[LSF/MM/BPF TOPIC] BPF libarena Development and

[LSF/MM/BPF TOPIC] BPF libarena Development and

[Emil Tsalapatis]

Hello everyone,

    I'd like to propose a session on the BPF libarena library under
development[1]. The details on how this library should be developed, 
managed, and provided to users are still open. The session would let 
us discuss those topics, along with sharing an overview of libarena 
itself.

libarena is a collection of arena-based code that will live in 
tools/testing/selftests/bpf/libarena and will provide a runtime 
for arena-based programs. The library currently includes memory 
allocators and an ASAN runtime for BPF arena memory, and will
be expanded with arena-based implementations of data structures
for development like B-trees, RB-trees, and heaps. The end result
will look similar to the BPF arena library used by sched_ext[2].
Users will statically link the arena library into their code at 
compile time.

Possible issues for discussion:
	- What kind of code/functionality are we interested in hosting
	  in the library? 
	- How should the library be provided to users? (e.g. new repo
	  in the libbpf org)
	- BPF core features/adjustments for libarena development
	- ASAN status, feedback and possible followups
	- General usability feedback

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260127181610.86376-1-emil@etsalapatis.com
[2] https://github.com/sched-ext/scx/tree/main/lib

Re: [LSF/MM/BPF TOPIC] BPF libarena Development and

[Cong Wang]

On Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 12:21:43PM -0500, Emil Tsalapatis wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
>     I'd like to propose a session on the BPF libarena library under
> development[1]. The details on how this library should be developed, 
> managed, and provided to users are still open. The session would let 
> us discuss those topics, along with sharing an overview of libarena 
> itself.
> 
> libarena is a collection of arena-based code that will live in 
> tools/testing/selftests/bpf/libarena and will provide a runtime 
> for arena-based programs. The library currently includes memory 
> allocators and an ASAN runtime for BPF arena memory, and will
> be expanded with arena-based implementations of data structures
> for development like B-trees, RB-trees, and heaps. The end result
> will look similar to the BPF arena library used by sched_ext[2].
> Users will statically link the arena library into their code at 
> compile time.

Interesting, I have prototyped similar concepts in KernelScript [1],
the biggest difference is that they are built into the language [2], like
how Python handles data structures naturally.

1. https://github.com/multikernel/kernelscript
2. https://github.com/multikernel/kernelscript/tree/linked_list

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Cong Wang