bpf: allow bpf programs to tail-call other bpf programs
introduce bpf_tail_call(ctx, &jmp_table, index) helper function
which can be used from BPF programs like:
int bpf_prog_foo(struct pt_regs *ctx)
{
...
bpf_tail_call(ctx, &jmp_table, index);
...
}
that is roughly equivalent to:
int bpf_prog_foo(struct pt_regs *ctx)
{
...
return (*jmp_table[index])(ctx);
...
}
The important detail that it's not a normal call, but a tail call.
The kernel stack is precious, so this helper reuses the current
stack frame and jumps into another BPF program without adding
extra call frame.
It's trivially done in interpreter and a bit trickier in JITs.
In case of x64 JIT the bigger part of generated assembler prologue
is common for all programs, so it is simply skipped while jumping.
Other JITs would need to partially unwind non-common prologue before jumping.
bpf_tail_call() arguments:
ctx - context pointer
jmp_table - one of BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY maps used as the jump table
index - index in the jump table
Since all BPF programs are idenitified by file descriptor, user space
need to populate the jmp_table with FDs of other BPF programs.
If jmp_table[index] is empty the bpf_tail_call() doesn't jump anywhere
and program execution continues as normal.
Use cases:
- simplify complex programs by splitting them into a sequence of small programs
- dispatch routine
For tracing/seccomp the program may be triggered on all system calls, but
processing of syscall arguments will be different. It's more efficient to
implement them as:
int syscall_entry(struct seccomp_data *ctx)
{
bpf_tail_call(ctx, &syscall_jmp_table, ctx->nr /* syscall number */);
... default: process unknown syscall ...
}
int sys_write_event(struct seccomp_data *ctx) {...}
int sys_read_event(struct seccomp_data *ctx) {...}
syscall_jmp_table[__NR_write] = sys_write_event;
syscall_jmp_table[__NR_read] = sys_read_event;
For networking the program may call into different parsers depending on
packet format, like:
int packet_parser(struct __sk_buff *skb)
{
... parse L2, L3 here ...
__u8 ipproto = load_byte(skb, ... offsetof(struct iphdr, protocol));
bpf_tail_call(skb, &ipproto_jmp_table, ipproto);
... default: process unknown protocol ...
}
int parse_tcp(struct __sk_buff *skb) {...}
int parse_udp(struct __sk_buff *skb) {...}
ipproto_jmp_table[IPPROTO_TCP] = parse_tcp;
ipproto_jmp_table[IPPROTO_UDP] = parse_udp;
- for TC use case, bpf_tail_call() allows to implement reclassify-like logic
- bpf_map_update_elem/delete calls into BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY jump table
are atomic, so user space can build chains of BPF programs on the fly
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
14 files changed
