Skip to content

Commit dc01eee

Browse files
author
Dongsu Park
committed
Documentation: introduce a document about object pinning
1 parent 65da3b9 commit dc01eee

File tree

1 file changed

+83
-0
lines changed

1 file changed

+83
-0
lines changed

Documentation/pinning.md

+83
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
1+
# Object pinning
2+
3+
BPF has a persistent view of maps and programs under its own filesystem
4+
`/sys/fs/bpf`. Users are able to make each object visible under the bpffs.
5+
We call it `object pinning`. This is done by calling syscall `bpf(2)` with
6+
a command `BPF_OBJ_PIN`. After doing that, users are able to use the object
7+
with commands such as `BPF_OBJ_GET`, or remove the object with an ordinary
8+
VFS syscall `unlink(2)`.
9+
10+
Doing that, we can make maps and programs stay alive across process
11+
terminations. This mechanism provides a much more consistent way of sharing
12+
objects with other processes, compared to other solutions such as `tc`,
13+
where objects are shared via Unix domain sockets.
14+
15+
## Different pinning options
16+
17+
`C.bpf_map_def.pinning` (defined in
18+
[bpf.h](https://github.com/iovisor/gobpf/blob/446e57e0e24e/elf/include/bpf.h#L616))
19+
can be set to one the following pinning options.
20+
21+
* `PIN_NONE` : object is not pinned
22+
* `PIN_OBJECT_NS` : pinning that is local to an object (to-be-implemented)
23+
* `PIN_GLOBAL_NS` : pinning with a global namespace under e.g. `/sys/fs/bpf/ns1/globals`
24+
* `PIN_CUSTOM_NS` : pinning with a custom path given as section parameter
25+
26+
### Pinning with `PIN_CUSTOM_NS`
27+
28+
When loading a module with `C.bpf_map_def.pinning` set to `PIN_CUSTOM_NS`,
29+
an additional path must be set in the `elf.SectionParams.PinPath` parameter
30+
to `Load()`. For example:
31+
32+
(C source file for an ELF object)
33+
```
34+
struct bpf_map_def SEC("maps/dummy_array_custom") dummy_array_custom = {
35+
.type = BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY,
36+
.key_size = sizeof(int),
37+
.value_size = sizeof(unsigned int),
38+
.max_entries = 1024,
39+
.pinning = PIN_CUSTOM_NS,
40+
};
41+
```
42+
43+
(Go source file that actually uses the ELF object)
44+
```
45+
b := elf.NewModule(customELFFileName)
46+
var secParams = map[string]elf.SectionParams{
47+
"maps/dummy_array_custom": elf.SectionParams{
48+
PinPath: "ns1/test1",
49+
},
50+
}
51+
if err := b.Load(secParams); err != nil {
52+
fmt.Println(err)
53+
}
54+
```
55+
56+
Then you can check if the object is pinned like below:
57+
58+
```
59+
$ ls -l /sys/fs/bpf/ns1/test1
60+
```
61+
62+
### Unpinning with `PIN_CUSTOM_NS`
63+
64+
To unpin a custom pinned map, we need an additional path
65+
`elf.CloseOptions.PinPath` as parameter to `CloseExt()`. For example:
66+
67+
```
68+
var closeOptions = map[string]elf.CloseOptions{
69+
"maps/dummy_array_custom": elf.CloseOptions{
70+
Unpin: true,
71+
PinPath: "ns1/test1",
72+
},
73+
}
74+
if err := b.CloseExt(closeOptions); err != nil {
75+
fmt.Println(err)
76+
}
77+
```
78+
79+
Or you can also remove the file just like below:
80+
81+
```
82+
os.Remove("/sys/fs/bpf/ns1/test1")
83+
```

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)