Writing a minimal DPDK app

The Smallest Possible DPDK App

A complete DPDK application that reads from one port and writes to another fits in roughly 100 lines of C. The skeleton: include DPDK headers; call rte_eal_init(argc, argv) to initialize EAL; configure the NIC ports (rte_eth_dev_configure, rte_eth_rx_queue_setup, rte_eth_tx_queue_setup, rte_eth_dev_start); enter a polling loop on each worker core; in the loop call rte_eth_rx_burst() to read a batch of packets, process them, then call rte_eth_tx_burst() to send them out the egress port. Memory pools for packet buffers are allocated up front with rte_pktmbuf_pool_create. This is the foundation…