From: Alan Maguire <alan.maguire@oracle.com>
To: andrii@kernel.org, ast@kernel.org
Cc: daniel@iogearbox.net, martin.lau@linux.dev, eddyz87@gmail.com,
song@kernel.org, yonghong.song@linux.dev, jolsa@kernel.org,
qmo@kernel.org, ihor.solodrai@linux.dev,
mykyta.yatsenko5@gmail.com, dwarves@vger.kernel.org,
bpf@vger.kernel.org, Alan Maguire <alan.maguire@oracle.com>
Subject: [PATCH v15 bpf-next 1/9] btf: Add BTF kind layout encoding to UAPI
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:44:42 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260324174450.1570809-2-alan.maguire@oracle.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260324174450.1570809-1-alan.maguire@oracle.com>
BTF kind layouts provide information to parse BTF kinds. By separating
parsing BTF from using all the information it provides, we allow BTF
to encode new features even if they cannot be used by readers. This
will be helpful in particular for cases where older tools are used
to parse newer BTF with kinds the older tools do not recognize;
the BTF can still be parsed in such cases using kind layout.
The intent is to support encoding of kind layouts optionally so that
tools like pahole can add this information. For each kind, we record
- length of singular element following struct btf_type
- length of each of the btf_vlen() elements following
- a (currently unused) flags field
The ideas here were discussed at [1], [2]; hence
Suggested-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Alan Maguire <alan.maguire@oracle.com>
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/CAEf4BzYjWHRdNNw4B=eOXOs_ONrDwrgX4bn=Nuc1g8JPFC34MA@mail.gmail.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20230531201936.1992188-1-alan.maguire@oracle.com/
---
include/uapi/linux/btf.h | 12 ++++++++++++
tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h | 12 ++++++++++++
2 files changed, 24 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/btf.h b/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
index 266d4ffa6c07..638615ebddc2 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@
#define BTF_MAGIC 0xeB9F
#define BTF_VERSION 1
+/*
+ * BTF layout section consists of a struct btf_layout for each known
+ * kind at BTF encoding time.
+ */
+struct btf_layout {
+ __u8 info_sz; /* size of singular element after btf_type */
+ __u8 elem_sz; /* size of each of btf_vlen(t) elements */
+ __u16 flags; /* currently unused */
+};
+
struct btf_header {
__u16 magic;
__u8 version;
@@ -19,6 +29,8 @@ struct btf_header {
__u32 type_len; /* length of type section */
__u32 str_off; /* offset of string section */
__u32 str_len; /* length of string section */
+ __u32 layout_off; /* offset of layout section */
+ __u32 layout_len; /* length of layout section */
};
/* Max # of type identifier */
diff --git a/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h b/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
index 266d4ffa6c07..638615ebddc2 100644
--- a/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
+++ b/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@
#define BTF_MAGIC 0xeB9F
#define BTF_VERSION 1
+/*
+ * BTF layout section consists of a struct btf_layout for each known
+ * kind at BTF encoding time.
+ */
+struct btf_layout {
+ __u8 info_sz; /* size of singular element after btf_type */
+ __u8 elem_sz; /* size of each of btf_vlen(t) elements */
+ __u16 flags; /* currently unused */
+};
+
struct btf_header {
__u16 magic;
__u8 version;
@@ -19,6 +29,8 @@ struct btf_header {
__u32 type_len; /* length of type section */
__u32 str_off; /* offset of string section */
__u32 str_len; /* length of string section */
+ __u32 layout_off; /* offset of layout section */
+ __u32 layout_len; /* length of layout section */
};
/* Max # of type identifier */
--
2.39.3
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-03-24 17:45 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-03-24 17:44 [PATCH v15 bpf-next 0/9] Add BTF layout to BTF Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` Alan Maguire [this message]
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 2/9] libbpf: Support layout section handling in BTF Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 3/9] libbpf: Use layout to compute an unknown kind size Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 4/9] libbpf: Add layout encoding support Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 5/9] libbpf: BTF validation can use layout for unknown kinds Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 6/9] libbpf: Support sanitization of BTF layout for older kernels Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 18:55 ` bot+bpf-ci
2026-03-25 17:39 ` Alan Maguire
2026-03-25 18:52 ` Alexei Starovoitov
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 7/9] btf: support kernel parsing of BTF with layout info Alan Maguire
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 8/9] selftests/bpf: Test kind encoding/decoding Alan Maguire
2026-08-13 22:35 ` sashiko-bot
2026-03-24 17:44 ` [PATCH v15 bpf-next 9/9] kbuild, bpf: Specify "layout" optional feature Alan Maguire
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