According to an offline discussion, it would be beneficial to implement a backward-compatible method for struct_ops types with additional fields that are not present in older kernels. This patchset accepts additional fields of a struct_ops map with all zero values even if these fields are not in the corresponding type in the kernel. This provides a way to be backward compatible. User space programs can use the same map on a machine running an old kernel by clearing fields that do not exist in the kernel. For example, in a test case, it adds an additional field "zeroed" that doesn't exist in struct bpf_testmod_ops of the kernel. struct bpf_testmod_ops___zeroed { int (*test_1)(void); void (*test_2)(int a, int b); int (*test_maybe_null)(int dummy, struct task_struct *task); int zeroed; }; SEC(".struct_ops.link") struct bpf_testmod_ops___zeroed testmod_zeroed = { .test_1 = (void *)test_1, .test_2 = (void *)test_2_v2, }; Here, it doesn't assign a value to "zeroed" of testmod_zeroed, and by default the value of this field will be zero. So, the map will be accepted by libbpf, but libbpf will skip the "zeroed" field. However, if the "zeroed" field is assigned to any value other than "0", libbpf will reject to load this map. --- Changes from v1: - Fix the issue about function pointer fields. - Change a warning message, and add an info message for skipping fields. - Add a small demo of additional arguments that are not in the function pointer prototype in the kernel. v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240312183245.341141-1-thinker.li@xxxxxxxxx/ Kui-Feng Lee (3): libbpf: Skip zeroed or null fields if not found in the kernel type. selftests/bpf: Ensure libbpf skip all-zeros fields of struct_ops maps. selftests/bpf: Accept extra arguments if they are not used. tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c | 24 +++- .../bpf/prog_tests/test_struct_ops_module.c | 103 ++++++++++++++++++ .../bpf/progs/struct_ops_extra_arg.c | 49 +++++++++ .../selftests/bpf/progs/struct_ops_module.c | 16 ++- 4 files changed, 186 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/struct_ops_extra_arg.c -- 2.34.1