Linux and Solaris (at least OpenSolaris) has PF_PACKET socket families to send
raw ethernet frames. The only FreeBSD interface that can be used to send raw frames
is BPF. As a result, many programs like cdpd, lldpd, various dhcp stuff uses
BPF only to send data. This leads us to the situation when software like cdpd,
being run on high-traffic-volume interface significantly reduces overall performance
since we have to acquire additional locks for every packet.
Here we add sysctl that changes BPF behavior in the following way:
If program came and opens BPF socket without explicitly specifyin read filter we
assume it to be write-only and add it to special writer-only per-interface list.
This makes bpf_peers_present() return 0, so no additional overhead is introduced.
After filter is supplied, descriptor is added to original per-interface list permitting
packets to be captured.
Unfortunately, pcap_open_live() sets catch-all filter itself for the purpose of
setting snap length.
Fortunately, most programs explicitly sets (event catch-all) filter after that.
tcpdump(1) is a good example.
So a bit hackis approach is taken: we upgrade description only after second
BIOCSETF is received.
Sysctl is named net.bpf.optimize_writers and is turned off by default.
- While here, document all sysctl variables in bpf.4
Sponsored by Yandex LLC
Reviewed by: glebius (previous version)
Reviewed by: silence on -net@
Approved by: (mentor)
MFC after: 4 weeks
aspect of time stamp configuration per interface rather than per BPF
descriptor. Prior to this, the order in which BPF devices were opened and the
per descriptor time stamp configuration settings could cause non-deterministic
and unintended behaviour with respect to time stamping. With the new scheme, a
BPF attached interface's tscfg sysctl entry can be set to "default", "none",
"fast", "normal" or "external". Setting "default" means use the system default
option (set with the net.bpf.tscfg.default sysctl), "none" means do not
generate time stamps for tapped packets, "fast" means generate time stamps for
tapped packets using a hz granularity system clock read, "normal" means
generate time stamps for tapped packets using a full timecounter granularity
system clock read and "external" (currently unimplemented) means use the time
stamp provided with the packet from an underlying source.
- Utilise the recently introduced sysclock_getsnapshot() and
sysclock_snap2bintime() KPIs to ensure the system clock is only read once per
packet, regardless of the number of BPF descriptors and time stamp formats
requested. Use the per BPF attached interface time stamp configuration to
control if sysclock_getsnapshot() is called and whether the system clock read
is fast or normal. The per BPF descriptor time stamp configuration is then
used to control how the system clock snapshot is converted to a bintime by
sysclock_snap2bintime().
- Remove all FAST related BPF descriptor flag variants. Performing a "fast"
read of the system clock is now controlled per BPF attached interface using
the net.bpf.tscfg sysctl tree.
- Update the bpf.4 man page.
Committed on behalf of Julien Ridoux and Darryl Veitch from the University of
Melbourne, Australia, as part of the FreeBSD Foundation funded "Feed-Forward
Clock Synchronization Algorithms" project.
For more information, see http://www.synclab.org/radclock/
In collaboration with: Julien Ridoux (jridoux at unimelb edu au)
- Allow setting format, resolution and accuracy of BPF time stamps per
listener. Previously, we were only able to use microtime(9). Now we can
set various resolutions and accuracies with ioctl(2) BIOCSTSTAMP command.
Similarly, we can get the current resolution and accuracy with BIOCGTSTAMP
command. Document all supported options in bpf(4) and their uses.
- Introduce new time stamp 'struct bpf_ts' and header 'struct bpf_xhdr'.
The new time stamp has both 64-bit second and fractional parts. bpf_xhdr
has this time stamp instead of 'struct timeval' for bh_tstamp. The new
structures let us use bh_tstamp of same size on both 32-bit and 64-bit
platforms without adding additional shims for 32-bit binaries. On 64-bit
platforms, size of BPF header does not change compared to bpf_hdr as its
members are already all 64-bit long. On 32-bit platforms, the size may
increase by 8 bytes. For backward compatibility, struct bpf_hdr with
struct timeval is still the default header unless new time stamp format is
explicitly requested. However, the behaviour may change in the future and
all relevant code is wrapped around "#ifdef BURN_BRIDGES" for now.
- Add experimental support for tagging mbufs with time stamps from a lower
layer, e.g., device driver. Currently, mbuf_tags(9) is used to tag mbufs.
The time stamps must be uptime in 'struct bintime' format as binuptime(9)
and getbinuptime(9) do.
Reviewed by: net@
bpf(4) now uses cdevpriv to distinguish multiple file descriptors, where
it used to be implemented using device cloning. Ports like libpcap
properly detect the change in their configure scripts, but it doesn't
hurt to increase __FreeBSD_version.
While there, change the bpf(4) manual page to refer to /dev/bpf instead
of /dev/bpfN.
Requested by: mlaier
buffer kernel descriptors, which is used to allow the buffer
currently in the BPF "store" position to be assigned to userspace
when it fills, even if userspace hasn't acknowledged the buffer
in the "hold" position yet. To implement this, notify the buffer
model when a buffer becomes full, and check that the store buffer
is writable, not just for it being full, before trying to append
new packet data. Shared memory buffers will be assigned to
userspace at most once per fill, be it in the store or in the
hold position.
This removes the restriction that at most one shared memory can
by owned by userspace, reducing the chances that userspace will
need to call select() after acknowledging one buffer in order to
wait for the next buffer when under high load. This more fully
realizes the goal of zero system calls in order to process a
high-speed packet stream from BPF.
Update bpf.4 to reflect that both buffers may be owned by userspace
at once; caution against assuming this.
overhead of packet capture by allowing a user process to directly "loan"
buffer memory to the kernel rather than using read(2) to explicitly copy
data from kernel address space.
The user process will issue new BPF ioctls to set the shared memory
buffer mode and provide pointers to buffers and their size. The kernel
then wires and maps the pages into kernel address space using sf_buf(9),
which on supporting architectures will use the direct map region. The
current "buffered" access mode remains the default, and support for
zero-copy buffers must, for the time being, be explicitly enabled using
a sysctl for the kernel to accept requests to use it.
The kernel and user process synchronize use of the buffers with atomic
operations, avoiding the need for system calls under load; the user
process may use select()/poll()/kqueue() to manage blocking while
waiting for network data if the user process is able to consume data
faster than the kernel generates it. Patchs to libpcap are available
to allow libpcap applications to transparently take advantage of this
support. Detailed information on the new API may be found in bpf(4),
including specific atomic operations and memory barriers required to
synchronize buffer use safely.
These changes modify the base BPF implementation to (roughly) abstrac
the current buffer model, allowing the new shared memory model to be
added, and add new monitoring statistics for netstat to print. The
implementation, with the exception of some monitoring hanges that break
the netstat monitoring ABI for BPF, will be MFC'd.
Zerocopy bpf buffers are still considered experimental are disabled
by default. To experiment with this new facility, adjust the
net.bpf.zerocopy_enable sysctl variable to 1.
Changes to libpcap will be made available as a patch for the time being,
and further refinements to the implementation are expected.
Sponsored by: Seccuris Inc.
In collaboration with: rwatson
Tested by: pwood, gallatin
MFC after: 4 months [1]
[1] Certain portions will probably not be MFCed, specifically things
that can break the monitoring ABI.
- BIOCGDIRECTION and BIOCSDIRECTION get or set the setting determining
whether incoming, outgoing, or all packets on the interface should be
returned by BPF. Set to BPF_D_IN to see only incoming packets on the
interface. Set to BPF_D_INOUT to see packets originating locally and
remotely on the interface. Set to BPF_D_OUT to see only outgoing
packets on the interface. This setting is initialized to BPF_D_INOUT
by default. BIOCGSEESENT and BIOCSSEESENT are obsoleted by these but
kept for backward compatibility.
- BIOCFEEDBACK sets packet feedback mode. This allows injected packets
to be fed back as input to the interface when output via the interface is
successful. When BPF_D_INOUT direction is set, injected outgoing packet
is not returned by BPF to avoid duplication. This flag is initialized to
zero by default.
Note that libpcap has been modified to support BPF_D_OUT direction for
pcap_setdirection(3) and PCAP_D_OUT direction is functional now.
Reviewed by: rwatson
man page after Orla, so the mistakes are probably mine. Leave a
note on the door welcoming the mdoc police.
Submitted by: Orla McGann <orly@cnri.dit.ie>
Avoid using parenthesis enclosure macros (.Pq and .Po/.Pc) with plain text.
Not only this slows down the mdoc(7) processing significantly, but it also
has an undesired (in this case) effect of disabling hyphenation within the
entire enclosed block.
the SYNOPSIS hasn't had an example number of devices since rev 1.2 which
was over 5 and a half years ago, so remove a sentence claiming that the
example in the SYNOPSIS limited bpf to 16 devices.
MFC after: 3 days
not the current BPF device should report locally generated packets or not.
This allows sniffing applications to see only packets that are not generated
locally, which can be useful for debugging bridging problems, or other
situations where MAC addresses are not sufficient to identify locally
sourced packets. Default to true for this flag, so as to provide existing
behavior by default.
Introduce two new ioctls, BIOCGSEESENT and BIOCSSEESENT, which may be used
to manipulate this flag from userland, given appropriate privilege.
Modify bpf.4 to document these two new ioctl arguments.
Reviewed by: asmodai
