eBPF
Trace from Kernel to Userspace
Gary Lin
SUSE Labs
Software Engineer
Technology
Sharing Day
2016

Tracer

tick_nohz_idle_enter
set_cpu_sd_state_idle
up_write
__tick_nohz_idle_enter
ktime_get
uprobe_mmap
read_hpet
vma_set_page_prot
vma_wants_writenotify
rcu_needs_cpu
fput
get_next_timer_interrupt
_raw_spin_lock
hrtimer_get_next_event
_raw_spin_lock_irqsave
_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
syscall_trace_leave
_raw_write_unlock_irqrestore
__audit_syscall_exit
path_put
dput
mntput
up_write
rax: 0x0000000000000000
rbx: 0xffff88012b5a5a28
rcx: 0xffff8800987c18e0
rdx: 0x0000000000000000
rsi: 0xffff88012b439f20
rdi: 0xffff88012b464628
rbp: 0xffff8800959e3d98

kprobe
Kernel
Userspace
uprobe
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/uprobe_events

eBPF

BPF?

Berkeley Packet Filter

BPF
No Red
BPF Program

The BSD Packet Filter:
A New Architecture for User-level
Packet Capture
December 19, 1992

SCO lawsuit, August 2003

Old

Stable

BPF ASM
ldh [12]
jne #0x800, drop
ldb [23]
jneq #1, drop
# get a random uint32 number
ld rand
mod #4
jneq #1, drop
ret #-1
drop: ret #0

BPF Bytecode
struct sock_filter code[] = {
{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x0000000c },
{ 0x15, 0, 8, 0x000086dd },
{ 0x30, 0, 0, 0x00000014 },
{ 0x15, 2, 0, 0x00000084 },
{ 0x15, 1, 0, 0x00000006 },
{ 0x15, 0, 17, 0x00000011 },
{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x00000036 },
{ 0x15, 14, 0, 0x00000016 },
{ 0x28, 0, 0, 0x00000038 },
{ 0x15, 12, 13, 0x00000016 },
...
};

Virtual Machinekind of

BPF JIT

BPF
Bytecode
Native
Machine
Code
BPF JIT

$ find arch/ -name bpf_jit*
arch/sparc/net/bpf_jit_comp.c
arch/sparc/net/bpf_jit_asm.S
arch/sparc/net/bpf_jit.h
arch/arm/net/bpf_jit_32.c
arch/arm/net/bpf_jit_32.h
arch/arm64/net/bpf_jit_comp.c
arch/arm64/net/bpf_jit.h
arch/powerpc/net/bpf_jit_comp.c
arch/powerpc/net/bpf_jit_asm.S
arch/powerpc/net/bpf_jit.h
arch/s390/net/bpf_jit_comp.c
arch/s390/net/bpf_jit.S
arch/s390/net/bpf_jit.h
arch/mips/net/bpf_jit.c
arch/mips/net/bpf_jit_asm.S
arch/mips/net/bpf_jit.h
arch/x86/net/bpf_jit_comp.c
arch/x86/net/bpf_jit.S

Stable and Efficient

eBPF

Extended BPF

eBPF
userspacekernel
eBPF
Program
BPF_PROG_LOAD
At most
4096
instructions

Extended Registers
eBPF Verifier
eBPF Map
Probe Event

Extended Registers
eBPF Verifier
eBPF Map
Probe Event

Classic BPF: 32 bit
Extended BPF: 64 bit

Classic BPF: A, X (2)
Extended BPF: R0 – R9 (10)
R10 (read-only)

For x86_64 JIT
R0 → rax
R1 → rdi
R2 → rsi
R3 → rdx
R4 → rcx
R5 → r8
R6 → rbx
R7 → r13
R8 → r14
R9 → r15
R10 → rbp

BPF Calling Convention
● R0
Return value from in-kernel function, and exit value for
eBPF program
● R1 – R5
Arguments from eBPF program to in-kernel function
● R6 – R9
Callee saved registers that in-kernel function will
preserve
● R10
Read-only frame pointer to access stack

Extended Registers
eBPF Verifier
eBPF Map
Probe Event

Two-Step Verification

Step 1
Directed Acyclic Graph
Check

Loops
Unreachable Instructions

Loops
Unreachable Instructions

Step 2
Simulate the Execution

Read a never-written register
Do arithmetic of two valid pointer
Load/store registers of invalid types
Read stack before writing data into stack

Read a never-written register
Do arithmetic of two valid pointer
Load/store registers of invalid types
Read stack before writing data into stack

Extended Registers
eBPF Verifier
eBPF Map
Probe Event

eBPF
userspacekernel
User
Program
Map BPF_MAP_*

eBPF Map Types
● BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH
● BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY
● BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY
● BPF_MAP_TYPE_PERF_EVENT_ARRAY

eBPF Map Syscalls
● BPF_MAP_CREATE
● BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_ELEM
● BPF_MAP_UPDATE_ELEM
● BPF_MAP_DELETE_ELEM
● BPF_MAP_GET_NEXT_KEY

Extended Registers
eBPF Verifier
eBPF Map
Probe Event

New ioctl request
PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_BPF

Kprobe

BPF_PROG_LOAD
User Program
eBPF
userspace
kernel
Kernel
Program
kprobe
Event
fd
fd
PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_BPF
fd
Attach

Registration
perf_tp_event_init() kernel/events/core.c
perf_trace_init() kernel/trace/trace_event_perf.c
perf_trace_event_init() kernel/trace/trace_event_perf.c
perf_trace_event_reg() kernel/trace/trace_event_perf.c
ret = tp_event->class->reg(tp_event,
TRACE_REG_PERF_REGISTER,
NULL);
kprobe_register() kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
enable_trace_kprobe() kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
enable_kprobe() kernel/kprobes.c

Attach
perf_ioctl() kernel/events/core.c
_perf_ioctl() kernel/events/core.c
case PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_BPF:
return perf_event_set_bpf_prog(event, arg);
perf_event_set_bpf_prog() kernel/events/core.c
prog = bpf_prog_get(prog_fd);
event->tp_event->prog = prog;

Dispatch Event
kprobe_dispatcher() kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
kprobe_perf_func() kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
if (prog && !trace_call_bpf(prog, regs))
Return;
trace_call_bpf() kernel/trace/bpf_trace.c
BPF_PROG_RUN() include/linux/filter.h
__bpf_prog_run() kernel/bpf/core.c

kfree_skb(struct sk_buff *skb)
{
if (unlikely(!skb))
return;
….
}
kprobe
eBPF
BPF bytecode Read Map
BPF bytecode Map
BPF_PROG_LOAD BPF_MAP_*
userspace
kernel
bpf_tracer.c

Uprobe

BPF_PROG_LOAD
User Program
eBPF
userspace
kernel
Kernel
Program
uprobe
Event
fd
fd
PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_BPF
fd
Attach

__libc_malloc(size_t *bytes)
{
arena_lookup(ar_ptr);
arena_lock(ar_ptr, bytes);
….
}
uprobe
eBPF
BPF bytecode
BPF bytecode
userspace
kernel
bpf_tracer.c
glibc

How to use eBPF?

Linux Kernel >= 4.1

Kernel Config
● CONFIG_BPF=y
● CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL=y
● CONFIG_BPF_JIT=y
● CONFIG_HAVE_BPF_JIT=y
● CONFIG_BPF_EVENTS=y

BPF ASM

BPF ASM
Restricted C

LLVM >= 3.7

clang:
llc:
--emit-llvm
--march=bpf

C code
LLVM
IR Bitcode
BPF Bytecodeclang llc

User Program
eBPF
userspace
kernel
eBPF MAP
Kernel
Program
As simple
as possible
Whatever you want

BPF Compiler Collection

obs://Base:System/bcc

C & Python Library
Built-in BPF compiler

Hello World
from bcc import BPF
bpf_prog="""
void kprobe__sys_clone(void *ctx) {
bpf_trace_printk(“Hello, Worldn”);
}
"""
BPF(text=bpf_prog).trace_print()

Access Map
In bitehist.c:
BPF_HISTOGRAM(dist);
dist.increment(bpf_log2l(req->__data_len / 1024));
In bitehist.py:
b = BPF(src_file = "bitehist.c")
b["dist"].print_log2_hist("kbytes")

Access Map (Cont’)
# ./bitehist.py
Tracing... Hit Ctrl-C to end.
^C
kbytes : count distribution
0 -> 1 : 8 |****** |
2 -> 3 : 0 | |
4 -> 7 : 51 |****************************************|
8 -> 15 : 8 |****** |
16 -> 31 : 1 | |
32 -> 63 : 3 |** |
64 -> 127 : 2 |* |

memleak.py
if not kernel_trace:
print("Attaching to malloc and free in pid %d,"
"Ctrl+C to quit." % pid)
bpf_program.attach_uprobe(name="c", sym="malloc",
fn_name="alloc_enter", pid=pid)
bpf_program.attach_uretprobe(name="c", sym="malloc",
fn_name="alloc_exit", pid=pid)
bpf_program.attach_uprobe(name="c", sym="free",
fn_name="free_enter", pid=pid)
else:
print("Attaching to kmalloc and kfree, Ctrl+C to quit.")
bpf_program.attach_kprobe(event="__kmalloc",
fn_name="alloc_enter")
bpf_program.attach_kretprobe(event="__kmalloc",
fn_name="alloc_exit")
bpf_program.attach_kprobe(event="kfree",
fn_name="free_enter")

memleak.py (alloc_enter)
BPF_HASH(sizes, u64);
BPF_HASH(allocs, u64, struct alloc_info_t);
int alloc_enter(struct pt_regs *ctx, size_t size) {
...
u64 pid = bpf_get_current_pid_tgid();
u64 size64 = size;
sizes.update(&pid, &size64);
...
}

memleak.py (alloc_exit)
BPF_HASH(sizes, u64);
BPF_HASH(allocs, u64, struct alloc_info_t);
int alloc_exit(struct pt_regs *ctx) {
u64 address = ctx->ax;
u64 pid = bpf_get_current_pid_tgid();
u64* size64 = sizes.lookup(&pid);
struct alloc_info_t info = {0};
if (size64 == 0)
return 0; // missed alloc entry
info.size = *size64;
sizes.delete(&pid);
info.timestamp_ns = bpf_ktime_get_ns();
info.num_frames = grab_stack(ctx, &info) - 2;
allocs.update(&address, &info);
...
}

memleak.py (free)
BPF_HASH(sizes, u64);
BPF_HASH(allocs, u64, struct alloc_info_t);
int free_enter(struct pt_regs *ctx, void *address)
{
u64 addr = (u64)address;
struct alloc_info_t *info = allocs.lookup(&addr);
if (info == 0)
return 0;
allocs.delete(&addr);
...
}

Demo

Question?

Thank
You

References
● Documentation/networking/filter.txt
● http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2015-05-15/ebpf-one-small-s
tep.html
● https://suchakra.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/bpf-internals-i/
● https://suchakra.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/bpf-internals-ii/
● https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/9/30/627
● https://lwn.net/Articles/612878/
● https://lwn.net/Articles/650953/
● https://github.com/iovisor/bcc