Add comments clarifying that USER variants of CO-RE reading macro are still
only going to work with kernel types, defined in kernel or kernel module BTF.
This should help preventing invalid use of those macro to read user-defined
types (which doesn't work with CO-RE).
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/lib/bpf/bpf_core_read.h | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 39 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/bpf_core_read.h b/tools/lib/bpf/bpf_core_read.h
index 9456aabcb03a..53b3e199fb25 100644
--- a/tools/lib/bpf/bpf_core_read.h
+++ b/tools/lib/bpf/bpf_core_read.h
@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
#define bpf_core_read(dst, sz, src) \
bpf_probe_read_kernel(dst, sz, (const void *)__builtin_preserve_access_index(src))
+/* NOTE: see comments for BPF_CORE_READ_USER() about the proper types use. */
#define bpf_core_read_user(dst, sz, src) \
bpf_probe_read_user(dst, sz, (const void *)__builtin_preserve_access_index(src))
/*
@@ -207,6 +208,7 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
#define bpf_core_read_str(dst, sz, src) \
bpf_probe_read_kernel_str(dst, sz, (const void *)__builtin_preserve_access_index(src))
+/* NOTE: see comments for BPF_CORE_READ_USER() about the proper types use. */
#define bpf_core_read_user_str(dst, sz, src) \
bpf_probe_read_user_str(dst, sz, (const void *)__builtin_preserve_access_index(src))
@@ -302,7 +304,11 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
})
-/* Variant of BPF_CORE_READ_INTO() for reading from user-space memory */
+/*
+ * Variant of BPF_CORE_READ_INTO() for reading from user-space memory.
+ *
+ * NOTE: see comments for BPF_CORE_READ_USER() about the proper types use.
+ */
#define BPF_CORE_READ_USER_INTO(dst, src, a, ...) ({ \
___core_read(bpf_core_read_user, bpf_core_read_user, \
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
@@ -314,7 +320,11 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
})
-/* Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER_INTO() */
+/* Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER_INTO().
+ *
+ * As no CO-RE relocations are emitted, source types can be arbitrary and are
+ * not restricted to kernel types only.
+ */
#define BPF_PROBE_READ_USER_INTO(dst, src, a, ...) ({ \
___core_read(bpf_probe_read_user, bpf_probe_read_user, \
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
@@ -330,7 +340,11 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
})
-/* Variant of BPF_CORE_READ_STR_INTO() for reading from user-space memory */
+/*
+ * Variant of BPF_CORE_READ_STR_INTO() for reading from user-space memory.
+ *
+ * NOTE: see comments for BPF_CORE_READ_USER() about the proper types use.
+ */
#define BPF_CORE_READ_USER_STR_INTO(dst, src, a, ...) ({ \
___core_read(bpf_core_read_user_str, bpf_core_read_user, \
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
@@ -342,7 +356,12 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
})
-/* Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER_STR_INTO() */
+/*
+ * Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER_STR_INTO().
+ *
+ * As no CO-RE relocations are emitted, source types can be arbitrary and are
+ * not restricted to kernel types only.
+ */
#define BPF_PROBE_READ_USER_STR_INTO(dst, src, a, ...) ({ \
___core_read(bpf_probe_read_user_str, bpf_probe_read_user, \
dst, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) \
@@ -378,7 +397,16 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
__r; \
})
-/* Variant of BPF_CORE_READ() for reading from user-space memory */
+/*
+ * Variant of BPF_CORE_READ() for reading from user-space memory.
+ *
+ * NOTE: all the source types involved are still *kernel types* and need to
+ * exist in kernel (or kernel module) BTF, otherwise CO-RE relocation will
+ * fail. Custom user types are not relocatable with CO-RE.
+ * The typical situation in which BPF_CORE_READ_USER() might be used is to
+ * read kernel UAPI types from the user-space memory passed in as a syscall
+ * input argument.
+ */
#define BPF_CORE_READ_USER(src, a, ...) ({ \
___type((src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) __r; \
BPF_CORE_READ_USER_INTO(&__r, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
@@ -392,7 +420,12 @@ enum bpf_enum_value_kind {
__r; \
})
-/* Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER() */
+/*
+ * Non-CO-RE variant of BPF_CORE_READ_USER().
+ *
+ * As no CO-RE relocations are emitted, source types can be arbitrary and are
+ * not restricted to kernel types only.
+ */
#define BPF_PROBE_READ_USER(src, a, ...) ({ \
___type((src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__) __r; \
BPF_PROBE_READ_USER_INTO(&__r, (src), a, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
--
2.24.1
