Request for flowtable testers and actionable feedback RE: flowtable usable or not

[K. Macy]

I'm re-sending this portion of another mail as it will inevitably not
be read by most readers by virtue of having been part of a long and
digressive thread.

subject line: "flowtable usable or not"

It is possible to re-structure the routing code to have a smaller
cache footprint / shorter lookup time / and eliminate all locking in
the packet transmit path (ip_output, ip_forward). However, it would
take more time and effort than I have to do so as a recreational
activity. The set of people able to fund such an effort is
non-intersecting with the set of people who would benefit the most
heavily from it. Hence, for the time being, for those who want to be
able to approach anywhere near 1Mpps, much less 10 or 15 times that,
whilst continuing to use the regular stack (i.e. not running netmap)
we are left only with flowtable for bypassing the locking and compute
overhead of per-packet route lookups.

It is beyond debate that under some, if not many, circumstances
flowtable was unusable and perhaps continues to be. Hence, any further
reports of "it was broken so I turned it off, and now my life is
better" should be left unsent. If you, the reader, are willing to
contribute to the testing of changes, provide backtraces from cores
etc. please follow up.


Thank you for your support.

Cheers,
Kip


--
   “The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'get by.'
The ordinary men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t
want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves.
Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of
their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those
who don’t like to make waves—or enemies.

   Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only
literature. Those who live small, love small, die small. It’s the
reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it
under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find
you.

   But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who
roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?!
>From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to
the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out
just like a flaming torch does.

   I choose my own way to burn.”

   Sophie Scholl