P4 Installation Tutorial

Last update: 2021.4.16

This tutorial shows how to install P4 and its dependencies from scratch. PI (An implementation framework for a P4Runtime server), p4c (P4_16 reference compiler) and behavior-model (The reference P4 software switch), which are all the components you need to run p4 programs, will be installed. When finishing installation, you can play with p4 tutorial.

The installation is tested on Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS. The whole installation may take 2 hours depending on network condition. At least 25 Gbytes of free disk space is needed.

It is recommended to install the parts following the order listed below. The version of the packages and repos must follow the instructions. Any mismatch version may cause unsuccessful installation.

To check latest package and repo versions, visit https://github.com/p4lang/tutorials/blob/master/vm/user-bootstrap.sh and get new versions from the bash file.

Step1: Install dependencies

install basic dependencies needed for P4.

sudo apt-get install -y cmake g++ git automake libtool libgc-dev bison flex libfl-dev libgmp-dev libboost-dev libboost-iostreams-dev libboost-graph-dev llvm pkg-config python python-scapy python-ipaddr python-ply tcpdump graphviz golang libpcre3-dev libpcre3 curl mininet lsb-release

install doxygen (optional)

sudo apt-get install -y texlive-full doxygen

install dependencies needed for P4 behavior model version 2

git clone https://github.com/p4lang/behavioral-model.git
cd behavioral-model
./install_deps.sh
cd ..

install protobuf
```
sudo pip install protobuf==3.2.0
```
```
git clone https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf.git
cd protobuf
git checkout v3.2.0
export CFLAGS="-Os"
export CXXFLAGS="-Os"
export LDFLAGS="-Wl,-s"
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
unset CFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS
cd ..
```
Note: when ./configure runs with --prefix=/usr, protobuf v3.2 will be installed under /usr directory. Otherwise protobuf v3.2 will be installed under /usr/local directory. Programs under /usr/local have higher priority than those under /usr by default.

If there are multiple protobufs of different versions installed, please ensure that the protobuf v3.2 acquires highest priority to meet the requirement from PI,p4c,etc.
```
protoc --version
> libprotoc 3.2.0
```
To delete different version of protobuf, delete libprotoc*, protoc in bin, include, share, lib folder.
install grpc
```
sudo pip install grpcio
sudo pip install psutil
```
```
git clone https://github.com/google/grpc.git
cd grpc
git checkout v1.3.2
git submodule update --init --recursive
export LDFLAGS="-Wl,-s"
make
```
submodule boringssl and boringssl-with-bazel are different branches of the same repo boringssl. If the compiling process stops and the following error occurs:
```
cc1: warnings being treated as errors
```
Open and edit Makefile. In the line that starts with CPPFLAGS, remove -Werror flag. Save and close Makefile. Then run make clean and make. This time the compiling should work well.
```
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
unset LDFLAGS
cd ..
```

install sysrepo and its dependencies libyang

git clone https://github.com/CESNET/libyang.git
cd libyang
git checkout v1.0.184
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ../..

git clone https://github.com/sysrepo/sysrepo.git
cd sysrepo
git checkout v1.4.70
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=Off -DCALL_TARGET_BINS_DIRECTLY=Off ..
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ../..

Step2: Install P4

PI

git clone https://github.com/p4lang/PI
cd PI
git checkout 41358da0ff32c94fa13179b9cee0ab597c9ccbcc
git submodule update --init --recursive
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-proto
make
make check
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ..

behavioral-model

cd behavioral-model
git checkout b447ac4c0cfd83e5e72a3cc6120251c1e91128ab
./autogen.sh

To enable switch logging:

./configure --enable-debugger --with-pi

For higher performance:

./configure --with-pi 'CXXFLAGS=-g -O3' 'CFLAGS=-g -O3' --disable-logging-macros --disable-elogger

make
make check
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

cd targets/simple_switch_grpc
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-thrift
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ../../..

run simple_switch to check whether successfully installed simple_switch.

p4c

git clone https://github.com/p4lang/p4c.git
cd p4c
git checkout 69e132d0d663e3408d740aaf8ed534ecefc88810
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make check
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ../..

run p4c --help to check whether successfully installed p4c.

No error? Congratulations! You have successfully installed everything you need for P4.

Have fun with P4!

Step3 (optional): run a p4 program

You can now follow p4 tutorial to learn P4. To run Basic Forwarding exercise, execute:

  git clone https://github.com/p4lang/tutorials.git
  cd tutorials/exercises/basic
  make clean
  make run

You should now see a Mininet command prompt. Try to ping between hosts in the topology:

  h1 ping h2

Type exit to leave each xterm and the Mininet command line. Then, to stop mininet:

  make stop

And to delete all pcaps, build files, and logs:

  make clean

The ping failed because each switch is programmed according to basic.p4, which drops all packets on arrival.

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