On Mon, 18 Feb 2002 anupama.sonnenahalli@amd.com wrote:
> Linux kernel release 2.4.6. Am attaching the header file.
>
> Anu
Very interesting! I havent followed the 2.4 kernel network details for
sometime and they insert a new field!! :)
>From what i understood after going thru some code, it seems that 'data_len'
is an artifact of the ability to have non-linear skbuffs. Meaning, skbs
can now be split up so that header and data areas dont have to be in
contiguous memory. From other sources i gathered that this is required for
'zerocopy' to work.
Hence skb->len is the length of the data for that protocol, while
skb->data_len is the length of the data for that protocol in THAT skb.
So if you are not bothered about skb splits, then data_len = 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This part of code from tcp_output.c might help in understanding:
350 /* Split fragmented skb to two parts at length len. */
351
352 static void skb_split(struct sk_buff *skb, struct sk_buff *skb1, u32 len)
353 {
354 int i;
355 int pos = skb->len - skb->data_len;
356
357 if (len < pos) {
358 /* Split line is inside header. */
359 memcpy(skb_put(skb1, pos-len), skb->data + len, pos-len);
360
361 /* And move data appendix as is. */
362 for (i = 0; i < skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags; i++)
363 skb_shinfo(skb1)->frags[i] = skb_shinfo(skb)->frags[i];
364
365 skb_shinfo(skb1)->nr_frags = skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags;
366 skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags = 0;
367
368 skb1->data_len = skb->data_len;
369 skb1->len += skb1->data_len;
370 skb->data_len = 0;
371 skb->len = len;
372 skb->tail = skb->data+len;
373 } else {
374 int k = 0;
375 int nfrags = skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags;
376
377 /* Second chunk has no header, nothing to copy. */
378
379 skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags = 0;
380 skb1->len = skb1->data_len = skb->len - len;
381 skb->len = len;
382 skb->data_len = len - pos;
----------------------------------------------------------------
HTH.
ciao,
Amit
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Amit Kucheria
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University of Kansas @ Lawrence
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