# An Overview of SPDK Applications {#app_overview} SPDK is primarily a development kit that delivers libraries and header files for use in other applications. However, SPDK also contains a number of applications. These applications are primarily used to test the libraries, but many are full featured and high quality. The major applications in SPDK are: - @ref iscsi - @ref nvmf - @ref vhost - SPDK Target (a unified application combining the above three) There are also a number of tools and examples in the `examples` directory. The SPDK targets are all based on a common framework so they have much in common. The framework defines a concept called a `subsystem` and all functionality is implemented in various subsystems. Subsystems have a unified initialization and teardown path. # Configuring SPDK Applications {#app_config} ## Command Line Parameters {#app_cmd_line_args} The SPDK application framework defines a set of base command line flags for all applications that use it. Specific applications may implement additional flags. Param | Long Param | Type | Default | Description -------- | ---------------------- | -------- | ---------------------- | ----------- -c | --config | string | | @ref cmd_arg_config_file -d | --limit-coredump | flag | false | @ref cmd_arg_limit_coredump -e | --tpoint-group-mask | integer | 0x0 | @ref cmd_arg_limit_tpoint_group_mask -g | --single-file-segments | flag | | @ref cmd_arg_single_file_segments -h | --help | flag | | show all available parameters and exit -i | --shm-id | integer | | @ref cmd_arg_multi_process -m | --cpumask | CPU mask | 0x1 | application @ref cpu_mask -n | --mem-channels | integer | all channels | number of memory channels used for DPDK -p | --master-core | integer | first core in CPU mask | master (primary) core for DPDK -r | --rpc-socket | string | /var/tmp/spdk.sock | RPC listen address -s | --mem-size | integer | all hugepage memory | @ref cmd_arg_memory_size | | --silence-noticelog | flag | | disable notice level logging to `stderr` -u | --no-pci | flag | | @ref cmd_arg_disable_pci_access. | | --wait-for-rpc | flag | | @ref cmd_arg_deferred_initialization -B | --pci-blacklist | B:D:F | | @ref cmd_arg_pci_blacklist_whitelist. -W | --pci-whitelist | B:D:F | | @ref cmd_arg_pci_blacklist_whitelist. -R | --huge-unlink | flag | | @ref cmd_arg_huge_unlink | | --huge-dir | string | the first discovered | allocate hugepages from a specific mount -L | --logflag | string | | @ref cmd_arg_debug_log_flags ### Configuration file {#cmd_arg_config_file} Historically, the SPDK applications were configured using a configuration file. This is still supported, but is considered deprecated in favor of JSON RPC configuration. See @ref jsonrpc for details. Note that `--config` and `--wait-for-rpc` cannot be used at the same time. ### Limit coredump {#cmd_arg_limit_coredump} By default, an SPDK application will set resource limits for core file sizes to RLIM_INFINITY. Specifying `--limit-coredump` will not set the resource limits. ### Tracepoint group mask {#cmd_arg_limit_tpoint_group_mask} SPDK has an experimental low overhead tracing framework. Tracepoints in this framework are organized into tracepoint groups. By default, all tracepoint groups are disabled. `--tpoint-group-mask` can be used to enable a specific subset of tracepoint groups in the application. Note: Additional documentation on the tracepoint framework is in progress. ### Deferred initialization {#cmd_arg_deferred_initialization} SPDK applications progress through a set of states beginning with `STARTUP` and ending with `RUNTIME`. If the `--wait-for-rpc` parameter is provided SPDK will pause just before starting subsystem initialization. This state is called `STARTUP`. The JSON RPC server is ready but only a small subsystem of commands are available to set up initialization parameters. Those parameters can't be changed after the SPDK application enters `RUNTIME` state. When the client finishes configuring the SPDK subsystems it needs to issue the @ref rpc_start_subsystem_init RPC command to begin the initialization process. After `rpc_start_subsystem_init` returns `true` SPDK will enter the `RUNTIME` state and the list of available commands becomes much larger. To see which RPC methods are available in the current state, issue the `rpc_get_methods` with the parameter `current` set to `true`. For more details see @ref jsonrpc documentation. ### Create just one hugetlbfs file {#cmd_arg_single_file_segments} Instead of creating one hugetlbfs file per page, this option makes SPDK create one file per hugepages per socket. This is needed for @ref virtio to be used with more than 8 hugepages. See @ref virtio_2mb. ### Multi process mode {#cmd_arg_multi_process} When `--shm-id` is specified, the application is started in multi-process mode. Applications using the same shm-id share their memory and [NVMe devices](@ref nvme_multi_process). The first app to start with a given id becomes a primary process, with the rest, called secondary processes, only attaching to it. When the primary process exits, the secondary ones continue to operate, but no new processes can be attached at this point. All processes within the same shm-id group must use the same [--single-file-segments setting](@ref cmd_arg_single_file_segments). ### Memory size {#cmd_arg_memory_size} Total size of the hugepage memory to reserve. If DPDK env layer is used, it will reserve memory from all available hugetlbfs mounts, starting with the one with the highest page size. This option accepts a number of bytes with a possible binary prefix, e.g. 1024, 1024M, 1G. The default unit is megabyte. Starting with DPDK 18.05.1, it's possible to reserve hugepages at runtime, meaning that SPDK application can be started with 0 pre-reserved memory. Unlike hugepages pre-reserved at the application startup, the hugepages reserved at runtime will be released to the system as soon as they're no longer used. ### Disable PCI access {#cmd_arg_disable_pci_access} If SPDK is run with PCI access disabled it won't detect any PCI devices. This includes primarily NVMe and IOAT devices. Also, the VFIO and UIO kernel modules are not required in this mode. ### PCI address blacklist and whitelist {#cmd_arg_pci_blacklist_whitelist} If blacklist is used, then all devices with the provided PCI address will be ignored. If a whitelist is used, only whitelisted devices will be probed. `-B` or `-W` can be used more than once, but cannot be mixed together. That is, `-B` and `-W` cannot be used at the same time. ### Unlink hugepage files after initialization {#cmd_arg_huge_unlink} By default, each DPDK-based application tries to remove any orphaned hugetlbfs files during its initialization. This option removes hugetlbfs files of the current process as soon as they're created, but is not compatible with `--shm-id`. ### Debug log {#cmd_arg_debug_log_flags} Enable a specific debug log type. This option can be used more than once. A list of all available types is provided in the `--help` output, with `--logflag all` enabling all of them. Debug logs are only available in debug builds of SPDK. ## CPU mask {#cpu_mask} Whenever the `CPU mask` is mentioned it is a string in one of the following formats: - Case insensitive hexadecimal string with or without "0x" prefix. - Comma separated list of CPUs or list of CPU ranges. Use '-' to define range. ### Example The following CPU masks are equal and correspond to CPUs 0, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12: ~~~ 0x1f07 0x1F07 1f07 [0,1,2,8-12] [0, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] ~~~