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This patch documents overview of libbpf, including its features for developing BPF programs. Signed-off-by: Sreevani Sreejith <ssreevani@meta.com> Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org> Acked-by: David Vernet <void@manifault.com> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20230315195405.2051559-1-ssreevani@meta.com
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
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===============
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libbpf Overview
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===============
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libbpf is a C-based library containing a BPF loader that takes compiled BPF
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object files and prepares and loads them into the Linux kernel. libbpf takes the
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heavy lifting of loading, verifying, and attaching BPF programs to various
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kernel hooks, allowing BPF application developers to focus only on BPF program
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correctness and performance.
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The following are the high-level features supported by libbpf:
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* Provides high-level and low-level APIs for user space programs to interact
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with BPF programs. The low-level APIs wrap all the bpf system call
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functionality, which is useful when users need more fine-grained control
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over the interactions between user space and BPF programs.
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* Provides overall support for the BPF object skeleton generated by bpftool.
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The skeleton file simplifies the process for the user space programs to access
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global variables and work with BPF programs.
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* Provides BPF-side APIS, including BPF helper definitions, BPF maps support,
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and tracing helpers, allowing developers to simplify BPF code writing.
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* Supports BPF CO-RE mechanism, enabling BPF developers to write portable
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BPF programs that can be compiled once and run across different kernel
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versions.
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This document will delve into the above concepts in detail, providing a deeper
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understanding of the capabilities and advantages of libbpf and how it can help
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you develop BPF applications efficiently.
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BPF App Lifecycle and libbpf APIs
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==================================
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A BPF application consists of one or more BPF programs (either cooperating or
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completely independent), BPF maps, and global variables. The global
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variables are shared between all BPF programs, which allows them to cooperate on
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a common set of data. libbpf provides APIs that user space programs can use to
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manipulate the BPF programs by triggering different phases of a BPF application
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lifecycle.
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The following section provides a brief overview of each phase in the BPF life
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cycle:
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* **Open phase**: In this phase, libbpf parses the BPF
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object file and discovers BPF maps, BPF programs, and global variables. After
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a BPF app is opened, user space apps can make additional adjustments
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(setting BPF program types, if necessary; pre-setting initial values for
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global variables, etc.) before all the entities are created and loaded.
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* **Load phase**: In the load phase, libbpf creates BPF
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maps, resolves various relocations, and verifies and loads BPF programs into
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the kernel. At this point, libbpf validates all the parts of a BPF application
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and loads the BPF program into the kernel, but no BPF program has yet been
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executed. After the load phase, it’s possible to set up the initial BPF map
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state without racing with the BPF program code execution.
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* **Attachment phase**: In this phase, libbpf
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attaches BPF programs to various BPF hook points (e.g., tracepoints, kprobes,
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cgroup hooks, network packet processing pipeline, etc.). During this
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phase, BPF programs perform useful work such as processing
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packets, or updating BPF maps and global variables that can be read from user
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space.
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* **Tear down phase**: In the tear down phase,
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libbpf detaches BPF programs and unloads them from the kernel. BPF maps are
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destroyed, and all the resources used by the BPF app are freed.
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BPF Object Skeleton File
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========================
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BPF skeleton is an alternative interface to libbpf APIs for working with BPF
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objects. Skeleton code abstract away generic libbpf APIs to significantly
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simplify code for manipulating BPF programs from user space. Skeleton code
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includes a bytecode representation of the BPF object file, simplifying the
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process of distributing your BPF code. With BPF bytecode embedded, there are no
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extra files to deploy along with your application binary.
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You can generate the skeleton header file ``(.skel.h)`` for a specific object
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file by passing the BPF object to the bpftool. The generated BPF skeleton
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provides the following custom functions that correspond to the BPF lifecycle,
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each of them prefixed with the specific object name:
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* ``<name>__open()`` – creates and opens BPF application (``<name>`` stands for
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the specific bpf object name)
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* ``<name>__load()`` – instantiates, loads,and verifies BPF application parts
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* ``<name>__attach()`` – attaches all auto-attachable BPF programs (it’s
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optional, you can have more control by using libbpf APIs directly)
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* ``<name>__destroy()`` – detaches all BPF programs and
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frees up all used resources
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Using the skeleton code is the recommended way to work with bpf programs. Keep
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in mind, BPF skeleton provides access to the underlying BPF object, so whatever
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was possible to do with generic libbpf APIs is still possible even when the BPF
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skeleton is used. It's an additive convenience feature, with no syscalls, and no
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cumbersome code.
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Other Advantages of Using Skeleton File
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---------------------------------------
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* BPF skeleton provides an interface for user space programs to work with BPF
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global variables. The skeleton code memory maps global variables as a struct
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into user space. The struct interface allows user space programs to initialize
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BPF programs before the BPF load phase and fetch and update data from user
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space afterward.
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* The ``skel.h`` file reflects the object file structure by listing out the
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available maps, programs, etc. BPF skeleton provides direct access to all the
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BPF maps and BPF programs as struct fields. This eliminates the need for
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string-based lookups with ``bpf_object_find_map_by_name()`` and
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``bpf_object_find_program_by_name()`` APIs, reducing errors due to BPF source
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code and user-space code getting out of sync.
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* The embedded bytecode representation of the object file ensures that the
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skeleton and the BPF object file are always in sync.
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BPF Helpers
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===========
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libbpf provides BPF-side APIs that BPF programs can use to interact with the
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system. The BPF helpers definition allows developers to use them in BPF code as
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any other plain C function. For example, there are helper functions to print
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debugging messages, get the time since the system was booted, interact with BPF
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maps, manipulate network packets, etc.
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For a complete description of what the helpers do, the arguments they take, and
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the return value, see the `bpf-helpers
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<https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/bpf-helpers.7.html>`_ man page.
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BPF CO-RE (Compile Once – Run Everywhere)
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=========================================
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BPF programs work in the kernel space and have access to kernel memory and data
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structures. One limitation that BPF applications come across is the lack of
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portability across different kernel versions and configurations. `BCC
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<https://github.com/iovisor/bcc/>`_ is one of the solutions for BPF
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portability. However, it comes with runtime overhead and a large binary size
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from embedding the compiler with the application.
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libbpf steps up the BPF program portability by supporting the BPF CO-RE concept.
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BPF CO-RE brings together BTF type information, libbpf, and the compiler to
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produce a single executable binary that you can run on multiple kernel versions
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and configurations.
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To make BPF programs portable libbpf relies on the BTF type information of the
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running kernel. Kernel also exposes this self-describing authoritative BTF
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information through ``sysfs`` at ``/sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux``.
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You can generate the BTF information for the running kernel with the following
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command:
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::
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$ bpftool btf dump file /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux format c > vmlinux.h
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The command generates a ``vmlinux.h`` header file with all kernel types
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(:doc:`BTF types <../btf>`) that the running kernel uses. Including
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``vmlinux.h`` in your BPF program eliminates dependency on system-wide kernel
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headers.
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libbpf enables portability of BPF programs by looking at the BPF program’s
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recorded BTF type and relocation information and matching them to BTF
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information (vmlinux) provided by the running kernel. libbpf then resolves and
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matches all the types and fields, and updates necessary offsets and other
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relocatable data to ensure that BPF program’s logic functions correctly for a
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specific kernel on the host. BPF CO-RE concept thus eliminates overhead
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associated with BPF development and allows developers to write portable BPF
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applications without modifications and runtime source code compilation on the
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target machine.
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The following code snippet shows how to read the parent field of a kernel
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``task_struct`` using BPF CO-RE and libbf. The basic helper to read a field in a
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CO-RE relocatable manner is ``bpf_core_read(dst, sz, src)``, which will read
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``sz`` bytes from the field referenced by ``src`` into the memory pointed to by
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``dst``.
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.. code-block:: C
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:emphasize-lines: 6
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//...
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struct task_struct *task = (void *)bpf_get_current_task();
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struct task_struct *parent_task;
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int err;
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err = bpf_core_read(&parent_task, sizeof(void *), &task->parent);
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if (err) {
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/* handle error */
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}
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/* parent_task contains the value of task->parent pointer */
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In the code snippet, we first get a pointer to the current ``task_struct`` using
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``bpf_get_current_task()``. We then use ``bpf_core_read()`` to read the parent
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field of task struct into the ``parent_task`` variable. ``bpf_core_read()`` is
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just like ``bpf_probe_read_kernel()`` BPF helper, except it records information
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about the field that should be relocated on the target kernel. i.e, if the
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``parent`` field gets shifted to a different offset within
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``struct task_struct`` due to some new field added in front of it, libbpf will
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automatically adjust the actual offset to the proper value.
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Getting Started with libbpf
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===========================
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Check out the `libbpf-bootstrap <https://github.com/libbpf/libbpf-bootstrap>`_
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repository with simple examples of using libbpf to build various BPF
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applications.
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See also `libbpf API documentation
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<https://libbpf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html>`_.
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libbpf and Rust
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===============
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If you are building BPF applications in Rust, it is recommended to use the
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`Libbpf-rs <https://github.com/libbpf/libbpf-rs>`_ library instead of bindgen
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bindings directly to libbpf. Libbpf-rs wraps libbpf functionality in
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Rust-idiomatic interfaces and provides libbpf-cargo plugin to handle BPF code
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compilation and skeleton generation. Using Libbpf-rs will make building user
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space part of the BPF application easier. Note that the BPF program themselves
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must still be written in plain C.
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Additional Documentation
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========================
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* `Program types and ELF Sections <https://libbpf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/program_types.html>`_
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* `API naming convention <https://libbpf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/libbpf_naming_convention.html>`_
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* `Building libbpf <https://libbpf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/libbpf_build.html>`_
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* `API documentation Convention <https://libbpf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/libbpf_naming_convention.html#api-documentation-convention>`_
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