.. | .. |
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36 | 36 | defines calling convention that is compatible with C calling |
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37 | 37 | convention of the linux kernel on those architectures. |
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38 | 38 | |
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39 | | -Q: can multiple return values be supported in the future? |
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| 39 | +Q: Can multiple return values be supported in the future? |
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40 | 40 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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41 | 41 | A: NO. BPF allows only register R0 to be used as return value. |
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42 | 42 | |
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43 | | -Q: can more than 5 function arguments be supported in the future? |
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| 43 | +Q: Can more than 5 function arguments be supported in the future? |
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44 | 44 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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45 | 45 | A: NO. BPF calling convention only allows registers R1-R5 to be used |
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46 | 46 | as arguments. BPF is not a standalone instruction set. |
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47 | 47 | (unlike x64 ISA that allows msft, cdecl and other conventions) |
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48 | 48 | |
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49 | | -Q: can BPF programs access instruction pointer or return address? |
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| 49 | +Q: Can BPF programs access instruction pointer or return address? |
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50 | 50 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
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51 | 51 | A: NO. |
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52 | 52 | |
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53 | | -Q: can BPF programs access stack pointer ? |
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| 53 | +Q: Can BPF programs access stack pointer ? |
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54 | 54 | ------------------------------------------ |
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55 | 55 | A: NO. |
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56 | 56 | |
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57 | 57 | Only frame pointer (register R10) is accessible. |
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58 | 58 | From compiler point of view it's necessary to have stack pointer. |
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59 | | -For example LLVM defines register R11 as stack pointer in its |
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| 59 | +For example, LLVM defines register R11 as stack pointer in its |
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60 | 60 | BPF backend, but it makes sure that generated code never uses it. |
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61 | 61 | |
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62 | 62 | Q: Does C-calling convention diminishes possible use cases? |
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.. | .. |
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66 | 66 | BPF design forces addition of major functionality in the form |
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67 | 67 | of kernel helper functions and kernel objects like BPF maps with |
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68 | 68 | seamless interoperability between them. It lets kernel call into |
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69 | | -BPF programs and programs call kernel helpers with zero overhead. |
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70 | | -As all of them were native C code. That is particularly the case |
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| 69 | +BPF programs and programs call kernel helpers with zero overhead, |
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| 70 | +as all of them were native C code. That is particularly the case |
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71 | 71 | for JITed BPF programs that are indistinguishable from |
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72 | 72 | native kernel C code. |
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73 | 73 | |
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.. | .. |
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75 | 75 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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76 | 76 | A: Soft yes. |
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77 | 77 | |
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78 | | -At least for now until BPF core has support for |
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| 78 | +At least for now, until BPF core has support for |
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79 | 79 | bpf-to-bpf calls, indirect calls, loops, global variables, |
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80 | | -jump tables, read only sections and all other normal constructs |
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| 80 | +jump tables, read-only sections, and all other normal constructs |
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81 | 81 | that C code can produce. |
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82 | 82 | |
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83 | 83 | Q: Can loops be supported in a safe way? |
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.. | .. |
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85 | 85 | A: It's not clear yet. |
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86 | 86 | |
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87 | 87 | BPF developers are trying to find a way to |
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88 | | -support bounded loops where the verifier can guarantee that |
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89 | | -the program terminates in less than 4096 instructions. |
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| 88 | +support bounded loops. |
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| 89 | + |
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| 90 | +Q: What are the verifier limits? |
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| 91 | +-------------------------------- |
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| 92 | +A: The only limit known to the user space is BPF_MAXINSNS (4096). |
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| 93 | +It's the maximum number of instructions that the unprivileged bpf |
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| 94 | +program can have. The verifier has various internal limits. |
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| 95 | +Like the maximum number of instructions that can be explored during |
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| 96 | +program analysis. Currently, that limit is set to 1 million. |
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| 97 | +Which essentially means that the largest program can consist |
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| 98 | +of 1 million NOP instructions. There is a limit to the maximum number |
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| 99 | +of subsequent branches, a limit to the number of nested bpf-to-bpf |
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| 100 | +calls, a limit to the number of the verifier states per instruction, |
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| 101 | +a limit to the number of maps used by the program. |
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| 102 | +All these limits can be hit with a sufficiently complex program. |
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| 103 | +There are also non-numerical limits that can cause the program |
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| 104 | +to be rejected. The verifier used to recognize only pointer + constant |
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| 105 | +expressions. Now it can recognize pointer + bounded_register. |
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| 106 | +bpf_lookup_map_elem(key) had a requirement that 'key' must be |
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| 107 | +a pointer to the stack. Now, 'key' can be a pointer to map value. |
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| 108 | +The verifier is steadily getting 'smarter'. The limits are |
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| 109 | +being removed. The only way to know that the program is going to |
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| 110 | +be accepted by the verifier is to try to load it. |
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| 111 | +The bpf development process guarantees that the future kernel |
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| 112 | +versions will accept all bpf programs that were accepted by |
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| 113 | +the earlier versions. |
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| 114 | + |
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90 | 115 | |
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91 | 116 | Instruction level questions |
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92 | 117 | --------------------------- |
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.. | .. |
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109 | 134 | A: This was necessary to avoid introducing flags into ISA which are |
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110 | 135 | impossible to make generic and efficient across CPU architectures. |
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111 | 136 | |
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112 | | -Q: why BPF_DIV instruction doesn't map to x64 div? |
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| 137 | +Q: Why BPF_DIV instruction doesn't map to x64 div? |
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113 | 138 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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114 | 139 | A: Because if we picked one-to-one relationship to x64 it would have made |
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115 | 140 | it more complicated to support on arm64 and other archs. Also it |
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116 | 141 | needs div-by-zero runtime check. |
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117 | 142 | |
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118 | | -Q: why there is no BPF_SDIV for signed divide operation? |
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| 143 | +Q: Why there is no BPF_SDIV for signed divide operation? |
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119 | 144 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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120 | 145 | A: Because it would be rarely used. llvm errors in such case and |
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121 | | -prints a suggestion to use unsigned divide instead |
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| 146 | +prints a suggestion to use unsigned divide instead. |
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122 | 147 | |
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123 | 148 | Q: Why BPF has implicit prologue and epilogue? |
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124 | 149 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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.. | .. |
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147 | 172 | CPU architectures and 32-bit HW accelerators. Can true 32-bit registers |
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148 | 173 | be added to BPF in the future? |
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149 | 174 | |
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150 | | -A: NO. The first thing to improve performance on 32-bit archs is to teach |
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151 | | -LLVM to generate code that uses 32-bit subregisters. Then second step |
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152 | | -is to teach verifier to mark operations where zero-ing upper bits |
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153 | | -is unnecessary. Then JITs can take advantage of those markings and |
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154 | | -drastically reduce size of generated code and improve performance. |
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| 175 | +A: NO. |
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| 176 | + |
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| 177 | +But some optimizations on zero-ing the upper 32 bits for BPF registers are |
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| 178 | +available, and can be leveraged to improve the performance of JITed BPF |
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| 179 | +programs for 32-bit architectures. |
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| 180 | + |
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| 181 | +Starting with version 7, LLVM is able to generate instructions that operate |
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| 182 | +on 32-bit subregisters, provided the option -mattr=+alu32 is passed for |
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| 183 | +compiling a program. Furthermore, the verifier can now mark the |
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| 184 | +instructions for which zero-ing the upper bits of the destination register |
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| 185 | +is required, and insert an explicit zero-extension (zext) instruction |
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| 186 | +(a mov32 variant). This means that for architectures without zext hardware |
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| 187 | +support, the JIT back-ends do not need to clear the upper bits for |
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| 188 | +subregisters written by alu32 instructions or narrow loads. Instead, the |
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| 189 | +back-ends simply need to support code generation for that mov32 variant, |
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| 190 | +and to overwrite bpf_jit_needs_zext() to make it return "true" (in order to |
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| 191 | +enable zext insertion in the verifier). |
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| 192 | + |
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| 193 | +Note that it is possible for a JIT back-end to have partial hardware |
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| 194 | +support for zext. In that case, if verifier zext insertion is enabled, |
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| 195 | +it could lead to the insertion of unnecessary zext instructions. Such |
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| 196 | +instructions could be removed by creating a simple peephole inside the JIT |
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| 197 | +back-end: if one instruction has hardware support for zext and if the next |
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| 198 | +instruction is an explicit zext, then the latter can be skipped when doing |
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| 199 | +the code generation. |
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155 | 200 | |
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156 | 201 | Q: Does BPF have a stable ABI? |
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157 | 202 | ------------------------------ |
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158 | 203 | A: YES. BPF instructions, arguments to BPF programs, set of helper |
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159 | 204 | functions and their arguments, recognized return codes are all part |
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160 | | -of ABI. However when tracing programs are using bpf_probe_read() helper |
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161 | | -to walk kernel internal datastructures and compile with kernel |
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162 | | -internal headers these accesses can and will break with newer |
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163 | | -kernels. The union bpf_attr -> kern_version is checked at load time |
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164 | | -to prevent accidentally loading kprobe-based bpf programs written |
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165 | | -for a different kernel. Networking programs don't do kern_version check. |
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| 205 | +of ABI. However there is one specific exception to tracing programs |
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| 206 | +which are using helpers like bpf_probe_read() to walk kernel internal |
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| 207 | +data structures and compile with kernel internal headers. Both of these |
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| 208 | +kernel internals are subject to change and can break with newer kernels |
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| 209 | +such that the program needs to be adapted accordingly. |
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166 | 210 | |
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167 | 211 | Q: How much stack space a BPF program uses? |
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168 | 212 | ------------------------------------------- |
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.. | .. |
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201 | 245 | program is loaded the kernel will print warning message, so |
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202 | 246 | this helper is only useful for experiments and prototypes. |
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203 | 247 | Tracing BPF programs are root only. |
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204 | | - |
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205 | | -Q: bpf_trace_printk() helper warning |
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206 | | ------------------------------------- |
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207 | | -Q: When bpf_trace_printk() helper is used the kernel prints nasty |
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208 | | -warning message. Why is that? |
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209 | | - |
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210 | | -A: This is done to nudge program authors into better interfaces when |
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211 | | -programs need to pass data to user space. Like bpf_perf_event_output() |
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212 | | -can be used to efficiently stream data via perf ring buffer. |
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213 | | -BPF maps can be used for asynchronous data sharing between kernel |
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214 | | -and user space. bpf_trace_printk() should only be used for debugging. |
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215 | 248 | |
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216 | 249 | Q: New functionality via kernel modules? |
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217 | 250 | ---------------------------------------- |
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