[PATCH v6 bpf-next 01/10] btf: add kind layout encoding to UAPI

Alan Maguire
2025-12-10T20:33:13Z

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

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 | 10 ++++++++++
tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h | 10 ++++++++++
2 files changed, 20 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/btf.h b/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
index 266d4ffa6c07..64dd681274f4 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
@@ -8,6 +8,14 @@
#define BTF_MAGIC 0xeB9F
#define BTF_VERSION 1

+/* kind layout section consists of a struct btf_kind_layout for each known
+ * kind at BTF encoding time.
+ */
+struct btf_kind_layout {
+ __u8 info_sz; /* size of singular element after btf_type */
+ __u8 elem_sz; /* size of each of btf_vlen(t) elements */
+};
+
struct btf_header {
__u16 magic;
__u8 version;
@@ -19,6 +27,8 @@ 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 kind_layout_off;/* offset of kind layout section */
+ __u32 kind_layout_len;/* length of kind layout section */
};

/* Max # of type identifier */
diff --git a/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h b/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
index 266d4ffa6c07..64dd681274f4 100644
--- a/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
+++ b/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h
@@ -8,6 +8,14 @@
#define BTF_MAGIC 0xeB9F
#define BTF_VERSION 1

+/* kind layout section consists of a struct btf_kind_layout for each known
+ * kind at BTF encoding time.
+ */
+struct btf_kind_layout {
+ __u8 info_sz; /* size of singular element after btf_type */
+ __u8 elem_sz; /* size of each of btf_vlen(t) elements */
+};
+
struct btf_header {
__u16 magic;
__u8 version;
@@ -19,6 +27,8 @@ 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 kind_layout_off;/* offset of kind layout section */
+ __u32 kind_layout_len;/* length of kind layout section */
};

/* Max # of type identifier */
--
2.43.5