2 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
4 # Copyright (C) 2018-2019 Netronome Systems, Inc.
6 # In case user attempts to run with Python 2.
7 from __future__ import print_function
13 class NoHelperFound(BaseException):
16 class ParsingError(BaseException):
17 def __init__(self, line='<line not provided>', reader=None):
19 BaseException.__init__(self,
20 'Error at file offset %d, parsing line: %s' %
21 (reader.tell(), line))
23 BaseException.__init__(self, 'Error parsing line: %s' % line)
27 An object representing the description of an eBPF helper function.
28 @proto: function prototype of the helper function
29 @desc: textual description of the helper function
30 @ret: description of the return value of the helper function
32 def __init__(self, proto='', desc='', ret=''):
37 def proto_break_down(self):
39 Break down helper function protocol into smaller chunks: return type,
40 name, distincts arguments.
42 arg_re = re.compile('((\w+ )*?(\w+|...))( (\**)(\w+))?$')
44 proto_re = re.compile('(.+) (\**)(\w+)\(((([^,]+)(, )?){1,5})\)$')
46 capture = proto_re.match(self.proto)
47 res['ret_type'] = capture.group(1)
48 res['ret_star'] = capture.group(2)
49 res['name'] = capture.group(3)
52 args = capture.group(4).split(', ')
54 capture = arg_re.match(a)
56 'type' : capture.group(1),
57 'star' : capture.group(5),
58 'name' : capture.group(6)
63 class HeaderParser(object):
65 An object used to parse a file in order to extract the documentation of a
66 list of eBPF helper functions. All the helpers that can be retrieved are
67 stored as Helper object, in the self.helpers() array.
68 @filename: name of file to parse, usually include/uapi/linux/bpf.h in the
71 def __init__(self, filename):
72 self.reader = open(filename, 'r')
76 def parse_helper(self):
77 proto = self.parse_proto()
78 desc = self.parse_desc()
79 ret = self.parse_ret()
80 return Helper(proto=proto, desc=desc, ret=ret)
82 def parse_proto(self):
83 # Argument can be of shape:
87 # - Same as above, with "const" and/or "struct" in front of type
88 # - "..." (undefined number of arguments, for bpf_trace_printk())
89 # There is at least one term ("void"), and at most five arguments.
90 p = re.compile(' \* ?((.+) \**\w+\((((const )?(struct )?(\w+|\.\.\.)( \**\w+)?)(, )?){1,5}\))$')
91 capture = p.match(self.line)
94 self.line = self.reader.readline()
95 return capture.group(1)
98 p = re.compile(' \* ?(?:\t| {5,8})Description$')
99 capture = p.match(self.line)
101 # Helper can have empty description and we might be parsing another
102 # attribute: return but do not consume.
104 # Description can be several lines, some of them possibly empty, and it
105 # stops when another subsection title is met.
108 self.line = self.reader.readline()
109 if self.line == ' *\n':
112 p = re.compile(' \* ?(?:\t| {5,8})(?:\t| {8})(.*)')
113 capture = p.match(self.line)
115 desc += capture.group(1) + '\n'
121 p = re.compile(' \* ?(?:\t| {5,8})Return$')
122 capture = p.match(self.line)
124 # Helper can have empty retval and we might be parsing another
125 # attribute: return but do not consume.
127 # Return value description can be several lines, some of them possibly
128 # empty, and it stops when another subsection title is met.
131 self.line = self.reader.readline()
132 if self.line == ' *\n':
135 p = re.compile(' \* ?(?:\t| {5,8})(?:\t| {8})(.*)')
136 capture = p.match(self.line)
138 ret += capture.group(1) + '\n'
144 # Advance to start of helper function descriptions.
145 offset = self.reader.read().find('* Start of BPF helper function descriptions:')
147 raise Exception('Could not find start of eBPF helper descriptions list')
148 self.reader.seek(offset)
149 self.reader.readline()
150 self.reader.readline()
151 self.line = self.reader.readline()
155 helper = self.parse_helper()
156 self.helpers.append(helper)
157 except NoHelperFound:
162 ###############################################################################
164 class Printer(object):
166 A generic class for printers. Printers should be created with an array of
167 Helper objects, and implement a way to print them in the desired fashion.
168 @helpers: array of Helper objects to print to standard output
170 def __init__(self, helpers):
171 self.helpers = helpers
173 def print_header(self):
176 def print_footer(self):
179 def print_one(self, helper):
184 for helper in self.helpers:
185 self.print_one(helper)
188 class PrinterRST(Printer):
190 A printer for dumping collected information about helpers as a ReStructured
191 Text page compatible with the rst2man program, which can be used to
192 generate a manual page for the helpers.
193 @helpers: array of Helper objects to print to standard output
195 def print_header(self):
197 .. Copyright (C) All BPF authors and contributors from 2014 to present.
198 .. See git log include/uapi/linux/bpf.h in kernel tree for details.
200 .. %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM)
201 .. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
202 .. manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
203 .. preserved on all copies.
205 .. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
206 .. manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
207 .. entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
208 .. permission notice identical to this one.
210 .. Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
211 .. manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no
212 .. responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
213 .. the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not
214 .. have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
215 .. which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
218 .. Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
219 .. the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
222 .. Please do not edit this file. It was generated from the documentation
223 .. located in file include/uapi/linux/bpf.h of the Linux kernel sources
224 .. (helpers description), and from scripts/bpf_helpers_doc.py in the same
225 .. repository (header and footer).
230 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
231 list of eBPF helper functions
232 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
239 The extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) subsystem consists in programs
240 written in a pseudo-assembly language, then attached to one of the several
241 kernel hooks and run in reaction of specific events. This framework differs
242 from the older, "classic" BPF (or "cBPF") in several aspects, one of them being
243 the ability to call special functions (or "helpers") from within a program.
244 These functions are restricted to a white-list of helpers defined in the
247 These helpers are used by eBPF programs to interact with the system, or with
248 the context in which they work. For instance, they can be used to print
249 debugging messages, to get the time since the system was booted, to interact
250 with eBPF maps, or to manipulate network packets. Since there are several eBPF
251 program types, and that they do not run in the same context, each program type
252 can only call a subset of those helpers.
254 Due to eBPF conventions, a helper can not have more than five arguments.
256 Internally, eBPF programs call directly into the compiled helper functions
257 without requiring any foreign-function interface. As a result, calling helpers
258 introduces no overhead, thus offering excellent performance.
260 This document is an attempt to list and document the helpers available to eBPF
261 developers. They are sorted by chronological order (the oldest helpers in the
269 def print_footer(self):
274 Example usage for most of the eBPF helpers listed in this manual page are
275 available within the Linux kernel sources, at the following locations:
278 * *tools/testing/selftests/bpf/*
283 eBPF programs can have an associated license, passed along with the bytecode
284 instructions to the kernel when the programs are loaded. The format for that
285 string is identical to the one in use for kernel modules (Dual licenses, such
286 as "Dual BSD/GPL", may be used). Some helper functions are only accessible to
287 programs that are compatible with the GNU Privacy License (GPL).
289 In order to use such helpers, the eBPF program must be loaded with the correct
290 license string passed (via **attr**) to the **bpf**\ () system call, and this
291 generally translates into the C source code of the program containing a line
292 similar to the following:
296 char ____license[] __attribute__((section("license"), used)) = "GPL";
301 This manual page is an effort to document the existing eBPF helper functions.
302 But as of this writing, the BPF sub-system is under heavy development. New eBPF
303 program or map types are added, along with new helper functions. Some helpers
304 are occasionally made available for additional program types. So in spite of
305 the efforts of the community, this page might not be up-to-date. If you want to
306 check by yourself what helper functions exist in your kernel, or what types of
307 programs they can support, here are some files among the kernel tree that you
308 may be interested in:
310 * *include/uapi/linux/bpf.h* is the main BPF header. It contains the full list
311 of all helper functions, as well as many other BPF definitions including most
312 of the flags, structs or constants used by the helpers.
313 * *net/core/filter.c* contains the definition of most network-related helper
314 functions, and the list of program types from which they can be used.
315 * *kernel/trace/bpf_trace.c* is the equivalent for most tracing program-related
317 * *kernel/bpf/verifier.c* contains the functions used to check that valid types
318 of eBPF maps are used with a given helper function.
319 * *kernel/bpf/* directory contains other files in which additional helpers are
320 defined (for cgroups, sockmaps, etc.).
321 * The bpftool utility can be used to probe the availability of helper functions
322 on the system (as well as supported program and map types, and a number of
323 other parameters). To do so, run **bpftool feature probe** (see
324 **bpftool-feature**\ (8) for details). Add the **unprivileged** keyword to
325 list features available to unprivileged users.
327 Compatibility between helper functions and program types can generally be found
328 in the files where helper functions are defined. Look for the **struct
329 bpf_func_proto** objects and for functions returning them: these functions
330 contain a list of helpers that a given program type can call. Note that the
331 **default:** label of the **switch ... case** used to filter helpers can call
332 other functions, themselves allowing access to additional helpers. The
333 requirement for GPL license is also in those **struct bpf_func_proto**.
335 Compatibility between helper functions and map types can be found in the
336 **check_map_func_compatibility**\ () function in file *kernel/bpf/verifier.c*.
338 Helper functions that invalidate the checks on **data** and **data_end**
339 pointers for network processing are listed in function
340 **bpf_helper_changes_pkt_data**\ () in file *net/core/filter.c*.
349 **perf_event_open**\ (2),
355 def print_proto(self, helper):
357 Format function protocol with bold and italics markers. This makes RST
358 file less readable, but gives nice results in the manual page.
360 proto = helper.proto_break_down()
362 print('**%s %s%s(' % (proto['ret_type'],
363 proto['ret_star'].replace('*', '\\*'),
368 for a in proto['args']:
369 one_arg = '{}{}'.format(comma, a['type'])
372 one_arg += ' {}**\ '.format(a['star'].replace('*', '\\*'))
375 one_arg += '*{}*\\ **'.format(a['name'])
377 print(one_arg, end='')
381 def print_one(self, helper):
382 self.print_proto(helper)
385 print('\tDescription')
386 # Do not strip all newline characters: formatted code at the end of
387 # a section must be followed by a blank line.
388 for line in re.sub('\n$', '', helper.desc, count=1).split('\n'):
389 print('{}{}'.format('\t\t' if line else '', line))
393 for line in helper.ret.rstrip().split('\n'):
394 print('{}{}'.format('\t\t' if line else '', line))
398 class PrinterHelpers(Printer):
400 A printer for dumping collected information about helpers as C header to
401 be included from BPF program.
402 @helpers: array of Helper objects to print to standard output
406 'struct bpf_fib_lookup',
407 'struct bpf_sk_lookup',
408 'struct bpf_perf_event_data',
409 'struct bpf_perf_event_value',
410 'struct bpf_pidns_info',
412 'struct bpf_sock_addr',
413 'struct bpf_sock_ops',
414 'struct bpf_sock_tuple',
415 'struct bpf_spin_lock',
417 'struct bpf_tcp_sock',
418 'struct bpf_tunnel_key',
419 'struct bpf_xfrm_state',
421 'struct sk_reuseport_md',
427 'struct tcp_timewait_sock',
428 'struct tcp_request_sock',
430 'struct task_struct',
450 'struct bpf_fib_lookup',
451 'struct bpf_perf_event_data',
452 'struct bpf_perf_event_value',
453 'struct bpf_pidns_info',
454 'struct bpf_sk_lookup',
456 'struct bpf_sock_addr',
457 'struct bpf_sock_ops',
458 'struct bpf_sock_tuple',
459 'struct bpf_spin_lock',
461 'struct bpf_tcp_sock',
462 'struct bpf_tunnel_key',
463 'struct bpf_xfrm_state',
465 'struct sk_reuseport_md',
471 'struct tcp_timewait_sock',
472 'struct tcp_request_sock',
474 'struct task_struct',
485 'size_t': 'unsigned long',
486 'struct bpf_map': 'void',
487 'struct sk_buff': 'struct __sk_buff',
488 'const struct sk_buff': 'const struct __sk_buff',
489 'struct sk_msg_buff': 'struct sk_msg_md',
490 'struct xdp_buff': 'struct xdp_md',
492 # Helpers overloaded for different context types.
493 overloaded_helpers = [
494 'bpf_get_socket_cookie',
498 def print_header(self):
500 /* This is auto-generated file. See bpf_helpers_doc.py for details. */
502 /* Forward declarations of BPF structs */'''
505 for fwd in self.type_fwds:
509 def print_footer(self):
513 def map_type(self, t):
514 if t in self.known_types:
516 if t in self.mapped_types:
517 return self.mapped_types[t]
518 print("Unrecognized type '%s', please add it to known types!" % t,
524 def print_one(self, helper):
525 proto = helper.proto_break_down()
527 if proto['name'] in self.seen_helpers:
529 self.seen_helpers.add(proto['name'])
532 print(" * %s" % proto['name'])
535 # Do not strip all newline characters: formatted code at the end of
536 # a section must be followed by a blank line.
537 for line in re.sub('\n$', '', helper.desc, count=1).split('\n'):
538 print(' *{}{}'.format(' \t' if line else '', line))
543 for line in helper.ret.rstrip().split('\n'):
544 print(' *{}{}'.format(' \t' if line else '', line))
547 print('static %s %s(*%s)(' % (self.map_type(proto['ret_type']),
548 proto['ret_star'], proto['name']), end='')
550 for i, a in enumerate(proto['args']):
553 if proto['name'] in self.overloaded_helpers and i == 0:
556 one_arg = '{}{}'.format(comma, self.map_type(t))
559 one_arg += ' {}'.format(a['star'])
562 one_arg += '{}'.format(n)
564 print(one_arg, end='')
566 print(') = (void *) %d;' % len(self.seen_helpers))
569 ###############################################################################
571 # If script is launched from scripts/ from kernel tree and can access
572 # ../include/uapi/linux/bpf.h, use it as a default name for the file to parse,
573 # otherwise the --filename argument will be required from the command line.
574 script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
575 linuxRoot = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(script))
576 bpfh = os.path.join(linuxRoot, 'include/uapi/linux/bpf.h')
578 argParser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="""
579 Parse eBPF header file and generate documentation for eBPF helper functions.
580 The RST-formatted output produced can be turned into a manual page with the
583 argParser.add_argument('--header', action='store_true',
584 help='generate C header file')
585 if (os.path.isfile(bpfh)):
586 argParser.add_argument('--filename', help='path to include/uapi/linux/bpf.h',
589 argParser.add_argument('--filename', help='path to include/uapi/linux/bpf.h')
590 args = argParser.parse_args()
593 headerParser = HeaderParser(args.filename)
596 # Print formatted output to standard output.
598 printer = PrinterHelpers(headerParser.helpers)
600 printer = PrinterRST(headerParser.helpers)