Does skb_metadata_differs really need to stop GRO aggregation?

[Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@kernel.org>]

Hi Daniel,

I'm trying to understand why skb_metadata_differs() needed to block GRO ?

I was looking at XDP storing information in metadata area that also
survives into SKBs layer.  E.g. the RX timestamp.

Then I noticed that GRO code (gro_list_prepare) will not allow
aggregating if metadata isn't the same in all packets via
skb_metadata_differs().  Is this really needed?
Can we lift/remove this limitation?

E.g. if I want to store a timestamp, then it will differ per packet.

--Jesper

Git history says it dates back to the original commit that added meta
pointer de8f3a83b0a0 ("bpf: add meta pointer for direct access") (author
Daniel).


diff --git a/net/core/gro.c b/net/core/gro.c
index 0759277dc14e..7fb6a6a24288 100644
--- a/net/core/gro.c
+++ b/net/core/gro.c
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ static void gro_list_prepare(const struct list_head 
*head,

                 diffs = (unsigned long)p->dev ^ (unsigned long)skb->dev;
                 diffs |= p->vlan_all ^ skb->vlan_all;
-               diffs |= skb_metadata_differs(p, skb);
+               diffs |= skb_metadata_differs(p, skb); // Why?
                 if (maclen == ETH_HLEN)
                         diffs |= compare_ether_header(skb_mac_header(p),