Re: [PATCH bpf-next v3 8/8] samples/bpf: Add xdp_trafficgen sample

["Toke Høiland-Jørgensen" <toke@redhat.com>]

Alexei Starovoitov <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com> writes:

> On Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 8:28 AM Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> Alexei Starovoitov <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > On Sat, Dec 11, 2021 at 10:43 AM Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@redhat.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> This adds an XDP-based traffic generator sample which uses the DO_REDIRECT
>> >> flag of bpf_prog_run(). It works by building the initial packet in
>> >> userspace and passing it to the kernel where an XDP program redirects the
>> >> packet to the target interface. The traffic generator supports two modes of
>> >> operation: one that just sends copies of the same packet as fast as it can
>> >> without touching the packet data at all, and one that rewrites the
>> >> destination port number of each packet, making the generated traffic span a
>> >> range of port numbers.
>> >>
>> >> The dynamic mode is included to demonstrate how the bpf_prog_run() facility
>> >> enables building a completely programmable packet generator using XDP.
>> >> Using the dynamic mode has about a 10% overhead compared to the static
>> >> mode, because the latter completely avoids touching the page data.
>> >>
>> >> Signed-off-by: Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@redhat.com>
>> >> ---
>> >>  samples/bpf/.gitignore            |   1 +
>> >>  samples/bpf/Makefile              |   4 +
>> >>  samples/bpf/xdp_redirect.bpf.c    |  34 +++
>> >>  samples/bpf/xdp_trafficgen_user.c | 421 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>> >>  4 files changed, 460 insertions(+)
>> >>  create mode 100644 samples/bpf/xdp_trafficgen_user.c
>> >
>> > I think it deserves to be in tools/bpf/
>> > samples/bpf/ bit rots too often now.
>> > imo everything in there either needs to be converted to selftests/bpf
>> > or deleted.
>>
>> I think there's value in having a separate set of utilities that are
>> more user-facing than the selftests. But I do agree that it's annoying
>> they bit rot. So how about we fix that instead? Andrii suggested just
>> integrating the build of samples/bpf into selftests[0], so I'll look
>> into that after the holidays. But in the meantime I don't think there's
>> any harm in adding this utility here?
>
> I think samples/bpf building would help to stabilize bitroting,
> but the question of the right home for this trafficgen tool remains.
> I think it's best to keep it outside of the kernel tree.
> It's not any more special than all other libbpf and bcc tools.
> I think xdp-tools repo or bcc could be a home for it.

Alright, I'll drop it from the next version and put it into xdp-tools.
I've been contemplating doing the same for some of the other tools
(xdp_redirect* and xdp_monitor, for instance). Any opinion on that?

-Toke