1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 This file documents the mmap() facility available with the PACKET
6 socket interface on 2.4/2.6/3.x kernels. This type of sockets is used for
7 i) capture network traffic with utilities like tcpdump, ii) transmit network
8 traffic, or any other that needs raw access to network interface.
10 You can find the latest version of this document at:
11 http://wiki.ipxwarzone.com/index.php5?title=Linux_packet_mmap
13 Howto can be found at:
14 http://wiki.gnu-log.net (packet_mmap)
16 Please send your comments to
17 Ulisses Alonso CamarĂ³ <uaca@i.hate.spam.alumni.uv.es>
18 Johann Baudy <johann.baudy@gnu-log.net>
20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24 In Linux 2.4/2.6/3.x if PACKET_MMAP is not enabled, the capture process is very
25 inefficient. It uses very limited buffers and requires one system call to
26 capture each packet, it requires two if you want to get packet's timestamp
27 (like libpcap always does).
29 In the other hand PACKET_MMAP is very efficient. PACKET_MMAP provides a size
30 configurable circular buffer mapped in user space that can be used to either
31 send or receive packets. This way reading packets just needs to wait for them,
32 most of the time there is no need to issue a single system call. Concerning
33 transmission, multiple packets can be sent through one system call to get the
34 highest bandwidth. By using a shared buffer between the kernel and the user
35 also has the benefit of minimizing packet copies.
37 It's fine to use PACKET_MMAP to improve the performance of the capture and
38 transmission process, but it isn't everything. At least, if you are capturing
39 at high speeds (this is relative to the cpu speed), you should check if the
40 device driver of your network interface card supports some sort of interrupt
41 load mitigation or (even better) if it supports NAPI, also make sure it is
42 enabled. For transmission, check the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) used and
43 supported by devices of your network. CPU IRQ pinning of your network interface
44 card can also be an advantage.
46 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
47 + How to use mmap() to improve capture process
48 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
50 From the user standpoint, you should use the higher level libpcap library, which
51 is a de facto standard, portable across nearly all operating systems
54 Said that, at time of this writing, official libpcap 0.8.1 is out and doesn't include
55 support for PACKET_MMAP, and also probably the libpcap included in your distribution.
57 I'm aware of two implementations of PACKET_MMAP in libpcap:
59 http://wiki.ipxwarzone.com/ (by Simon Patarin, based on libpcap 0.6.2)
60 http://public.lanl.gov/cpw/ (by Phil Wood, based on lastest libpcap)
62 The rest of this document is intended for people who want to understand
63 the low level details or want to improve libpcap by including PACKET_MMAP
66 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
67 + How to use mmap() directly to improve capture process
68 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
70 From the system calls stand point, the use of PACKET_MMAP involves
71 the following process:
74 [setup] socket() -------> creation of the capture socket
75 setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
76 option: PACKET_RX_RING
77 mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
80 [capture] poll() ---------> to wait for incoming packets
82 [shutdown] close() --------> destruction of the capture socket and
83 deallocation of all associated
87 socket creation and destruction is straight forward, and is done
88 the same way with or without PACKET_MMAP:
90 int fd = socket(PF_PACKET, mode, htons(ETH_P_ALL));
92 where mode is SOCK_RAW for the raw interface were link level
93 information can be captured or SOCK_DGRAM for the cooked
94 interface where link level information capture is not
95 supported and a link level pseudo-header is provided
98 The destruction of the socket and all associated resources
99 is done by a simple call to close(fd).
101 Similarly as without PACKET_MMAP, it is possible to use one socket
102 for capture and transmission. This can be done by mapping the
103 allocated RX and TX buffer ring with a single mmap() call.
104 See "Mapping and use of the circular buffer (ring)".
106 Next I will describe PACKET_MMAP settings and its constraints,
107 also the mapping of the circular buffer in the user process and
108 the use of this buffer.
110 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
111 + How to use mmap() directly to improve transmission process
112 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
113 Transmission process is similar to capture as shown below.
115 [setup] socket() -------> creation of the transmission socket
116 setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
117 option: PACKET_TX_RING
118 bind() ---------> bind transmission socket with a network interface
119 mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
122 [transmission] poll() ---------> wait for free packets (optional)
123 send() ---------> send all packets that are set as ready in
125 The flag MSG_DONTWAIT can be used to return
126 before end of transfer.
128 [shutdown] close() --------> destruction of the transmission socket and
129 deallocation of all associated resources.
131 Socket creation and destruction is also straight forward, and is done
132 the same way as in capturing described in the previous paragraph:
134 int fd = socket(PF_PACKET, mode, 0);
136 The protocol can optionally be 0 in case we only want to transmit
137 via this socket, which avoids an expensive call to packet_rcv().
138 In this case, you also need to bind(2) the TX_RING with sll_protocol = 0
139 set. Otherwise, htons(ETH_P_ALL) or any other protocol, for example.
141 Binding the socket to your network interface is mandatory (with zero copy) to
142 know the header size of frames used in the circular buffer.
144 As capture, each frame contains two parts:
147 | struct tpacket_hdr | Header. It contains the status of
149 |--------------------|
151 . . Data that will be sent over the network interface.
155 bind() associates the socket to your network interface thanks to
156 sll_ifindex parameter of struct sockaddr_ll.
158 Initialization example:
160 struct sockaddr_ll my_addr;
164 strncpy (s_ifr.ifr_name, "eth0", sizeof(s_ifr.ifr_name));
166 /* get interface index of eth0 */
167 ioctl(this->socket, SIOCGIFINDEX, &s_ifr);
169 /* fill sockaddr_ll struct to prepare binding */
170 my_addr.sll_family = AF_PACKET;
171 my_addr.sll_protocol = htons(ETH_P_ALL);
172 my_addr.sll_ifindex = s_ifr.ifr_ifindex;
174 /* bind socket to eth0 */
175 bind(this->socket, (struct sockaddr *)&my_addr, sizeof(struct sockaddr_ll));
177 A complete tutorial is available at: http://wiki.gnu-log.net/
179 By default, the user should put data at :
180 frame base + TPACKET_HDRLEN - sizeof(struct sockaddr_ll)
182 So, whatever you choose for the socket mode (SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW),
183 the beginning of the user data will be at :
184 frame base + TPACKET_ALIGN(sizeof(struct tpacket_hdr))
186 If you wish to put user data at a custom offset from the beginning of
187 the frame (for payload alignment with SOCK_RAW mode for instance) you
188 can set tp_net (with SOCK_DGRAM) or tp_mac (with SOCK_RAW). In order
189 to make this work it must be enabled previously with setsockopt()
190 and the PACKET_TX_HAS_OFF option.
192 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
193 + PACKET_MMAP settings
194 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
196 To setup PACKET_MMAP from user level code is done with a call like
199 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
200 - Transmission process
201 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
203 The most significant argument in the previous call is the req parameter,
204 this parameter must to have the following structure:
208 unsigned int tp_block_size; /* Minimal size of contiguous block */
209 unsigned int tp_block_nr; /* Number of blocks */
210 unsigned int tp_frame_size; /* Size of frame */
211 unsigned int tp_frame_nr; /* Total number of frames */
214 This structure is defined in /usr/include/linux/if_packet.h and establishes a
215 circular buffer (ring) of unswappable memory.
216 Being mapped in the capture process allows reading the captured frames and
217 related meta-information like timestamps without requiring a system call.
219 Frames are grouped in blocks. Each block is a physically contiguous
220 region of memory and holds tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames. The total number
221 of blocks is tp_block_nr. Note that tp_frame_nr is a redundant parameter because
223 frames_per_block = tp_block_size/tp_frame_size
225 indeed, packet_set_ring checks that the following condition is true
227 frames_per_block * tp_block_nr == tp_frame_nr
229 Lets see an example, with the following values:
236 we will get the following buffer structure:
239 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
240 | frame 1 | frame 2 | | frame 3 | frame 4 |
241 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
244 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
245 | frame 5 | frame 6 | | frame 7 | frame 8 |
246 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
248 A frame can be of any size with the only condition it can fit in a block. A block
249 can only hold an integer number of frames, or in other words, a frame cannot
250 be spawned across two blocks, so there are some details you have to take into
251 account when choosing the frame_size. See "Mapping and use of the circular
254 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
255 + PACKET_MMAP setting constraints
256 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
258 In kernel versions prior to 2.4.26 (for the 2.4 branch) and 2.6.5 (2.6 branch),
259 the PACKET_MMAP buffer could hold only 32768 frames in a 32 bit architecture or
260 16384 in a 64 bit architecture. For information on these kernel versions
261 see http://pusa.uv.es/~ulisses/packet_mmap/packet_mmap.pre-2.4.26_2.6.5.txt
266 As stated earlier, each block is a contiguous physical region of memory. These
267 memory regions are allocated with calls to the __get_free_pages() function. As
268 the name indicates, this function allocates pages of memory, and the second
269 argument is "order" or a power of two number of pages, that is
270 (for PAGE_SIZE == 4096) order=0 ==> 4096 bytes, order=1 ==> 8192 bytes,
271 order=2 ==> 16384 bytes, etc. The maximum size of a
272 region allocated by __get_free_pages is determined by the MAX_ORDER macro. More
273 precisely the limit can be calculated as:
275 PAGE_SIZE << MAX_ORDER
277 In a i386 architecture PAGE_SIZE is 4096 bytes
278 In a 2.4/i386 kernel MAX_ORDER is 10
279 In a 2.6/i386 kernel MAX_ORDER is 11
281 So get_free_pages can allocate as much as 4MB or 8MB in a 2.4/2.6 kernel
282 respectively, with an i386 architecture.
284 User space programs can include /usr/include/sys/user.h and
285 /usr/include/linux/mmzone.h to get PAGE_SIZE MAX_ORDER declarations.
287 The pagesize can also be determined dynamically with the getpagesize (2)
293 To understand the constraints of PACKET_MMAP, we have to see the structure
294 used to hold the pointers to each block.
296 Currently, this structure is a dynamically allocated vector with kmalloc
297 called pg_vec, its size limits the number of blocks that can be allocated.
309 kmalloc allocates any number of bytes of physically contiguous memory from
310 a pool of pre-determined sizes. This pool of memory is maintained by the slab
311 allocator which is at the end the responsible for doing the allocation and
312 hence which imposes the maximum memory that kmalloc can allocate.
314 In a 2.4/2.6 kernel and the i386 architecture, the limit is 131072 bytes. The
315 predetermined sizes that kmalloc uses can be checked in the "size-<bytes>"
316 entries of /proc/slabinfo
318 In a 32 bit architecture, pointers are 4 bytes long, so the total number of
319 pointers to blocks is
321 131072/4 = 32768 blocks
323 PACKET_MMAP buffer size calculator
324 ------------------------------------
328 <size-max> : is the maximum size of allocable with kmalloc (see /proc/slabinfo)
329 <pointer size>: depends on the architecture -- sizeof(void *)
330 <page size> : depends on the architecture -- PAGE_SIZE or getpagesize (2)
331 <max-order> : is the value defined with MAX_ORDER
332 <frame size> : it's an upper bound of frame's capture size (more on this later)
334 from these definitions we will derive
336 <block number> = <size-max>/<pointer size>
337 <block size> = <pagesize> << <max-order>
339 so, the max buffer size is
341 <block number> * <block size>
343 and, the number of frames be
345 <block number> * <block size> / <frame size>
347 Suppose the following parameters, which apply for 2.6 kernel and an
350 <size-max> = 131072 bytes
351 <pointer size> = 4 bytes
352 <pagesize> = 4096 bytes
355 and a value for <frame size> of 2048 bytes. These parameters will yield
357 <block number> = 131072/4 = 32768 blocks
358 <block size> = 4096 << 11 = 8 MiB.
360 and hence the buffer will have a 262144 MiB size. So it can hold
361 262144 MiB / 2048 bytes = 134217728 frames
363 Actually, this buffer size is not possible with an i386 architecture.
364 Remember that the memory is allocated in kernel space, in the case of
365 an i386 kernel's memory size is limited to 1GiB.
367 All memory allocations are not freed until the socket is closed. The memory
368 allocations are done with GFP_KERNEL priority, this basically means that
369 the allocation can wait and swap other process' memory in order to allocate
370 the necessary memory, so normally limits can be reached.
375 If you check the source code you will see that what I draw here as a frame
376 is not only the link level frame. At the beginning of each frame there is a
377 header called struct tpacket_hdr used in PACKET_MMAP to hold link level's frame
378 meta information like timestamp. So what we draw here a frame it's really
379 the following (from include/linux/if_packet.h):
384 - Start. Frame must be aligned to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
386 - pad to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
388 - Gap, chosen so that packet data (Start+tp_net) aligns to
390 - Start+tp_mac: [ Optional MAC header ]
391 - Start+tp_net: Packet data, aligned to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16.
392 - Pad to align to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
395 The following are conditions that are checked in packet_set_ring
397 tp_block_size must be a multiple of PAGE_SIZE (1)
398 tp_frame_size must be greater than TPACKET_HDRLEN (obvious)
399 tp_frame_size must be a multiple of TPACKET_ALIGNMENT
400 tp_frame_nr must be exactly frames_per_block*tp_block_nr
402 Note that tp_block_size should be chosen to be a power of two or there will
403 be a waste of memory.
405 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
406 + Mapping and use of the circular buffer (ring)
407 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
409 The mapping of the buffer in the user process is done with the conventional
410 mmap function. Even the circular buffer is compound of several physically
411 discontiguous blocks of memory, they are contiguous to the user space, hence
412 just one call to mmap is needed:
414 mmap(0, size, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
416 If tp_frame_size is a divisor of tp_block_size frames will be
417 contiguously spaced by tp_frame_size bytes. If not, each
418 tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames there will be a gap between
419 the frames. This is because a frame cannot be spawn across two
422 To use one socket for capture and transmission, the mapping of both the
423 RX and TX buffer ring has to be done with one call to mmap:
426 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, &foo, sizeof(foo));
427 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TX_RING, &bar, sizeof(bar));
429 rx_ring = mmap(0, size * 2, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
430 tx_ring = rx_ring + size;
432 RX must be the first as the kernel maps the TX ring memory right
435 At the beginning of each frame there is an status field (see
436 struct tpacket_hdr). If this field is 0 means that the frame is ready
437 to be used for the kernel, If not, there is a frame the user can read
438 and the following flags apply:
441 from include/linux/if_packet.h
443 #define TP_STATUS_COPY (1 << 1)
444 #define TP_STATUS_LOSING (1 << 2)
445 #define TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY (1 << 3)
446 #define TP_STATUS_CSUM_VALID (1 << 7)
448 TP_STATUS_COPY : This flag indicates that the frame (and associated
449 meta information) has been truncated because it's
450 larger than tp_frame_size. This packet can be
451 read entirely with recvfrom().
453 In order to make this work it must to be
454 enabled previously with setsockopt() and
455 the PACKET_COPY_THRESH option.
457 The number of frames that can be buffered to
458 be read with recvfrom is limited like a normal socket.
459 See the SO_RCVBUF option in the socket (7) man page.
461 TP_STATUS_LOSING : indicates there were packet drops from last time
462 statistics where checked with getsockopt() and
463 the PACKET_STATISTICS option.
465 TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY: currently it's used for outgoing IP packets which
466 its checksum will be done in hardware. So while
467 reading the packet we should not try to check the
470 TP_STATUS_CSUM_VALID : This flag indicates that at least the transport
471 header checksum of the packet has been already
472 validated on the kernel side. If the flag is not set
473 then we are free to check the checksum by ourselves
474 provided that TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY is also not set.
476 for convenience there are also the following defines:
478 #define TP_STATUS_KERNEL 0
479 #define TP_STATUS_USER 1
481 The kernel initializes all frames to TP_STATUS_KERNEL, when the kernel
482 receives a packet it puts in the buffer and updates the status with
483 at least the TP_STATUS_USER flag. Then the user can read the packet,
484 once the packet is read the user must zero the status field, so the kernel
485 can use again that frame buffer.
487 The user can use poll (any other variant should apply too) to check if new
488 packets are in the ring:
494 pfd.events = POLLIN|POLLRDNORM|POLLERR;
496 if (status == TP_STATUS_KERNEL)
497 retval = poll(&pfd, 1, timeout);
499 It doesn't incur in a race condition to first check the status value and
500 then poll for frames.
502 ++ Transmission process
503 Those defines are also used for transmission:
505 #define TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE 0 // Frame is available
506 #define TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST 1 // Frame will be sent on next send()
507 #define TP_STATUS_SENDING 2 // Frame is currently in transmission
508 #define TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT 4 // Frame format is not correct
510 First, the kernel initializes all frames to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE. To send a
511 packet, the user fills a data buffer of an available frame, sets tp_len to
512 current data buffer size and sets its status field to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST.
513 This can be done on multiple frames. Once the user is ready to transmit, it
514 calls send(). Then all buffers with status equal to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST are
515 forwarded to the network device. The kernel updates each status of sent
516 frames with TP_STATUS_SENDING until the end of transfer.
517 At the end of each transfer, buffer status returns to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE.
519 header->tp_len = in_i_size;
520 header->tp_status = TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST;
521 retval = send(this->socket, NULL, 0, 0);
523 The user can also use poll() to check if a buffer is available:
524 (status == TP_STATUS_SENDING)
529 pfd.events = POLLOUT;
530 retval = poll(&pfd, 1, timeout);
532 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
533 + What TPACKET versions are available and when to use them?
534 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
536 int val = tpacket_version;
537 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &val, sizeof(val));
538 getsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &val, sizeof(val));
540 where 'tpacket_version' can be TPACKET_V1 (default), TPACKET_V2, TPACKET_V3.
543 - Default if not otherwise specified by setsockopt(2)
544 - RX_RING, TX_RING available
546 TPACKET_V1 --> TPACKET_V2:
547 - Made 64 bit clean due to unsigned long usage in TPACKET_V1
548 structures, thus this also works on 64 bit kernel with 32 bit
549 userspace and the like
550 - Timestamp resolution in nanoseconds instead of microseconds
551 - RX_RING, TX_RING available
552 - VLAN metadata information available for packets
553 (TP_STATUS_VLAN_VALID, TP_STATUS_VLAN_TPID_VALID),
554 in the tpacket2_hdr structure:
555 - TP_STATUS_VLAN_VALID bit being set into the tp_status field indicates
556 that the tp_vlan_tci field has valid VLAN TCI value
557 - TP_STATUS_VLAN_TPID_VALID bit being set into the tp_status field
558 indicates that the tp_vlan_tpid field has valid VLAN TPID value
559 - How to switch to TPACKET_V2:
560 1. Replace struct tpacket_hdr by struct tpacket2_hdr
561 2. Query header len and save
562 3. Set protocol version to 2, set up ring as usual
563 4. For getting the sockaddr_ll,
564 use (void *)hdr + TPACKET_ALIGN(hdrlen) instead of
565 (void *)hdr + TPACKET_ALIGN(sizeof(struct tpacket_hdr))
567 TPACKET_V2 --> TPACKET_V3:
568 - Flexible buffer implementation:
569 1. Blocks can be configured with non-static frame-size
570 2. Read/poll is at a block-level (as opposed to packet-level)
571 3. Added poll timeout to avoid indefinite user-space wait
573 4. Added user-configurable knobs:
575 4.2 tpkt_hdr::sk_rxhash
576 - RX Hash data available in user space
577 - Currently only RX_RING available
579 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
580 + AF_PACKET fanout mode
581 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
583 In the AF_PACKET fanout mode, packet reception can be load balanced among
584 processes. This also works in combination with mmap(2) on packet sockets.
586 Currently implemented fanout policies are:
588 - PACKET_FANOUT_HASH: schedule to socket by skb's packet hash
589 - PACKET_FANOUT_LB: schedule to socket by round-robin
590 - PACKET_FANOUT_CPU: schedule to socket by CPU packet arrives on
591 - PACKET_FANOUT_RND: schedule to socket by random selection
592 - PACKET_FANOUT_ROLLOVER: if one socket is full, rollover to another
593 - PACKET_FANOUT_QM: schedule to socket by skbs recorded queue_mapping
595 Minimal example code by David S. Miller (try things like "./test eth0 hash",
596 "./test eth0 lb", etc.):
603 #include <sys/types.h>
604 #include <sys/wait.h>
605 #include <sys/socket.h>
606 #include <sys/ioctl.h>
610 #include <linux/if_ether.h>
611 #include <linux/if_packet.h>
615 static const char *device_name;
616 static int fanout_type;
617 static int fanout_id;
619 #ifndef PACKET_FANOUT
620 # define PACKET_FANOUT 18
621 # define PACKET_FANOUT_HASH 0
622 # define PACKET_FANOUT_LB 1
625 static int setup_socket(void)
627 int err, fd = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_IP));
628 struct sockaddr_ll ll;
637 memset(&ifr, 0, sizeof(ifr));
638 strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, device_name);
639 err = ioctl(fd, SIOCGIFINDEX, &ifr);
641 perror("SIOCGIFINDEX");
645 memset(&ll, 0, sizeof(ll));
646 ll.sll_family = AF_PACKET;
647 ll.sll_ifindex = ifr.ifr_ifindex;
648 err = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr *) &ll, sizeof(ll));
654 fanout_arg = (fanout_id | (fanout_type << 16));
655 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_FANOUT,
656 &fanout_arg, sizeof(fanout_arg));
658 perror("setsockopt");
665 static void fanout_thread(void)
667 int fd = setup_socket();
673 while (limit-- > 0) {
677 err = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
682 if ((limit % 10) == 0)
683 fprintf(stdout, "(%d) \n", getpid());
686 fprintf(stdout, "%d: Received 10000 packets\n", getpid());
692 int main(int argc, char **argp)
698 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s INTERFACE {hash|lb}\n", argp[0]);
702 if (!strcmp(argp[2], "hash"))
703 fanout_type = PACKET_FANOUT_HASH;
704 else if (!strcmp(argp[2], "lb"))
705 fanout_type = PACKET_FANOUT_LB;
707 fprintf(stderr, "Unknown fanout type [%s]\n", argp[2]);
711 device_name = argp[1];
712 fanout_id = getpid() & 0xffff;
714 for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
727 for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
736 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
737 + AF_PACKET TPACKET_V3 example
738 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
740 AF_PACKET's TPACKET_V3 ring buffer can be configured to use non-static frame
741 sizes by doing it's own memory management. It is based on blocks where polling
742 works on a per block basis instead of per ring as in TPACKET_V2 and predecessor.
744 It is said that TPACKET_V3 brings the following benefits:
745 *) ~15 - 20% reduction in CPU-usage
746 *) ~20% increase in packet capture rate
747 *) ~2x increase in packet density
748 *) Port aggregation analysis
749 *) Non static frame size to capture entire packet payload
751 So it seems to be a good candidate to be used with packet fanout.
753 Minimal example code by Daniel Borkmann based on Chetan Loke's lolpcap (compile
754 it with gcc -Wall -O2 blob.c, and try things like "./a.out eth0", etc.):
756 /* Written from scratch, but kernel-to-user space API usage
757 * dissected from lolpcap:
758 * Copyright 2011, Chetan Loke <loke.chetan@gmail.com>
759 * License: GPL, version 2.0
768 #include <arpa/inet.h>
773 #include <inttypes.h>
774 #include <sys/socket.h>
775 #include <sys/mman.h>
776 #include <linux/if_packet.h>
777 #include <linux/if_ether.h>
778 #include <linux/ip.h>
781 # define likely(x) __builtin_expect(!!(x), 1)
784 # define unlikely(x) __builtin_expect(!!(x), 0)
789 uint32_t offset_to_priv;
790 struct tpacket_hdr_v1 h1;
796 struct tpacket_req3 req;
799 static unsigned long packets_total = 0, bytes_total = 0;
800 static sig_atomic_t sigint = 0;
802 static void sighandler(int num)
807 static int setup_socket(struct ring *ring, char *netdev)
809 int err, i, fd, v = TPACKET_V3;
810 struct sockaddr_ll ll;
811 unsigned int blocksiz = 1 << 22, framesiz = 1 << 11;
812 unsigned int blocknum = 64;
814 fd = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_ALL));
820 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &v, sizeof(v));
822 perror("setsockopt");
826 memset(&ring->req, 0, sizeof(ring->req));
827 ring->req.tp_block_size = blocksiz;
828 ring->req.tp_frame_size = framesiz;
829 ring->req.tp_block_nr = blocknum;
830 ring->req.tp_frame_nr = (blocksiz * blocknum) / framesiz;
831 ring->req.tp_retire_blk_tov = 60;
832 ring->req.tp_feature_req_word = TP_FT_REQ_FILL_RXHASH;
834 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, &ring->req,
837 perror("setsockopt");
841 ring->map = mmap(NULL, ring->req.tp_block_size * ring->req.tp_block_nr,
842 PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED | MAP_LOCKED, fd, 0);
843 if (ring->map == MAP_FAILED) {
848 ring->rd = malloc(ring->req.tp_block_nr * sizeof(*ring->rd));
850 for (i = 0; i < ring->req.tp_block_nr; ++i) {
851 ring->rd[i].iov_base = ring->map + (i * ring->req.tp_block_size);
852 ring->rd[i].iov_len = ring->req.tp_block_size;
855 memset(&ll, 0, sizeof(ll));
856 ll.sll_family = PF_PACKET;
857 ll.sll_protocol = htons(ETH_P_ALL);
858 ll.sll_ifindex = if_nametoindex(netdev);
863 err = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr *) &ll, sizeof(ll));
872 static void display(struct tpacket3_hdr *ppd)
874 struct ethhdr *eth = (struct ethhdr *) ((uint8_t *) ppd + ppd->tp_mac);
875 struct iphdr *ip = (struct iphdr *) ((uint8_t *) eth + ETH_HLEN);
877 if (eth->h_proto == htons(ETH_P_IP)) {
878 struct sockaddr_in ss, sd;
879 char sbuff[NI_MAXHOST], dbuff[NI_MAXHOST];
881 memset(&ss, 0, sizeof(ss));
882 ss.sin_family = PF_INET;
883 ss.sin_addr.s_addr = ip->saddr;
884 getnameinfo((struct sockaddr *) &ss, sizeof(ss),
885 sbuff, sizeof(sbuff), NULL, 0, NI_NUMERICHOST);
887 memset(&sd, 0, sizeof(sd));
888 sd.sin_family = PF_INET;
889 sd.sin_addr.s_addr = ip->daddr;
890 getnameinfo((struct sockaddr *) &sd, sizeof(sd),
891 dbuff, sizeof(dbuff), NULL, 0, NI_NUMERICHOST);
893 printf("%s -> %s, ", sbuff, dbuff);
896 printf("rxhash: 0x%x\n", ppd->hv1.tp_rxhash);
899 static void walk_block(struct block_desc *pbd, const int block_num)
901 int num_pkts = pbd->h1.num_pkts, i;
902 unsigned long bytes = 0;
903 struct tpacket3_hdr *ppd;
905 ppd = (struct tpacket3_hdr *) ((uint8_t *) pbd +
906 pbd->h1.offset_to_first_pkt);
907 for (i = 0; i < num_pkts; ++i) {
908 bytes += ppd->tp_snaplen;
911 ppd = (struct tpacket3_hdr *) ((uint8_t *) ppd +
912 ppd->tp_next_offset);
915 packets_total += num_pkts;
916 bytes_total += bytes;
919 static void flush_block(struct block_desc *pbd)
921 pbd->h1.block_status = TP_STATUS_KERNEL;
924 static void teardown_socket(struct ring *ring, int fd)
926 munmap(ring->map, ring->req.tp_block_size * ring->req.tp_block_nr);
931 int main(int argc, char **argp)
937 unsigned int block_num = 0, blocks = 64;
938 struct block_desc *pbd;
939 struct tpacket_stats_v3 stats;
942 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s INTERFACE\n", argp[0]);
946 signal(SIGINT, sighandler);
948 memset(&ring, 0, sizeof(ring));
949 fd = setup_socket(&ring, argp[argc - 1]);
952 memset(&pfd, 0, sizeof(pfd));
954 pfd.events = POLLIN | POLLERR;
957 while (likely(!sigint)) {
958 pbd = (struct block_desc *) ring.rd[block_num].iov_base;
960 if ((pbd->h1.block_status & TP_STATUS_USER) == 0) {
965 walk_block(pbd, block_num);
967 block_num = (block_num + 1) % blocks;
971 err = getsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_STATISTICS, &stats, &len);
973 perror("getsockopt");
978 printf("\nReceived %u packets, %lu bytes, %u dropped, freeze_q_cnt: %u\n",
979 stats.tp_packets, bytes_total, stats.tp_drops,
980 stats.tp_freeze_q_cnt);
982 teardown_socket(&ring, fd);
986 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
987 + PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS
988 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
990 If there is a requirement to load the network with many packets in a similar
991 fashion as pktgen does, you might set the following option after socket
995 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS, &one, sizeof(one));
997 This has the side-effect, that packets sent through PF_PACKET will bypass the
998 kernel's qdisc layer and are forcedly pushed to the driver directly. Meaning,
999 packet are not buffered, tc disciplines are ignored, increased loss can occur
1000 and such packets are also not visible to other PF_PACKET sockets anymore. So,
1001 you have been warned; generally, this can be useful for stress testing various
1002 components of a system.
1004 On default, PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS is disabled and needs to be explicitly enabled
1005 on PF_PACKET sockets.
1007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1009 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1011 The PACKET_TIMESTAMP setting determines the source of the timestamp in
1012 the packet meta information for mmap(2)ed RX_RING and TX_RINGs. If your
1013 NIC is capable of timestamping packets in hardware, you can request those
1014 hardware timestamps to be used. Note: you may need to enable the generation
1015 of hardware timestamps with SIOCSHWTSTAMP (see related information from
1016 Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt).
1018 PACKET_TIMESTAMP accepts the same integer bit field as SO_TIMESTAMPING:
1020 int req = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE;
1021 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TIMESTAMP, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
1023 For the mmap(2)ed ring buffers, such timestamps are stored in the
1024 tpacket{,2,3}_hdr structure's tp_sec and tp_{n,u}sec members. To determine
1025 what kind of timestamp has been reported, the tp_status field is binary |'ed
1026 with the following possible bits ...
1028 TP_STATUS_TS_RAW_HARDWARE
1029 TP_STATUS_TS_SOFTWARE
1031 ... that are equivalent to its SOF_TIMESTAMPING_* counterparts. For the
1032 RX_RING, if neither is set (i.e. PACKET_TIMESTAMP is not set), then a
1033 software fallback was invoked *within* PF_PACKET's processing code (less
1036 Getting timestamps for the TX_RING works as follows: i) fill the ring frames,
1037 ii) call sendto() e.g. in blocking mode, iii) wait for status of relevant
1038 frames to be updated resp. the frame handed over to the application, iv) walk
1039 through the frames to pick up the individual hw/sw timestamps.
1041 Only (!) if transmit timestamping is enabled, then these bits are combined
1042 with binary | with TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE, so you must check for that in your
1043 application (e.g. !(tp_status & (TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST | TP_STATUS_SENDING))
1044 in a first step to see if the frame belongs to the application, and then
1045 one can extract the type of timestamp in a second step from tp_status)!
1047 If you don't care about them, thus having it disabled, checking for
1048 TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE resp. TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT is sufficient. If in the
1049 TX_RING part only TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE is set, then the tp_sec and tp_{n,u}sec
1050 members do not contain a valid value. For TX_RINGs, by default no timestamp
1053 See include/linux/net_tstamp.h and Documentation/networking/timestamping
1054 for more information on hardware timestamps.
1056 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1057 + Miscellaneous bits
1058 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1060 - Packet sockets work well together with Linux socket filters, thus you also
1061 might want to have a look at Documentation/networking/filter.txt
1063 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1065 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1067 Jesse Brandeburg, for fixing my grammathical/spelling errors