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authorAlexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>2014-09-26 00:16:57 -0700
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2014-09-26 15:05:14 -0400
commit99c55f7d47c0dc6fc64729f37bf435abf43f4c60 (patch)
tree12f09f26bee9813ae33cfc195582c41e94b2e4e9 /Documentation/networking
parent4a8e320c929991c9480a7b936512c57ea02d87b2 (diff)
bpf: introduce BPF syscall and maps
BPF syscall is a multiplexor for a range of different operations on eBPF. This patch introduces syscall with single command to create a map. Next patch adds commands to access maps. 'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel and userspace. Userspace example: /* this syscall wrapper creates a map with given type and attributes * and returns map_fd on success. * use close(map_fd) to delete the map */ int bpf_create_map(enum bpf_map_type map_type, int key_size, int value_size, 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)); } 'union bpf_attr' is backwards compatible with future extensions. More details in Documentation/networking/filter.txt and in manpage Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/filter.txt39
1 files changed, 39 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/filter.txt b/Documentation/networking/filter.txt
index 014e0319a5c..4a01d71785e 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/filter.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/filter.txt
@@ -1001,6 +1001,45 @@ instruction that loads 64-bit immediate value into a dst_reg.
Classic BPF has similar instruction: BPF_LD | BPF_W | BPF_IMM which loads
32-bit immediate value into a register.
+eBPF maps
+---------
+'maps' is a generic storage of different types for sharing data between kernel
+and userspace.
+
+The maps are accessed from user space via BPF syscall, which has commands:
+- create a map with given type and attributes
+ map_fd = bpf(BPF_MAP_CREATE, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
+ using attr->map_type, attr->key_size, attr->value_size, attr->max_entries
+ returns process-local file descriptor or negative error
+
+- lookup key in a given map
+ err = bpf(BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
+ using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
+ returns zero and stores found elem into value or negative error
+
+- create or update key/value pair in a given map
+ err = bpf(BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
+ using attr->map_fd, attr->key, attr->value
+ returns zero or negative error
+
+- find and delete element by key in a given map
+ err = bpf(BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM, union bpf_attr *attr, u32 size)
+ using attr->map_fd, attr->key
+
+- to delete map: close(fd)
+ Exiting process will delete maps automatically
+
+userspace programs use this syscall to create/access maps that eBPF programs
+are concurrently updating.
+
+maps can have different types: hash, array, bloom filter, radix-tree, etc.
+
+The map is defined by:
+ . type
+ . max number of elements
+ . key size in bytes
+ . value size in bytes
+
Testing
-------