Re: [PATCH v10 0/6] flow_parser: add shared parser library

[Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>]

On Mon,  2 Feb 2026 12:36:52 +0100
Lukas Sismis <sismis@dyna-nic.com> wrote:

> This series extracts the testpmd flow CLI parser into a reusable library,
> enabling external applications to parse rte_flow rules using testpmd syntax.
> 
> Motivation
> ----------
> External applications like Suricata IDS [1] need to express hardware filtering
> rules in a consistent, human-readable format. Rather than inventing custom
> syntax, reusing testpmd's well-tested flow grammar provides immediate
> compatibility with existing documentation and user knowledge.
> 
> Note: This library provides only one way to create rte_flow structures.
> Applications can also construct rte_flow_attr, rte_flow_item[], and
> rte_flow_action[] directly in C code.
> 
> Design
> ------
> The library (librte_flow_parser) exposes the following APIs:
> - rte_flow_parser_parse_attr_str(): Parse attributes only
> - rte_flow_parser_parse_pattern_str(): Parse patterns only
> - rte_flow_parser_parse_actions_str(): Parse actions only
> 
> Testpmd is updated to use the library, ensuring a single
> maintained parser implementation.
> 
> Testing and Demo
> -------
> - Functional tests in dpdk-test
> - Example application: examples/flow_parsing

I am working on being able to use null PMD to exercise rte_flow.
Will add another automated test to exercise flow parser in automated test.