successful probe does not mean there is a new rte_device
(can be an update, allowing more ports on the same device).