Re: [PATCH 00/18] xfrm: Add compat layer

Steffen Klassert
2018-07-27T07:37:47Z

On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 10:49:59AM +0200, Florian Westphal wrote:
> Dmitry Safonov <dima@arista.com> wrote:
> > So, here I add a compatible layer to xfrm.
> > As xfrm uses netlink notifications, kernel should send them in ABI
> > format that an application will parse. The proposed solution is
> > to save the ABI of bind() syscall. The realization detail is
> > to create kernel-hidden, non visible to userspace netlink groups
> > for compat applications.
>
> Why not use exisiting netlink support?
> Just add the 32bit skb to skb64->frag_list and let
> netlink find if tasks needs 64 or 32 one.
>
> It only needs this small fix to properly signal the end of a dump:
> https://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev&m=126625240303351&w=2
>
> I had started a second attempt to make xfrm compat work,
> but its still in early stage.
>
> One link that might still have some value:
> https://git.breakpoint.cc/cgit/fw/net-next.git/commit/?h=xfrm_config_compat_07&id=f64430e6d9e297f3990f485a4832e273751b9869
> (compat structure definitions with BUILD_BUG_ON checking)
>
> My plan was to make xfrm compat work strictly as shrinker (64->32)
> and expander (32->64), i.e. no/little changes to exisiting code and
> pass all "expanded" skbs through existing xfrm rcv functions.

I agree here with Florian. The code behind this ABI
is already complicated. Please stay away from generic
code a much as possible. Generic and compat code should
be clearly separated.