PI LIBRARY REPOSITORY

This repository has submodules; after cloning it you should run git submodule update --init --recursive.

Dependencies

Compiler versions

The following compiler versions are supported:

• gcc / g++: >= 5
• clang / clang++: >= 3.8

The following compiler versions are tested in CI:

• gcc / g++: 9.3
• clang / clang++: 8, 10

Dependencies based on configure flags

Based on the command-line flags you intend on providing to configure, you need to install different dependencies.

Configure flag	Default (yes / no)	Dependencies	Remarks
--with-bmv2	no	bmv2 and its deps	Implies --with-fe-cpp
--with-proto	no	Protobuf, gRPC, libboost-thread-dev	-
--with-fe-cpp	no	-	-
--with-internal-rpc	no	nanomsg	-
--with-cli	no	readline	-
--with-sysrepo	no	same as --with-proto + sysrepo and its deps	-

Additional CI tests dependencies

• libtool binary; we use libtool as part of the build system, libtool binary is required to run some of the generated binaries uner valgrind
• valgrind, as some tests use it to check for memory errors
• Boost library, for some of the C++ tests: we currently require boost/optional.hpp and boost/functional/hash.hpp

Installing dependencies from package repositories

Dependency	Ubuntu / Debian	Fedora
readline	libreadline-dev	readline-devel
valgrind	valgrind	valgrind
libtool binary	libtool-bin	libtool
Boost library	libboost-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev	boost-devel boost-system boost-thread
gRPC	Install from source (see below)	grpc-devel grpc-plugins
Protobuf	Install from source (see below)	protobuf-devel

Installing other dependencies from source

Some dependencies are not available as packages or the available version is not compatible.

• bmv2 and all its dependencies: follow instructions in the bmv2 README
• nanomsg 1.0.0
• Protobuf v3.18.1:

git clone --depth=1 -b v3.18.1 https://github.com/google/protobuf.git
cd protobuf/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
[sudo] make install
[sudo] ldconfig

• gRPC v1.43.2:

git clone --depth=1 -b v1.43.2 https://github.com/google/grpc.git
cd grpc/
git submodule update --init --recursive
make
[sudo] make install
[sudo] ldconfig

• sysrepo and all its dependencies: see instructions in proto/README.md

You may be able to use different versions of Protobuf / gRPC, or a more recent version of nanomsg. However, the versions above are the ones we use for development and CI testing. When running configure with --with-proto, the script will verify that Protobuf >= 3.0.0 and gRPC >= 1.3.0 are installed.

Building p4runtime.proto

To include p4runtime.proto in the build, please run configure with --with-proto.

./autogen.sh
./configure --with-proto
make
make check
[sudo] make install

Bazel support

We include tentative support for the Bazel build system. This should enable other Bazel projects to easily import this repository. For the great majority of users who wish to build and install PI, we recommend using the autotools-based build system.

We use bazelisk to install Bazel as part of CI. bazelisk will install the official latest Bazel release.

To build the P4Runtime PI frontend and run the tests:

bazel build //proto/frontend:pifeproto
bazel test //proto/tests:pi_proto_tests

To use PI in another Bazel project, do the following in your WORKSPACE file:

1. Import this project, for example using git_repository.
2. Import dependencies:

load("//bazel:deps.bzl", "PI_deps")
PI_deps()

# Transitive dependencies

load("@com_github_p4lang_p4runtime//:p4runtime_deps.bzl", "p4runtime_deps")
p4runtime_deps()

load("@com_google_protobuf//:protobuf_deps.bzl", "protobuf_deps")
protobuf_deps()

load("@rules_proto//proto:repositories.bzl", "rules_proto_dependencies", "rules_proto_toolchains")
rules_proto_dependencies()
rules_proto_toolchains()

load("@com_google_googleapis//:repository_rules.bzl", "switched_rules_by_language")
switched_rules_by_language(
    name = "com_google_googleapis_imports",
    grpc = True,
    cc = True,
    python = True,
)

load("@com_github_grpc_grpc//bazel:grpc_deps.bzl", "grpc_deps")
grpc_deps()
load("@com_github_grpc_grpc//bazel:grpc_extra_deps.bzl", "grpc_extra_deps")
grpc_extra_deps()
load("@com_github_grpc_grpc//bazel:grpc_python_deps.bzl", "grpc_python_deps")
grpc_python_deps()

load("@rules_python//python:pip.bzl", "pip_import", "pip_repositories")
pip_repositories()
pip_import(
    name = "grpc_python_dependencies",
    requirements = "@com_github_grpc_grpc//:requirements.bazel.txt",
)

load("@grpc_python_dependencies//:requirements.bzl", "pip_install")
pip_install()

load("@com_github_nelhage_rules_boost//:boost/boost.bzl", "boost_deps")
boost_deps()

PI CLI

For now the PI CLI supports an experimental version of table_add and table_delete. Because these two functions have been implemented in the bmv2 PI implementation, you can test the PI CLI with the bmv2 simple_switch. Assuming bmv2 is installed on your system, build the PI and the CLI with ./configure --with-bmv2 --with-cli && make. You can then experiment with the following commands:

simple_switch tests/testdata/simple_router.json  // to start the switch
./CLI/pi_CLI_bmv2 -c tests/testdata/simple_router.json  // to start the CLI
PI CLI> assign_device 0 0 -- port=9090  // 0 0 : device id + config id
PI CLI> table_add ipv4_lpm 10.0.0.1/24 => set_nhop 10.0.0.1 1
PI CLI> table_dump ipv4_lpm
PI CLI> table_delete ipv4_lpm <handle returned by table_add>

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.