Documentation/networking/af_xdp.rst
Source file repositories/reference/linux-study-clean/Documentation/networking/af_xdp.rst
File Facts
- System
- Linux kernel
- Corpus path
Documentation/networking/af_xdp.rst- Extension
.rst- Size
- 35132 bytes
- Lines
- 856
- Domain
- Support Tooling And Documentation
- Bucket
- Documentation
- Inferred role
- Support Tooling And Documentation: documentation
- Status
- atlas-only
Why This File Exists
Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
- Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
- Defines or uses C structs; map object ownership, embedded links, reference counts, and lock ownership.
Dependency Surface
linux/bpf.hbpf_helpers.h
Detected Declarations
struct xdp_statisticsfunction SECfunction falsefunction dequeue_onefunction enqueue_onefunction rx_packetsfunction tx_packets
Annotated Snippet
struct xdp_statistics {
__u64 rx_dropped; /* Dropped for reasons other than invalid desc */
__u64 rx_invalid_descs; /* Dropped due to invalid descriptor */
__u64 tx_invalid_descs; /* Dropped due to invalid descriptor */
};
XDP_OPTIONS getsockopt
----------------------
Gets options from an XDP socket. The only one supported so far is
XDP_OPTIONS_ZEROCOPY which tells you if zero-copy is on or not.
Multi-Buffer Support
====================
With multi-buffer support, programs using AF_XDP sockets can receive
and transmit packets consisting of multiple buffers both in copy and
zero-copy mode. For example, a packet can consist of two
frames/buffers, one with the header and the other one with the data,
or a 9K Ethernet jumbo frame can be constructed by chaining together
three 4K frames.
Some definitions:
* A packet consists of one or more frames
* A descriptor in one of the AF_XDP rings always refers to a single
frame. In the case the packet consists of a single frame, the
descriptor refers to the whole packet.
To enable multi-buffer support for an AF_XDP socket, use the new bind
flag XDP_USE_SG. If this is not provided, all multi-buffer packets
will be dropped just as before. Note that the XDP program loaded also
needs to be in multi-buffer mode. This can be accomplished by using
"xdp.frags" as the section name of the XDP program used.
To represent a packet consisting of multiple frames, a new flag called
XDP_PKT_CONTD is introduced in the options field of the Rx and Tx
descriptors. If it is true (1) the packet continues with the next
descriptor and if it is false (0) it means this is the last descriptor
of the packet. Why the reverse logic of end-of-packet (eop) flag found
in many NICs? Just to preserve compatibility with non-multi-buffer
applications that have this bit set to false for all packets on Rx,
and the apps set the options field to zero for Tx, as anything else
will be treated as an invalid descriptor.
These are the semantics for producing packets onto AF_XDP Tx ring
consisting of multiple frames:
* When an invalid descriptor is found, all the other
descriptors/frames of this packet are marked as invalid and not
completed. The next descriptor is treated as the start of a new
packet, even if this was not the intent (because we cannot guess
the intent). As before, if your program is producing invalid
descriptors you have a bug that must be fixed.
* Zero length descriptors are treated as invalid descriptors.
* For copy mode, the maximum supported number of frames in a packet is
equal to CONFIG_MAX_SKB_FRAGS + 1. If it is exceeded, all
descriptors accumulated so far are dropped and treated as
invalid. To produce an application that will work on any system
regardless of this config setting, limit the number of frags to 18,
as the minimum value of the config is 17.
* For zero-copy mode, the limit is up to what the NIC HW
supports. Usually at least five on the NICs we have checked. We
consciously chose to not enforce a rigid limit (such as
CONFIG_MAX_SKB_FRAGS + 1) for zero-copy mode, as it would have
resulted in copy actions under the hood to fit into what limit the
Annotation
- Immediate include surface: `linux/bpf.h`, `bpf_helpers.h`.
- Detected declarations: `struct xdp_statistics`, `function SEC`, `function false`, `function dequeue_one`, `function enqueue_one`, `function rx_packets`, `function tx_packets`.
- Atlas domain: Support Tooling And Documentation / Documentation.
- Implementation status: atlas-only.
Implementation Notes
- This generated page is the file-by-file coverage layer; curated subsystem chapters should link here when they synthesize a multi-file control flow.
- Core OS pages should be promoted from atlas-only to deep-reviewed when they explain data structures, invariants, locking, lifecycle, and C implementation snippets.
- Driver-family pages are intentionally pattern-oriented unless they are part of the selected PCIe/NVMe representative device path.