BTF deduplication is not deduplicating some structures, leading to redundant definitions in module BTF that already have identical definitions in vmlinux BTF. When examining module BTF, we can see that "struct sk_buff" is redefined in module BTF. For example in module nf_reject_ipv4 we see: [114280] STRUCT 'sk_buff' size=232 vlen=28 '(anon)' type_id=114463 bits_offset=0 '(anon)' type_id=114464 bits_offset=192 ... The rest of the fields point back at base vmlinux type ids. The first anon field in an sk_buff is: union { struct { struct sk_buff * next; /* 0 8 */ struct sk_buff * prev; /* 8 8 */ union { struct net_device * dev; /* 16 8 */ long unsigned int dev_scratch; /* 16 8 */ }; /* 16 8 */ }; ..and examining its BTF representation, we see [114463] UNION '(anon)' size=24 vlen=4 '(anon)' type_id=114462 bits_offset=0 'rbnode' type_id=517 bits_offset=0 'list' type_id=83 bits_offset=0 'll_node' type_id=443 bits_offset=0 ...which leads us to [114462] STRUCT '(anon)' size=24 vlen=3 'next' type_id=114279 bits_offset=0 'prev' type_id=114279 bits_offset=64 '(anon)' type_id=114461 bits_offset=128 ...finally getting back to the sk_buff: [114279] PTR '(anon)' type_id=114280 So perhaps self-referential structures are a problem for deduplication? The second union with a non-base BTF id: union { struct sock * sk; /* 24 8 */ int ip_defrag_offset; /* 24 4 */ }; ...points at [114464] UNION '(anon)' size=8 vlen=2 'sk' type_id=113826 bits_offset=0 ... [113826] PTR '(anon)' type_id=113827 [113827] STRUCT 'sock' size=776 vlen=93 ... 'sk_error_queue' type_id=114458 bits_offset=1536 'sk_receive_queue' type_id=114458 bits_offset=1728 ... 'sk_write_queue' type_id=114458 bits_offset=2880 ... 'sk_socket' type_id=114295 bits_offset=4992 ... 'sk_memcg' type_id=113787 bits_offset=5312 'sk_state_change' type_id=114758 bits_offset=5376 'sk_data_ready' type_id=114758 bits_offset=5440 'sk_write_space' type_id=114758 bits_offset=5504 'sk_error_report' type_id=114758 bits_offset=5568 'sk_backlog_rcv' type_id=114292 bits_offset=5632 'sk_validate_xmit_skb' type_id=114760 bits_offset=5696 'sk_destruct' type_id=114758 bits_offset=5760 Again, sk_error_queue refers to a 'struct sk_buff_head': [114458] STRUCT 'sk_buff_head' size=24 vlen=3 '(anon)' type_id=114457 bits_offset=0 'qlen' type_id=23 bits_offset=128 'lock' type_id=514 bits_offset=160 ...which, because it contains a struct sk_buff * reference uses the not-deduped sk_buff above. [114455] STRUCT '(anon)' size=16 vlen=2 'next' type_id=114279 bits_offset=0 'prev' type_id=114279 bits_offset=64 Ditto for sk_receive_queue, sk_write_queue, etc. sk_memcg refers to a non-deduped struct mem_cgroup where only one field is not in base BTF: [113786] STRUCT 'mem_cgroup' size=4288 vlen=46 ... 'move_lock_task' type_id=113694 bits_offset=31296 ... and this is a pointer to task_struct: [113694] PTR '(anon)' type_id=113695 [113695] STRUCT 'task_struct' size=9792 vlen=253 ... 'last_wakee' type_id=113694 bits_offset=704 ... ...so we see that the self-referential members cause problems here too. Looking at the code, btf_dedup_is_equiv() will check equivalence for all member types for BTF_KIND_[STRUCT|UNION]. How will such an equivalence check function for a pointer back to the same structure? With a struct, btf_dedup_struct_type() is called, and for each candidate (hashed by name offset, member details but not type ids), we clear the hypot_map (mapping hyothetical type equivalences) and add a hypot_map entry mapping from the canon_id -> cand_id in btf_dedup_is_equiv() once it looks like a rough match. when we delve into its members we recurse into reference types so should ultimately use that mapping to notice self-referential struct equivalence. However looking closely, btf_dedup_is_equiv() is being called from btf_dedup_struct_type() with arguments in the wrong order: eq = btf_dedup_is_equiv(d, type_id, cand_id); The candidate id should I think precede the type_id, as we see in function signature: static int btf_dedup_is_equiv(struct btf_dedup *d, __u32 cand_id, __u32 canon_id) ...and with this change the duplication disappears in the modules. Fixes: d5caef5b56555bfa2ac0 ("btf: add BTF types deduplication algorithm") Signed-off-by: Alan Maguire <alan.maguire@xxxxxxxxxx> --- tools/lib/bpf/btf.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/btf.c b/tools/lib/bpf/btf.c index b4d9a96..a4ee15c 100644 --- a/tools/lib/bpf/btf.c +++ b/tools/lib/bpf/btf.c @@ -4329,7 +4329,7 @@ static int btf_dedup_struct_type(struct btf_dedup *d, __u32 type_id) continue; btf_dedup_clear_hypot_map(d); - eq = btf_dedup_is_equiv(d, type_id, cand_id); + eq = btf_dedup_is_equiv(d, cand_id, type_id); if (eq < 0) return eq; if (!eq) -- 1.8.3.1