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* [PATCH net-next 0/3] tun: trim per-packet work on the write path
@ 2026-11-12 15:06 Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 1/3] tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace Antonio Quartulli
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Antonio Quartulli @ 2026-11-12 15:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: willemdebruijn.kernel, jasowangio
  Cc: Antonio Quartulli, andrew+netdev, davem, edumazet, kuba, pabeni,
	ast, daniel, hawk, john.fastabend, sdf, netdev, bpf

Profiling a link-bonding daemon on an embedded router (Cortex-A7), which
injects every packet with a write() to a tun device, showed tun doing
per-packet work its packets do not need:

1. a flow dissector run, only to set the transport header
2. a BH-disabled RCU section, only to check for an XDP program, which
   only TAP devices can have
3. the parsing of an all-zero virtio-net header without IFF_VNET_HDR

Per 1400-byte packet written and dropped at the raw table, instruction
counts (qemu -icount) drop by 6.5% for 1 (Cortex-A7), 2.3% for 2 and
1.6% for 3 (x86). The tun selftests pass.

Antonio Quartulli (3):
  tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace
  tun: don't disable BHs for the XDP program check of every packet
  tun: skip the virtio-net header parsing without IFF_VNET_HDR

 drivers/net/tun.c | 20 ++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

-- 
2.56.0


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* [PATCH net-next 1/3] tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace
  2026-11-12 15:06 [PATCH net-next 0/3] tun: trim per-packet work on the write path Antonio Quartulli
@ 2026-11-12 15:06 ` Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 2/3] tun: don't disable BHs for the XDP program check of every packet Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 3/3] tun: skip the virtio-net header parsing without IFF_VNET_HDR Antonio Quartulli
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Antonio Quartulli @ 2026-11-12 15:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: willemdebruijn.kernel, jasowangio
  Cc: Antonio Quartulli, andrew+netdev, davem, edumazet, kuba, pabeni,
	ast, daniel, hawk, john.fastabend, sdf, netdev, bpf

tun_get_user() runs the flow dissector on every written packet only to
set the transport header. Packets that need it early already get it:
skb_partial_csum_set() for NEEDS_CSUM, __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() for
GSO. For the rest, the IPv4/IPv6 receive paths set it, as for packets
from NICs.

Drop the probe: ~200 fewer instructions per 1400-byte packet, -6.5%
when dropped at the raw table, -2.4% through conntrack and NAT
(emulated Cortex-A7).

Signed-off-by: Antonio Quartulli <antonio@mandelbit.com>
---
 drivers/net/tun.c | 1 -
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
index 8920c797acfd..9fc60a73fb96 100644
--- a/drivers/net/tun.c
+++ b/drivers/net/tun.c
@@ -1960,7 +1960,6 @@ static ssize_t tun_get_user(struct tun_struct *tun, struct tun_file *tfile,
 		net_zcopy_complete(NULL, msg_control, false);
 
 	skb_reset_network_header(skb);
-	skb_probe_transport_header(skb);
 	skb_record_rx_queue(skb, tfile->queue_index);
 
 	if (skb_xdp) {
-- 
2.56.0


^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* [PATCH net-next 2/3] tun: don't disable BHs for the XDP program check of every packet
  2026-11-12 15:06 [PATCH net-next 0/3] tun: trim per-packet work on the write path Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 1/3] tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace Antonio Quartulli
@ 2026-11-12 15:06 ` Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 3/3] tun: skip the virtio-net header parsing without IFF_VNET_HDR Antonio Quartulli
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Antonio Quartulli @ 2026-11-12 15:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: willemdebruijn.kernel, jasowangio
  Cc: Antonio Quartulli, andrew+netdev, davem, edumazet, kuba, pabeni,
	ast, daniel, hawk, john.fastabend, sdf, netdev, bpf

For every packet, tun_get_user() disables BHs and enters an RCU section
only to find out whether an XDP program is attached, which only TAP
devices can have.

Check with rcu_access_pointer() first, in tun_build_skb() too, and enter
the BH-disabled RCU section only with a program attached. A program
attached concurrently could already miss the packets in flight.

-2.3% instructions per 1400-byte packet dropped at the raw table, -3.0%
when written 64 per write() (emulated x86).

Signed-off-by: Antonio Quartulli <antonio@mandelbit.com>
---
 drivers/net/tun.c | 14 ++++++++------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
index 9fc60a73fb96..395923651f31 100644
--- a/drivers/net/tun.c
+++ b/drivers/net/tun.c
@@ -1702,13 +1702,12 @@ static struct sk_buff *tun_build_skb(struct tun_struct *tun,
 	int pad = TUN_RX_PAD;
 	int metasize = 0;
 	int err = 0;
+	bool xdp;
 
-	rcu_read_lock();
-	xdp_prog = rcu_dereference(tun->xdp_prog);
-	if (xdp_prog)
+	xdp = rcu_access_pointer(tun->xdp_prog);
+	if (xdp)
 		pad += XDP_PACKET_HEADROOM;
 	buflen += SKB_DATA_ALIGN(len + pad);
-	rcu_read_unlock();
 
 	alloc_frag->offset = ALIGN((u64)alloc_frag->offset, SMP_CACHE_BYTES);
 	if (unlikely(!skb_page_frag_refill(buflen, alloc_frag, GFP_KERNEL)))
@@ -1725,7 +1724,7 @@ static struct sk_buff *tun_build_skb(struct tun_struct *tun,
 	 * of xdp_prog above, this should be rare and for simplicity
 	 * we do XDP on skb in case the headroom is not enough.
 	 */
-	if (hdr->gso_type || !xdp_prog) {
+	if (hdr->gso_type || !xdp) {
 		*skb_xdp = 1;
 		return __tun_build_skb(tfile, alloc_frag, buf, buflen, len,
 				       pad, metasize);
@@ -1962,7 +1961,10 @@ static ssize_t tun_get_user(struct tun_struct *tun, struct tun_file *tfile,
 	skb_reset_network_header(skb);
 	skb_record_rx_queue(skb, tfile->queue_index);
 
-	if (skb_xdp) {
+	/* Only TAP devices can have an XDP program: don't disable BHs and
+	 * enter an RCU section for every packet just to find out it's unset.
+	 */
+	if (skb_xdp && rcu_access_pointer(tun->xdp_prog)) {
 		struct bpf_prog *xdp_prog;
 		int ret;
 
-- 
2.56.0


^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* [PATCH net-next 3/3] tun: skip the virtio-net header parsing without IFF_VNET_HDR
  2026-11-12 15:06 [PATCH net-next 0/3] tun: trim per-packet work on the write path Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 1/3] tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace Antonio Quartulli
  2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 2/3] tun: don't disable BHs for the XDP program check of every packet Antonio Quartulli
@ 2026-11-12 15:06 ` Antonio Quartulli
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Antonio Quartulli @ 2026-11-12 15:06 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: willemdebruijn.kernel, jasowangio
  Cc: Antonio Quartulli, andrew+netdev, davem, edumazet, kuba, pabeni,
	ast, daniel, hawk, john.fastabend, sdf, netdev, bpf

Without IFF_VNET_HDR, tun_get_user() still passes an all-zero header to
tun_vnet_hdr_tnl_to_skb(), which then only resets the MAC header. Do
just that.

-1.6% instructions per 1400-byte packet dropped at the raw table, -2.2%
when written 64 per write() (emulated x86).

Signed-off-by: Antonio Quartulli <antonio@mandelbit.com>
---
 drivers/net/tun.c | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
index 395923651f31..38f9da1ab462 100644
--- a/drivers/net/tun.c
+++ b/drivers/net/tun.c
@@ -1943,7 +1943,10 @@ static ssize_t tun_get_user(struct tun_struct *tun, struct tun_file *tfile,
 		break;
 	}
 
-	if (tun_vnet_hdr_tnl_to_skb(tun->flags, features, skb, &hdr)) {
+	if (!(tun->flags & IFF_VNET_HDR)) {
+		/* all a zeroed header would do */
+		skb_reset_mac_header(skb);
+	} else if (tun_vnet_hdr_tnl_to_skb(tun->flags, features, skb, &hdr)) {
 		atomic_long_inc(&tun->rx_frame_errors);
 		err = -EINVAL;
 		goto free_skb;
-- 
2.56.0


^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2026-11-12 15:06 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2026-11-12 15:06 [PATCH net-next 0/3] tun: trim per-packet work on the write path Antonio Quartulli
2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 1/3] tun: don't probe the transport header of packets written by userspace Antonio Quartulli
2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 2/3] tun: don't disable BHs for the XDP program check of every packet Antonio Quartulli
2026-11-12 15:06 ` [PATCH net-next 3/3] tun: skip the virtio-net header parsing without IFF_VNET_HDR Antonio Quartulli

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