Imported Upstream version 16.07-rc1

[deb_dpdk.git] / doc / guides / prog_guide / poll_mode_drv.rst

diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/poll_mode_drv.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/poll_mode_drv.rst
index 7698692..bf3ea9f 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/poll_mode_drv.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/poll_mode_drv.rst
@@ -299,10 +299,23 @@ Extended Statistics API
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 The extended statistics API allows each individual PMD to expose a unique set
-of statistics. The client of the API provides an array of
-``struct rte_eth_xstats`` type. Each ``struct rte_eth_xstats`` contains a
-string and value pair. The amount of xstats exposed, and position of the
-statistic in the array must remain constant during runtime.
+of statistics. Accessing these from application programs is done via two
+functions:
+
+* ``rte_eth_xstats_get``: Fills in an array of ``struct rte_eth_xstat``
+  with extended statistics.
+* ``rte_eth_xstats_get_names``: Fills in an array of
+  ``struct rte_eth_xstat_name`` with extended statistic name lookup
+  information.
+
+Each ``struct rte_eth_xstat`` contains an identifier and value pair, and
+each ``struct rte_eth_xstat_name`` contains a string. Each identifier
+within the ``struct rte_eth_xstat`` lookup array must have a corresponding
+entry in the ``struct rte_eth_xstat_name`` lookup array. Within the latter
+the index of the entry is the identifier the string is associated with.
+These identifiers, as well as the number of extended statistic exposed, must
+remain constant during runtime. Note that extended statistic identifiers are
+driver-specific, and hence might not be the same for different ports.
 
 A naming scheme exists for the strings exposed to clients of the API. This is
 to allow scraping of the API for statistics of interest. The naming scheme uses