BPF
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2017-09-15
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NAME
bpf - perform a command on an extended BPF map or program
SYNOPSIS
#include <linux/bpf.h>
int bpf(int cmd, union bpf_attr *attr, unsigned int size);
DESCRIPTION
The
bpf()
system call performs a range of operations related to extended
Berkeley Packet Filters.
Extended BPF (or eBPF) is similar to
the original ("classic") BPF (cBPF) used to filter network packets.
For both cBPF and eBPF programs,
the kernel statically analyzes the programs before loading them,
in order to ensure that they cannot harm the running system.
eBPF extends cBPF in multiple ways, including the ability to call
a fixed set of in-kernel helper functions
(via the
BPF_CALL
opcode extension provided by eBPF)
and access shared data structures such as eBPF maps.
Extended BPF Design/Architecture
eBPF maps are a generic data structure for storage of different data types.
Data types are generally treated as binary blobs, so a user just specifies
the size of the key and the size of the value at map-creation time.
In other words, a key/value for a given map can have an arbitrary structure.
A user process can create multiple maps (with key/value-pairs being
opaque bytes of data) and access them via file descriptors.
Different eBPF programs can access the same maps in parallel.
It's up to the user process and eBPF program to decide what they store
inside maps.
There's one special map type, called a program array.
This type of map stores file descriptors referring to other eBPF programs.
When a lookup in the map is performed, the program flow is
redirected in-place to the beginning of another eBPF program and does not
return back to the calling program.
The level of nesting has a fixed limit of 32,
so that infinite loops cannot be crafted.
At runtime, the program file descriptors stored in the map can be modified,
so program functionality can be altered based on specific requirements.
All programs referred to in a program-array map must
have been previously loaded into the kernel via
bpf().
If a map lookup fails, the current program continues its execution.
See
BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY
below for further details.
Generally, eBPF programs are loaded by the user process and automatically
unloaded when the process exits.
In some cases, for example,
tc-bpf(8),
the program will continue to stay alive inside the kernel even after the
process that loaded the program exits.
In that case,
the tc subsystem holds a reference to the eBPF program after the
file descriptor has been closed by the user-space program.
Thus, whether a specific program continues to live inside the kernel
depends on how it is further attached to a given kernel subsystem
after it was loaded via
bpf().
Each eBPF program is a set of instructions that is safe to run until
its completion.
An in-kernel verifier statically determines that the eBPF program
terminates and is safe to execute.
During verification, the kernel increments reference counts for each of
the maps that the eBPF program uses,
so that the attached maps can't be removed until the program is unloaded.
eBPF programs can be attached to different events.
These events can be the arrival of network packets, tracing
events, classification events by network queueing disciplines
(for eBPF programs attached to a
tc(8)
classifier), and other types that may be added in the future.
A new event triggers execution of the eBPF program, which
may store information about the event in eBPF maps.
Beyond storing data, eBPF programs may call a fixed set of
in-kernel helper functions.
The same eBPF program can be attached to multiple events and different
eBPF programs can access the same map:
tracing tracing tracing packet packet packet
event A event B event C on eth0 on eth1 on eth2
| | | | | ^
| | | | v |
--> tracing <-- tracing socket tc ingress tc egress
prog_1 prog_2 prog_3 classifier action
| | | | prog_4 prog_5
|--- -----| |------| map_3 | |
map_1 map_2 --| map_4 |--
Arguments
The operation to be performed by the
bpf()
system call is determined by the
cmd
argument.
Each operation takes an accompanying argument,
provided via
attr,
which is a pointer to a union of type
bpf_attr
(see below).
The
size
argument is the size of the union pointed to by
attr.
The value provided in
cmd
is one of the following:
- BPF_MAP_CREATE
-
Create a map and return a file descriptor that refers to the map.
The close-on-exec file descriptor flag (see
fcntl(2))
is automatically enabled for the new file descriptor.
- BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM
-
Look up an element by key in a specified map and return its value.
- BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM
-
Create or update an element (key/value pair) in a specified map.
- BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM
-
Look up and delete an element by key in a specified map.
- BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY
-
Look up an element by key in a specified map and return the key
of the next element.
- BPF_PROG_LOAD
-
Verify and load an eBPF program,
returning a new file descriptor associated with the program.
The close-on-exec file descriptor flag (see
fcntl(2))
is automatically enabled for the new file descriptor.
-
The
bpf_attr
union consists of various anonymous structures that are used by different
bpf()
commands:
union bpf_attr {
struct { /* Used by BPF_MAP_CREATE */
__u32 map_type;
__u32 key_size; /* size of key in bytes */
__u32 value_size; /* size of value in bytes */
__u32 max_entries; /* maximum number of entries
in a map */
};
struct { /* Used by BPF_MAP_*_ELEM and BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY
commands */
__u32 map_fd;
__aligned_u64 key;
union {
__aligned_u64 value;
__aligned_u64 next_key;
};
__u64 flags;
};
struct { /* Used by BPF_PROG_LOAD */
__u32 prog_type;
__u32 insn_cnt;
__aligned_u64 insns; /* 'const struct bpf_insn *' */
__aligned_u64 license; /* 'const char *' */
__u32 log_level; /* verbosity level of verifier */
__u32 log_size; /* size of user buffer */
__aligned_u64 log_buf; /* user supplied 'char *'
buffer */
__u32 kern_version;
/* checked when prog_type=kprobe
(since Linux 4.1) */
};
} __attribute__((aligned(8)));
eBPF maps
Maps are a generic data structure for storage of different types of data.
They allow sharing of data between eBPF kernel programs,
and also between kernel and user-space applications.
Each map type has the following attributes:
- *
-
type
- *
-
maximum number of elements
- *
-
key size in bytes
- *
-
value size in bytes
The following wrapper functions demonstrate how various
bpf()
commands can be used to access the maps.
The functions use the
cmd
argument to invoke different operations.
- BPF_MAP_CREATE
-
The
BPF_MAP_CREATE
command creates a new map,
returning a new file descriptor that refers to the map.
-
int
bpf_create_map(enum bpf_map_type map_type,
unsigned int key_size,
unsigned int value_size,
unsigned int max_entries)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.map_type = map_type,
.key_size = key_size,
.value_size = value_size,
.max_entries = max_entries
};
return bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
-
The new map has the type specified by
map_type,
and attributes as specified in
key_size,
value_size,
and
max_entries.
On success, this operation returns a file descriptor.
On error, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to
EINVAL,
EPERM,
or
ENOMEM.
-
The
key_size
and
value_size
attributes will be used by the verifier during program loading
to check that the program is calling
bpf_map_*_elem()
helper functions with a correctly initialized
key
and to check that the program doesn't access the map element
value
beyond the specified
value_size.
For example, when a map is created with a
key_size
of 8 and the eBPF program calls
-
bpf_map_lookup_elem(map_fd, fp - 4)
-
the program will be rejected,
since the in-kernel helper function
-
bpf_map_lookup_elem(map_fd, void *key)
-
expects to read 8 bytes from the location pointed to by
key,
but the
fp - 4
(where
fp
is the top of the stack)
starting address will cause out-of-bounds stack access.
-
Similarly, when a map is created with a
value_size
of 1 and the eBPF program contains
-
value = bpf_map_lookup_elem(...);
*(u32 *) value = 1;
-
the program will be rejected, since it accesses the
value
pointer beyond the specified 1 byte
value_size
limit.
-
Currently, the following values are supported for
map_type:
-
enum bpf_map_type {
BPF_MAP_TYPE_UNSPEC, /* Reserve 0 as invalid map type */
BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH,
BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY,
BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY,
};
-
map_type
selects one of the available map implementations in the kernel.
For all map types,
eBPF programs access maps with the same
bpf_map_lookup_elem()
and
bpf_map_update_elem()
helper functions.
Further details of the various map types are given below.
- BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM
-
The
BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM
command looks up an element with a given
key
in the map referred to by the file descriptor
fd.
-
int
bpf_lookup_elem(int fd, const void *key, void *value)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.map_fd = fd,
.key = ptr_to_u64(key),
.value = ptr_to_u64(value),
};
return bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
-
If an element is found,
the operation returns zero and stores the element's value into
value,
which must point to a buffer of
value_size
bytes.
-
If no element is found, the operation returns -1 and sets
errno
to
ENOENT.
- BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM
-
The
BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM
command
creates or updates an element with a given
key/value
in the map referred to by the file descriptor
fd.
-
int
bpf_update_elem(int fd, const void *key, const void *value,
uint64_t flags)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.map_fd = fd,
.key = ptr_to_u64(key),
.value = ptr_to_u64(value),
.flags = flags,
};
return bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
-
The
flags
argument should be specified as one of the following:
-
- BPF_ANY
-
Create a new element or update an existing element.
- BPF_NOEXIST
-
Create a new element only if it did not exist.
- BPF_EXIST
-
Update an existing element.
-
On success, the operation returns zero.
On error, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to
EINVAL,
EPERM,
ENOMEM,
or
E2BIG.
E2BIG
indicates that the number of elements in the map reached the
max_entries
limit specified at map creation time.
EEXIST
will be returned if
flags
specifies
BPF_NOEXIST
and the element with
key
already exists in the map.
ENOENT
will be returned if
flags
specifies
BPF_EXIST
and the element with
key
doesn't exist in the map.
- BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM
-
The
BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM
command
deleted the element whose key is
key
from the map referred to by the file descriptor
fd.
-
int
bpf_delete_elem(int fd, const void *key)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.map_fd = fd,
.key = ptr_to_u64(key),
};
return bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
-
On success, zero is returned.
If the element is not found, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to
ENOENT.
- BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY
-
The
BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY
command looks up an element by
key
in the map referred to by the file descriptor
fd
and sets the
next_key
pointer to the key of the next element.
-
int
bpf_get_next_key(int fd, const void *key, void *next_key)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.map_fd = fd,
.key = ptr_to_u64(key),
.next_key = ptr_to_u64(next_key),
};
return bpf(BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
-
If
key
is found, the operation returns zero and sets the
next_key
pointer to the key of the next element.
If
key
is not found, the operation returns zero and sets the
next_key
pointer to the key of the first element.
If
key
is the last element, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to
ENOENT.
Other possible
errno
values are
ENOMEM,
EFAULT,
EPERM,
and
EINVAL.
This method can be used to iterate over all elements in the map.
- close(map_fd)
-
Delete the map referred to by the file descriptor
map_fd.
When the user-space program that created a map exits, all maps will
be deleted automatically (but see NOTES).
eBPF map types
The following map types are supported:
- BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH
-
Hash-table maps have the following characteristics:
-
- *
-
Maps are created and destroyed by user-space programs.
Both user-space and eBPF programs
can perform lookup, update, and delete operations.
- *
-
The kernel takes care of allocating and freeing key/value pairs.
- *
-
The
map_update_elem()
helper will fail to insert new element when the
max_entries
limit is reached.
(This ensures that eBPF programs cannot exhaust memory.)
- *
-
map_update_elem()
replaces existing elements atomically.
-
Hash-table maps are
optimized for speed of lookup.
- BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY
-
Array maps have the following characteristics:
-
- *
-
Optimized for fastest possible lookup.
In the future the verifier/JIT compiler
may recognize lookup() operations that employ a constant key
and optimize it into constant pointer.
It is possible to optimize a non-constant
key into direct pointer arithmetic as well, since pointers and
value_size
are constant for the life of the eBPF program.
In other words,
array_map_lookup_elem()
may be 'inlined' by the verifier/JIT compiler
while preserving concurrent access to this map from user space.
- *
-
All array elements pre-allocated and zero initialized at init time
- *
-
The key is an array index, and must be exactly four bytes.
- *
-
map_delete_elem()
fails with the error
EINVAL,
since elements cannot be deleted.
- *
-
map_update_elem()
replaces elements in a
nonatomic
fashion;
for atomic updates, a hash-table map should be used instead.
There is however one special case that can also be used with arrays:
the atomic built-in
__sync_fetch_and_add()
can be used on 32 and 64 bit atomic counters.
For example, it can be
applied on the whole value itself if it represents a single counter,
or in case of a structure containing multiple counters, it could be
used on individual counters.
This is quite often useful for aggregation and accounting of events.
-
Among the uses for array maps are the following:
-
- *
-
As "global" eBPF variables: an array of 1 element whose key is (index) 0
and where the value is a collection of 'global' variables which
eBPF programs can use to keep state between events.
- *
-
Aggregation of tracing events into a fixed set of buckets.
- *
-
Accounting of networking events, for example, number of packets and packet
sizes.
- BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY (since Linux 4.2)
-
A program array map is a special kind of array map whose map values
contain only file descriptors referring to other eBPF programs.
Thus, both the
key_size
and
value_size
must be exactly four bytes.
This map is used in conjunction with the
bpf_tail_call()
helper.
-
This means that an eBPF program with a program array map attached to it
can call from kernel side into
-
void bpf_tail_call(void *context, void *prog_map, unsigned int index);
-
and therefore replace its own program flow with the one from the program
at the given program array slot, if present.
This can be regarded as kind of a jump table to a different eBPF program.
The invoked program will then reuse the same stack.
When a jump into the new program has been performed,
it won't return to the old program anymore.
-
If no eBPF program is found at the given index of the program array
(because the map slot doesn't contain a valid program file descriptor,
the specified lookup index/key is out of bounds,
or the limit of 32
nested calls has been exceed),
execution continues with the current eBPF program.
This can be used as a fall-through for default cases.
-
A program array map is useful, for example, in tracing or networking, to
handle individual system calls or protocols in their own subprograms and
use their identifiers as an individual map index.
This approach may result in performance benefits,
and also makes it possible to overcome the maximum
instruction limit of a single eBPF program.
In dynamic environments,
a user-space daemon might atomically replace individual subprograms
at run-time with newer versions to alter overall program behavior,
for instance, if global policies change.
eBPF programs
The
BPF_PROG_LOAD
command is used to load an eBPF program into the kernel.
The return value for this command is a new file descriptor associated
with this eBPF program.
char bpf_log_buf[LOG_BUF_SIZE];
int
bpf_prog_load(enum bpf_prog_type type,
const struct bpf_insn *insns, int insn_cnt,
const char *license)
{
union bpf_attr attr = {
.prog_type = type,
.insns = ptr_to_u64(insns),
.insn_cnt = insn_cnt,
.license = ptr_to_u64(license),
.log_buf = ptr_to_u64(bpf_log_buf),
.log_size = LOG_BUF_SIZE,
.log_level = 1,
};
return bpf(BPF_PROG_LOAD, &attr, sizeof(attr));
}
prog_type
is one of the available program types:
-
enum bpf_prog_type {
BPF_PROG_TYPE_UNSPEC, /* Reserve 0 as invalid
program type */
BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCKET_FILTER,
BPF_PROG_TYPE_KPROBE,
BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_CLS,
BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_ACT,
};
For further details of eBPF program types, see below.
The remaining fields of
bpf_attr
are set as follows:
- *
-
insns
is an array of
struct bpf_insn
instructions.
- *
-
insn_cnt
is the number of instructions in the program referred to by
insns.
- *
-
license
is a license string, which must be GPL compatible to call helper functions
marked
gpl_only.
(The licensing rules are the same as for kernel modules,
so that also dual licenses, such as "Dual BSD/GPL", may be used.)
- *
-
log_buf
is a pointer to a caller-allocated buffer in which the in-kernel
verifier can store the verification log.
This log is a multi-line string that can be checked by
the program author in order to understand how the verifier came to
the conclusion that the eBPF program is unsafe.
The format of the output can change at any time as the verifier evolves.
- *
-
log_size
size of the buffer pointed to by
log_buf.
If the size of the buffer is not large enough to store all
verifier messages, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to
ENOSPC.
- *
-
log_level
verbosity level of the verifier.
A value of zero means that the verifier will not provide a log;
in this case,
log_buf
must be a NULL pointer, and
log_size
must be zero.
Applying
close(2)
to the file descriptor returned by
BPF_PROG_LOAD
will unload the eBPF program (but see NOTES).
Maps are accessible from eBPF programs and are used to exchange data between
eBPF programs and between eBPF programs and user-space programs.
For example,
eBPF programs can process various events (like kprobe, packets) and
store their data into a map,
and user-space programs can then fetch data from the map.
Conversely, user-space programs can use a map as a configuration mechanism,
populating the map with values checked by the eBPF program,
which then modifies its behavior on the fly according to those values.
eBPF program types
The eBPF program type
(
prog_type)
determines the subset of kernel helper functions that the program
may call.
The program type also determines the program input (context)---the
format of
struct bpf_context
(which is the data blob passed into the eBPF program as the first argument).
For example, a tracing program does not have the exact same
subset of helper functions as a socket filter program
(though they may have some helpers in common).
Similarly,
the input (context) for a tracing program is a set of register values,
while for a socket filter it is a network packet.
The set of functions available to eBPF programs of a given type may increase
in the future.
The following program types are supported:
- BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCKET_FILTER (since Linux 3.19)
-
Currently, the set of functions for
BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCKET_FILTER
is:
-
bpf_map_lookup_elem(map_fd, void *key)
/* look up key in a map_fd */
bpf_map_update_elem(map_fd, void *key, void *value)
/* update key/value */
bpf_map_delete_elem(map_fd, void *key)
/* delete key in a map_fd */
-
The
bpf_context
argument is a pointer to a
struct __sk_buff.
- BPF_PROG_TYPE_KPROBE (since Linux 4.1)
-
[To be documented]
- BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_CLS (since Linux 4.1)
-
[To be documented]
- BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_ACT (since Linux 4.1)
-
[To be documented]
Events
Once a program is loaded, it can be attached to an event.
Various kernel subsystems have different ways to do so.
Since Linux 3.19,
the following call will attach the program
prog_fd
to the socket
sockfd,
which was created by an earlier call to
socket(2):
setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ATTACH_BPF,
&prog_fd, sizeof(prog_fd));
Since Linux 4.1,
the following call may be used to attach
the eBPF program referred to by the file descriptor
prog_fd
to a perf event file descriptor,
event_fd,
that was created by a previous call to
perf_event_open(2):
ioctl(event_fd, PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_BPF, prog_fd);
EXAMPLES
/* bpf+sockets example:
* 1. create array map of 256 elements
* 2. load program that counts number of packets received
* r0 = skb->data[ETH_HLEN + offsetof(struct iphdr, protocol)]
* map[r0]++
* 3. attach prog_fd to raw socket via setsockopt()
* 4. print number of received TCP/UDP packets every second
*/
int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int sock, map_fd, prog_fd, key;
long long value = 0, tcp_cnt, udp_cnt;
map_fd = bpf_create_map(BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY, sizeof(key),
sizeof(value), 256);
if (map_fd < 0) {
printf("failed to create map '%s'\n", strerror(errno));
/* likely not run as root */
return 1;
}
struct bpf_insn prog[] = {
BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_6, BPF_REG_1), /* r6 = r1 */
BPF_LD_ABS(BPF_B, ETH_HLEN + offsetof(struct iphdr, protocol)),
/* r0 = ip->proto */
BPF_STX_MEM(BPF_W, BPF_REG_10, BPF_REG_0, -4),
/* *(u32 *)(fp - 4) = r0 */
BPF_MOV64_REG(BPF_REG_2, BPF_REG_10), /* r2 = fp */
BPF_ALU64_IMM(BPF_ADD, BPF_REG_2, -4), /* r2 = r2 - 4 */
BPF_LD_MAP_FD(BPF_REG_1, map_fd), /* r1 = map_fd */
BPF_CALL_FUNC(BPF_FUNC_map_lookup_elem),
/* r0 = map_lookup(r1, r2) */
BPF_JMP_IMM(BPF_JEQ, BPF_REG_0, 0, 2),
/* if (r0 == 0) goto pc+2 */
BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_1, 1), /* r1 = 1 */
BPF_XADD(BPF_DW, BPF_REG_0, BPF_REG_1, 0, 0),
/* lock *(u64 *) r0 += r1 */
BPF_MOV64_IMM(BPF_REG_0, 0), /* r0 = 0 */
BPF_EXIT_INSN(), /* return r0 */
};
prog_fd = bpf_prog_load(BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCKET_FILTER, prog,
sizeof(prog), "GPL");
sock = open_raw_sock("lo");
assert(setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ATTACH_BPF, &prog_fd,
sizeof(prog_fd)) == 0);
for (;;) {
key = IPPROTO_TCP;
assert(bpf_lookup_elem(map_fd, &key, &tcp_cnt) == 0);
key = IPPROTO_UDP;
assert(bpf_lookup_elem(map_fd, &key, &udp_cnt) == 0);
printf("TCP %lld UDP %lld packets\n", tcp_cnt, udp_cnt);
sleep(1);
}
return 0;
}
Some complete working code can be found in the
samples/bpf
directory in the kernel source tree.
RETURN VALUE
For a successful call, the return value depends on the operation:
- BPF_MAP_CREATE
-
The new file descriptor associated with the eBPF map.
- BPF_PROG_LOAD
-
The new file descriptor associated with the eBPF program.
- All other commands
-
Zero.
On error, -1 is returned, and
errno
is set appropriately.
ERRORS
- E2BIG
-
The eBPF program is too large or a map reached the
max_entries
limit (maximum number of elements).
- EACCES
-
For
BPF_PROG_LOAD,
even though all program instructions are valid, the program has been
rejected because it was deemed unsafe.
This may be because it may have
accessed a disallowed memory region or an uninitialized stack/register or
because the function constraints don't match the actual types or because
there was a misaligned memory access.
In this case, it is recommended to call
bpf()
again with
log_level = 1
and examine
log_buf
for the specific reason provided by the verifier.
- EBADF
-
fd
is not an open file descriptor.
- EFAULT
-
One of the pointers
(key
or
value
or
log_buf
or
insns)
is outside the accessible address space.
- EINVAL
-
The value specified in
cmd
is not recognized by this kernel.
- EINVAL
-
For
BPF_MAP_CREATE,
either
map_type
or attributes are invalid.
- EINVAL
-
For
BPF_MAP_*_ELEM
commands,
some of the fields of
union bpf_attr
that are not used by this command
are not set to zero.
- EINVAL
-
For
BPF_PROG_LOAD,
indicates an attempt to load an invalid program.
eBPF programs can be deemed
invalid due to unrecognized instructions, the use of reserved fields, jumps
out of range, infinite loops or calls of unknown functions.
- ENOENT
-
For
BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM
or
BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM,
indicates that the element with the given
key
was not found.
- ENOMEM
-
Cannot allocate sufficient memory.
- EPERM
-
The call was made without sufficient privilege
(without the
CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability).
VERSIONS
The
bpf()
system call first appeared in Linux 3.18.
CONFORMING TO
The
bpf()
system call is Linux-specific.
NOTES
In the current implementation, all
bpf()
commands require the caller to have the
CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability.
eBPF objects (maps and programs) can be shared between processes.
For example, after
fork(2),
the child inherits file descriptors referring to the same eBPF objects.
In addition, file descriptors referring to eBPF objects can be
transferred over UNIX domain sockets.
File descriptors referring to eBPF objects can be duplicated
in the usual way, using
dup(2)
and similar calls.
An eBPF object is deallocated only after all file descriptors
referring to the object have been closed.
eBPF programs can be written in a restricted C that is compiled (using the
clang
compiler) into eBPF bytecode.
Various features are omitted from this restricted C, such as loops,
global variables, variadic functions, floating-point numbers,
and passing structures as function arguments.
Some examples can be found in the
samples/bpf/*_kern.c
files in the kernel source tree.
The kernel contains a just-in-time (JIT) compiler that translates
eBPF bytecode into native machine code for better performance.
The JIT compiler is disabled by default,
but its operation can be controlled by writing one of the
following integer strings to the file
/proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable:
- 0
-
Disable JIT compilation (default).
- 1
-
Normal compilation.
- 2
-
Debugging mode.
The generated opcodes are dumped in hexadecimal into the kernel log.
These opcodes can then be disassembled using the program
tools/net/bpf_jit_disasm.c
provided in the kernel source tree.
JIT compiler for eBPF is currently available for the x86-64, arm64,
and s390 architectures.
SEE ALSO
seccomp(2),
socket(7),
tc(8),
tc-bpf(8)
Both classic and extended BPF are explained in the kernel source file
Documentation/networking/filter.txt.
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.13 of the Linux
man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Extended BPF Design/Architecture
-
- Arguments
-
- eBPF maps
-
- eBPF map types
-
- eBPF programs
-
- eBPF program types
-
- Events
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- VERSIONS
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- NOTES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COLOPHON
-