From: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
To: "David S . Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>,
Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>
Cc: Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>,
netdev@vger.kernel.org, eric.dumazet@gmail.com,
Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH net-next] net: add skbuff_clear() helper
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 20:38:36 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260109203836.1667441-1-edumazet@google.com> (raw)
clang is unable to inline the memset() calls in net/core/skbuff.c
when initializing allocated sk_buff.
memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
This is unfortunate, because:
1) calling external memset_orig() helper adds a call/ret and
typical setup cost.
2) offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail) == 0xb8 = 0x80 + 0x38
On x86_64, memset_orig() performs two 64 bytes clear,
then has to loop 7 times to clear the final 56 bytes.
skbuff_clear() makes sure the minimal and optimal code
is generated.
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
net/core/skbuff.c | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c
index a56133902c0d9c47b45a4a19b228b151456e5051..4887099e8678352a62d805e1b0be2736dc985376 100644
--- a/net/core/skbuff.c
+++ b/net/core/skbuff.c
@@ -307,6 +307,23 @@ static struct sk_buff *napi_skb_cache_get(bool alloc)
return skb;
}
+/*
+ * Only clear those fields we need to clear, not those that we will
+ * actually initialise later. Hence, don't put any more fields after
+ * the tail pointer in struct sk_buff!
+ */
+static inline void skbuff_clear(struct sk_buff *skb)
+{
+ /* Replace memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail))
+ * with two smaller memset(), with a barrier() between them.
+ * This forces the compiler to inline both calls.
+ */
+ BUILD_BUG_ON(offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail) <= 128);
+ memset(skb, 0, 128);
+ barrier();
+ memset((void *)skb + 128, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail) - 128);
+}
+
/**
* napi_skb_cache_get_bulk - obtain a number of zeroed skb heads from the cache
* @skbs: pointer to an at least @n-sized array to fill with skb pointers
@@ -357,7 +374,7 @@ u32 napi_skb_cache_get_bulk(void **skbs, u32 n)
skbs[i] = nc->skb_cache[base + i];
kasan_mempool_unpoison_object(skbs[i], skbuff_cache_size);
- memset(skbs[i], 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
+ skbuff_clear(skbs[i]);
}
nc->skb_count -= n;
@@ -424,7 +441,7 @@ struct sk_buff *slab_build_skb(void *data)
if (unlikely(!skb))
return NULL;
- memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
+ skbuff_clear(skb);
data = __slab_build_skb(data, &size);
__finalize_skb_around(skb, data, size);
@@ -476,7 +493,7 @@ struct sk_buff *__build_skb(void *data, unsigned int frag_size)
if (unlikely(!skb))
return NULL;
- memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
+ skbuff_clear(skb);
__build_skb_around(skb, data, frag_size);
return skb;
@@ -537,7 +554,7 @@ static struct sk_buff *__napi_build_skb(void *data, unsigned int frag_size)
if (unlikely(!skb))
return NULL;
- memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
+ skbuff_clear(skb);
__build_skb_around(skb, data, frag_size);
return skb;
@@ -696,12 +713,7 @@ struct sk_buff *__alloc_skb(unsigned int size, gfp_t gfp_mask,
*/
prefetchw(data + SKB_WITH_OVERHEAD(size));
- /*
- * Only clear those fields we need to clear, not those that we will
- * actually initialise below. Hence, don't put any more fields after
- * the tail pointer in struct sk_buff!
- */
- memset(skb, 0, offsetof(struct sk_buff, tail));
+ skbuff_clear(skb);
__build_skb_around(skb, data, size);
skb->pfmemalloc = pfmemalloc;
--
2.52.0.457.g6b5491de43-goog
next reply other threads:[~2026-01-09 20:38 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-09 20:38 Eric Dumazet [this message]
2026-01-13 3:40 ` [PATCH net-next] net: add skbuff_clear() helper patchwork-bot+netdevbpf
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