Re: [RFC PATCH bpf-next] bpf: Introduce bpf_timer

[Alexei Starovoitov <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com>]

On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 9:59 PM Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 8:16 PM Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, May 23, 2021 at 9:01 AM Alexei Starovoitov
> > <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Fri, May 21, 2021 at 2:37 PM Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi, Alexei
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 11:52 PM Alexei Starovoitov
> > > > <alexei.starovoitov@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Introduce 'struct bpf_timer' that can be embedded in most BPF map types
> > > > > and helpers to operate on it:
> > > > > long bpf_timer_init(struct bpf_timer *timer, void *callback, int flags)
> > > > > long bpf_timer_mod(struct bpf_timer *timer, u64 msecs)
> > > > > long bpf_timer_del(struct bpf_timer *timer)
> > > >
> > > > Like we discussed, this approach would make the timer harder
> > > > to be independent of other eBPF programs, which is a must-have
> > > > for both of our use cases (mine and Jamal's). Like you explained,
> > > > this requires at least another program array, a tail call, a mandatory
> > > > prog pinning to work.
> > >
> > > That is simply not true.
> >
> > Which part is not true? The above is what I got from your explanation.
>
> I tried to write some code sketches to use your timer to implement
> our conntrack logic, below shows how difficult it is to use,

Was it difficult because you've used tail_call and over complicated
the progs for no good reason?

> SEC("ingress")
> void ingress(struct __sk_buff *skb)
> {
>         struct tuple tuple;
>         // extract tuple from skb
>
>         if (bpf_map_lookup_elem(&timers, &key) == NULL)
>                 bpf_tail_call(NULL, &jmp_table, 0);
>                 // here is not reachable unless failure
>         val = bpf_map_lookup_elem(&conntrack, &tuple);
>         if (val && val->expires < now) {
>                 bpf_tail_call(NULL, &jmp_table, 1);
>                 // here is not reachable unless failure
>         }
> }
>
> SEC("egress")
> void egress(struct __sk_buff *skb)
> {
>         struct tuple tuple;
>         // extract tuple from skb
>
>         if (bpf_map_lookup_elem(&timers, &key) == NULL)
>                 bpf_tail_call(NULL, &jmp_table, 0);
>                 // here is not reachable unless failure
>         val = bpf_map_lookup_elem(&conntrack, &tuple);
>         if (val && val->expires < now) {
>                 bpf_tail_call(NULL, &jmp_table, 1);
>                 // here is not reachable unless failure

tail_calls are unnecessary. Just call the funcs directly.
All lookups and maps are unnecessary as well.
Looks like a single global timer will be enough for this use case.

In general the garbage collection in any form doesn't scale.
The conntrack logic doesn't need it. The cillium conntrack is a great
example of how to implement a conntrack without GC.