Documentation/networking/skbuff.rst

File Facts

System

Linux kernel

Corpus path

Documentation/networking/skbuff.rst

Extension

.rst

Size

889 bytes

Lines

32

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

• No C-style include directives detected by the generator.

Detected Declarations

• No top-level syscall, struct, function, initcall, or export declaration detected by the generator.

Annotated Snippet

.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0

struct sk_buff
==============

:c:type:`sk_buff` is the main networking structure representing
a packet.

Basic sk_buff geometry
----------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/skbuff.h
   :doc: Basic sk_buff geometry

Shared skbs and skb clones
--------------------------

:c:member:`sk_buff.users` is a simple refcount allowing multiple entities
to keep a struct sk_buff alive. skbs with a ``sk_buff.users != 1`` are referred
to as shared skbs (see skb_shared()).

skb_clone() allows for fast duplication of skbs. None of the data buffers
get copied, but caller gets a new metadata struct (struct sk_buff).
&skb_shared_info.refcount indicates the number of skbs pointing at the same
packet data (i.e. clones).

dataref and headerless skbs
---------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/skbuff.h
   :doc: dataref and headerless skbs

Annotation

• 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.