History log of /linux-master/tools/bpf/bpftool/Documentation/bpftool-gen.rst
Revision Date Author Comments
# f2e81192 28-Feb-2024 Kui-Feng Lee <thinker.li@gmail.com>

bpftool: Add an example for struct_ops map and shadow type.

The example in bpftool-gen.8 explains how to use the pointer of the shadow
type to change the value of a field of a struct_ops map.

Signed-off-by: Kui-Feng Lee <thinker.li@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20240229064523.2091270-5-thinker.li@gmail.com


# bbaf1ff0 23-Jun-2023 Fangrui Song <maskray@google.com>

bpf: Replace deprecated -target with --target= for Clang

The -target option has been deprecated since clang 3.4 in 2013. Therefore, use
the preferred --target=bpf form instead. This also matches how we use --target=
in scripts/Makefile.clang.

Signed-off-by: Fangrui Song <maskray@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Acked-by: Yonghong Song <yhs@fb.com>
Acked-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Link: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/274b6f0c87a6a1798de0a68135afc7f95def6277
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20230624001856.1903733-1-maskray@google.com


# 00389c58 16-Mar-2022 Delyan Kratunov <delyank@fb.com>

bpftool: Add support for subskeletons

Subskeletons are headers which require an already loaded program to
operate.

For example, when a BPF library is linked into a larger BPF object file,
the library userspace needs a way to access its own global variables
without requiring knowledge about the larger program at build time.

As a result, subskeletons require a loaded bpf_object to open().
Further, they find their own symbols in the larger program by
walking BTF type data at run time.

At this time, programs, maps, and globals are supported through
non-owning pointers.

Signed-off-by: Delyan Kratunov <delyank@fb.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/ca8a48b4841c72d285ecce82371bef4a899756cb.1647473511.git.delyank@fb.com


# 1d1ffbf7 15-Feb-2022 Rafael David Tinoco <rafaeldtinoco@gmail.com>

bpftool: Gen min_core_btf explanation and examples

Add "min_core_btf" feature explanation and one example of how to use it
to bpftool-gen man page.

Signed-off-by: Mauricio Vásquez <mauricio@kinvolk.io>
Signed-off-by: Rafael David Tinoco <rafael.tinoco@aquasec.com>
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Fontana <lorenzo.fontana@elastic.co>
Signed-off-by: Leonardo Di Donato <leonardo.didonato@elastic.co>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20220215225856.671072-7-mauricio@kinvolk.io


# b6231815 15-Nov-2021 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

bpftool: Update doc (use susbtitutions) and test_bpftool_synctypes.py

test_bpftool_synctypes.py helps detecting inconsistencies in bpftool
between the different list of types and options scattered in the
sources, the documentation, and the bash completion. For options that
apply to all bpftool commands, the script had a hardcoded list of
values, and would use them to check whether the man pages are
up-to-date. When writing the script, it felt acceptable to have this
list in order to avoid to open and parse bpftool's main.h every time,
and because the list of global options in bpftool doesn't change so
often.

However, this is prone to omissions, and we recently added a new
-l|--legacy option which was described in common_options.rst, but not
listed in the options summary of each manual page. The script did not
complain, because it keeps comparing the hardcoded list to the (now)
outdated list in the header file.

To address the issue, this commit brings the following changes:

- Options that are common to all bpftool commands (--json, --pretty, and
--debug) are moved to a dedicated file, and used in the definition of
a RST substitution. This substitution is used in the sources of all
the man pages.

- This list of common options is updated, with the addition of the new
-l|--legacy option.

- The script test_bpftool_synctypes.py is updated to compare:
- Options specific to a command, found in C files, for the
interactive help messages, with the same specific options from the
relevant man page for that command.
- Common options, checked just once: the list in main.h is
compared with the new list in substitutions.rst.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20211115225844.33943-3-quentin@isovalent.com


# 43448428 15-Nov-2021 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

bpftool: Add SPDX tags to RST documentation files

Most files in the kernel repository have a SPDX tags. The files that
don't have such a tag (or another license boilerplate) tend to fall
under the GPL-2.0 license. In the past, bpftool's Makefile (for example)
has been marked as GPL-2.0 for that reason, when in fact all bpftool is
dual-licensed.

To prevent a similar confusion from happening with the RST documentation
files for bpftool, let's explicitly mark all files as dual-licensed.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20211115225844.33943-2-quentin@isovalent.com


# 986dec18 10-Nov-2021 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

bpftool: Fix indent in option lists in the documentation

Mixed indentation levels in the lists of options in bpftool's
documentation produces some unexpected results. For the "bpftool" man
page, it prints a warning:

$ make -C bpftool.8
GEN bpftool.8
<stdin>:26: (ERROR/3) Unexpected indentation.

For other pages, there is no warning, but it results in a line break
appearing in the option lists in the generated man pages.

RST paragraphs should have a uniform indentation level. Let's fix it.

Fixes: c07ba629df97 ("tools: bpftool: Update and synchronise option list in doc and help msg")
Fixes: 8cc8c6357c8f ("tools: bpftool: Document and add bash completion for -L, -B options")
Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20211110114632.24537-5-quentin@isovalent.com


# 8cc8c635 30-Jul-2021 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools: bpftool: Document and add bash completion for -L, -B options

The -L|--use-loader option for using loader programs when loading, or
when generating a skeleton, did not have any documentation or bash
completion. Same thing goes for -B|--base-btf, used to pass a path to a
base BTF object for split BTF such as BTF for kernel modules.

This patch documents and adds bash completion for those options.

Fixes: 75fa1777694c ("tools/bpftool: Add bpftool support for split BTF")
Fixes: d510296d331a ("bpftool: Use syscall/loader program in "prog load" and "gen skeleton" command.")
Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210730215435.7095-7-quentin@isovalent.com


# c07ba629 30-Jul-2021 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools: bpftool: Update and synchronise option list in doc and help msg

All bpftool commands support the options for JSON output and debug from
libbpf. In addition, some commands support additional options
corresponding to specific use cases.

The list of options described in the man pages for the different
commands are not always accurate. The messages for interactive help are
mostly limited to HELP_SPEC_OPTIONS, and are even less representative of
the actual set of options supported for the commands.

Let's update the lists:

- HELP_SPEC_OPTIONS is modified to contain the "default" options (JSON
and debug), and to be extensible (no ending curly bracket).
- All commands use HELP_SPEC_OPTIONS in their help message, and then
complete the list with their specific options.
- The lists of options in the man pages are updated.
- The formatting of the list for bpftool.rst is adjusted to match
formatting for the other man pages. This is for consistency, and also
because it will be helpful in a future patch to automatically check
that the files are synchronised.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210730215435.7095-5-quentin@isovalent.com


# d80b2fcb 18-Mar-2021 Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>

bpftool: Add `gen object` command to perform BPF static linking

Add `bpftool gen object <output-file> <input_file>...` command to statically
link multiple BPF ELF object files into a single output BPF ELF object file.

This patch also updates bash completions and man page. Man page gets a short
section on `gen object` command, but also updates the skeleton example to show
off workflow for BPF application with two .bpf.c files, compiled individually
with Clang, then resulting object files are linked together with `gen object`,
and then final object file is used to generate usable BPF skeleton. This
should help new users understand realistic workflow w.r.t. compiling
mutli-file BPF application.

Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210318194036.3521577-10-andrii@kernel.org


# c4122665 18-Mar-2021 Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>

bpftool: Add ability to specify custom skeleton object name

Add optional name OBJECT_NAME parameter to `gen skeleton` command to override
default object name, normally derived from input file name. This allows much
more flexibility during build time.

Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210318194036.3521577-9-andrii@kernel.org


# 18841da9 10-Sep-2020 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools: bpftool: Automate generation for "SEE ALSO" sections in man pages

The "SEE ALSO" sections of bpftool's manual pages refer to bpf(2),
bpf-helpers(7), then all existing bpftool man pages (save the current
one).

This leads to nearly-identical lists being duplicated in all manual
pages. Ideally, when a new page is created, all lists should be updated
accordingly, but this has led to omissions and inconsistencies multiple
times in the past.

Let's take it out of the RST files and generate the "SEE ALSO" sections
automatically in the Makefile when generating the man pages. The lists
are not really useful in the RST anyway because all other pages are
available in the same directory.

v3:
- Fix conflict with a previous patchset that introduced RST2MAN_OPTS
variable passed to rst2man.

v2:
- Use "echo -n" instead of "printf" in Makefile, to avoid any risk of
passing a format string directly to the command.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200910203935.25304-1-quentin@isovalent.com


# f28ef96d 09-Sep-2020 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools: bpftool: Include common options from separate file

Nearly all man pages for bpftool have the same common set of option
flags (--help, --version, --json, --pretty, --debug). The description is
duplicated across all the pages, which is more difficult to maintain if
the description of an option changes. It may also be confusing to sort
out what options are not "common" and should not be copied when creating
new manual pages.

Let's move the description for those common options to a separate file,
which is included with a RST directive when generating the man pages.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200909162500.17010-3-quentin@isovalent.com


# 16f3ddfb 09-Sep-2020 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools: bpftool: Log info-level messages when building bpftool man pages

To build man pages for bpftool (and for eBPF helper functions), rst2man
can log different levels of information. Let's make it log all levels
to keep the RST files clean.

Doing so, rst2man complains about double colons, used for literal
blocks, that look like underlines for section titles. Let's add the
necessary blank lines.

v2:
- Use "--verbose" instead of "-r 1" (same behaviour but more readable).
- Pass it through a RST2MAN_OPTS variable so we can easily pass other
options too.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200909162251.15498-2-quentin@isovalent.com


# c8caa0bb 11-May-2020 Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>

tools, bpftool: Minor fixes for documentation

Bring minor improvements to bpftool documentation. Fix or harmonise
formatting, update map types (including in interactive help), improve
description for "map create", fix a build warning due to a missing line
after the double-colon for the "bpftool prog profile" example,
complete/harmonise/sort the list of related bpftool man pages in
footers.

v2:
- Remove (instead of changing) mark-up on "value" in bpftool-map.rst,
when it does not refer to something passed on the command line.
- Fix an additional typo ("hexadeximal") in the same file.

Signed-off-by: Quentin Monnet <quentin@isovalent.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200511161536.29853-3-quentin@isovalent.com


# 229c3b47 20-Jan-2020 Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@redhat.com>

bpftool: Use consistent include paths for libbpf

Fix bpftool to include libbpf header files with the bpf/ prefix, to be
consistent with external users of the library. Also ensure that all
includes of exported libbpf header files (those that are exported on 'make
install' of the library) use bracketed includes instead of quoted.

To make sure no new files are introduced that doesn't include the bpf/
prefix in its include, remove tools/lib/bpf from the include path entirely,
and use tools/lib instead.

Fixes: 6910d7d3867a ("selftests/bpf: Ensure bpf_helper_defs.h are taken from selftests dir")
Signed-off-by: Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/157952560684.1683545.4765181397974997027.stgit@toke.dk


# dacce641 18-Dec-2019 Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>

bpftool: Work-around rst2man conversion bug

Work-around what appears to be a bug in rst2man convertion tool, used to
create man pages out of reStructureText-formatted documents. If text line
starts with dot, rst2man will put it in resulting man file verbatim. This
seems to cause man tool to interpret it as a directive/command (e.g., `.bs`), and
subsequently not render entire line because it's unrecognized one.

Enclose '.xxx' words in extra formatting to work around.

Fixes: cb21ac588546 ("bpftool: Add gen subcommand manpage")
Reported-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Yonghong Song <yhs@fb.com
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20191218221707.2552199-1-andriin@fb.com


# cb21ac58 17-Dec-2019 Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>

bpftool: Add gen subcommand manpage

Add bpftool-gen.rst describing skeleton on the high level. Also include
a small, but complete, example BPF app (BPF side, userspace side, generated
skeleton) in example section to demonstrate skeleton API and its usage.

Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@fb.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Yonghong Song <yhs@fb.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20191218052552.2915188-4-andriin@fb.com