summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorZeng Chi <zengchi@kylinos.cn>2026-09-21 18:24:42 +0800
committerSean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>2026-09-22 08:36:16 -0700
commit119e9db233ad0f4cbd4cfb9f9385a7bca378b37d (patch)
tree660d50d4139cb750fbde1ae3432452c20726c99d /Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst
downloadlinux-stable-119e9db233ad0f4cbd4cfb9f9385a7bca378b37d.tar.gz
linux-stable-119e9db233ad0f4cbd4cfb9f9385a7bca378b37d.zip
KVM: Don't pre-reserve xarray entries when storing empty/NULL attributesgrafted
Skip the xarray reservation loop when clearing all memory attributes, as storing NULL only erases the entry and never needs to allocate, so no reservation (and no cleanup of a failed one) is required in that case. Suggested-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com> Cc: David Ballesteros <davimaba.v@proton.me> Signed-off-by: Zeng Chi <zengchi@kylinos.cn> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260921102442.1232375-1-zeng_chi911@163.com [sean: split to separate patch] Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst194
1 files changed, 194 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..aae296c17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,194 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+
+======================================================
+Netlink specification support for raw Netlink families
+======================================================
+
+This document describes the additional properties required by raw Netlink
+families such as ``NETLINK_ROUTE`` which use the ``netlink-raw`` protocol
+specification.
+
+Specification
+=============
+
+The netlink-raw schema extends the :doc:`genetlink-legacy <genetlink-legacy>`
+schema with properties that are needed to specify the protocol numbers and
+multicast IDs used by raw netlink families. See :ref:`classic_netlink` for more
+information. The raw netlink families also make use of type-specific
+sub-messages.
+
+Globals
+-------
+
+protonum
+~~~~~~~~
+
+The ``protonum`` property is used to specify the protocol number to use when
+opening a netlink socket.
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ # SPDX-License-Identifier: ((GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note) OR BSD-3-Clause)
+
+ name: rt-addr
+ protocol: netlink-raw
+ protonum: 0 # part of the NETLINK_ROUTE protocol
+
+
+Multicast group properties
+--------------------------
+
+value
+~~~~~
+
+The ``value`` property is used to specify the group ID to use for multicast
+group registration.
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ mcast-groups:
+ list:
+ -
+ name: rtnlgrp-ipv4-ifaddr
+ value: 5
+ -
+ name: rtnlgrp-ipv6-ifaddr
+ value: 9
+ -
+ name: rtnlgrp-mctp-ifaddr
+ value: 34
+
+Sub-messages
+------------
+
+Several raw netlink families such as
+:ref:`rt-link<netlink-rt-link>` and
+:ref:`tc<netlink-tc>` use attribute nesting as an
+abstraction to carry module specific information.
+
+Conceptually it looks as follows::
+
+ [OUTER NEST OR MESSAGE LEVEL]
+ [GENERIC ATTR 1]
+ [GENERIC ATTR 2]
+ [GENERIC ATTR 3]
+ [GENERIC ATTR - wrapper]
+ [MODULE SPECIFIC ATTR 1]
+ [MODULE SPECIFIC ATTR 2]
+
+The ``GENERIC ATTRs`` at the outer level are defined in the core (or rt_link or
+core TC), while specific drivers, TC classifiers, qdiscs etc. can carry their
+own information wrapped in the ``GENERIC ATTR - wrapper``. Even though the
+example above shows attributes nesting inside the wrapper, the modules generally
+have full freedom to define the format of the nest. In practice the payload of
+the wrapper attr has very similar characteristics to a netlink message. It may
+contain a fixed header / structure, netlink attributes, or both. Because of
+those shared characteristics we refer to the payload of the wrapper attribute as
+a sub-message.
+
+A sub-message attribute uses the value of another attribute as a selector key to
+choose the right sub-message format. For example if the following attribute has
+already been decoded:
+
+.. code-block:: json
+
+ { "kind": "gre" }
+
+and we encounter the following attribute spec:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ -
+ name: data
+ type: sub-message
+ sub-message: linkinfo-data-msg
+ selector: kind
+
+Then we look for a sub-message definition called ``linkinfo-data-msg`` and use
+the value of the ``kind`` attribute i.e. ``gre`` as the key to choose the
+correct format for the sub-message:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ sub-messages:
+ name: linkinfo-data-msg
+ formats:
+ -
+ value: bridge
+ attribute-set: linkinfo-bridge-attrs
+ -
+ value: gre
+ attribute-set: linkinfo-gre-attrs
+ -
+ value: geneve
+ attribute-set: linkinfo-geneve-attrs
+
+This would decode the attribute value as a sub-message with the attribute-set
+called ``linkinfo-gre-attrs`` as the attribute space.
+
+A sub-message can have an optional ``fixed-header`` followed by zero or more
+attributes from an ``attribute-set``. For example the following
+``tc-options-msg`` sub-message defines message formats that use a mixture of
+``fixed-header``, ``attribute-set`` or both together:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ sub-messages:
+ -
+ name: tc-options-msg
+ formats:
+ -
+ value: bfifo
+ fixed-header: tc-fifo-qopt
+ -
+ value: cake
+ attribute-set: tc-cake-attrs
+ -
+ value: netem
+ fixed-header: tc-netem-qopt
+ attribute-set: tc-netem-attrs
+
+Note that a selector attribute must appear in a netlink message before any
+sub-message attributes that depend on it.
+
+If an attribute such as ``kind`` is defined at more than one nest level, then a
+sub-message selector will be resolved using the value 'closest' to the selector.
+For example, if the same attribute name is defined in a nested ``attribute-set``
+alongside a sub-message selector and also in a top level ``attribute-set``, then
+the selector will be resolved using the value 'closest' to the selector. If the
+value is not present in the message at the same level as defined in the spec
+then this is an error.
+
+Nested struct definitions
+-------------------------
+
+Many raw netlink families such as :ref:`tc<netlink-tc>`
+make use of nested struct definitions. The ``netlink-raw`` schema makes it
+possible to embed a struct within a struct definition using the ``struct``
+property. For example, the following struct definition embeds the
+``tc-ratespec`` struct definition for both the ``rate`` and the ``peakrate``
+members of ``struct tc-tbf-qopt``.
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ -
+ name: tc-tbf-qopt
+ type: struct
+ members:
+ -
+ name: rate
+ type: binary
+ struct: tc-ratespec
+ -
+ name: peakrate
+ type: binary
+ struct: tc-ratespec
+ -
+ name: limit
+ type: u32
+ -
+ name: buffer
+ type: u32
+ -
+ name: mtu
+ type: u32