linux.git/tools/include/uapi/linux/btf.h, branch v7.1-rc2

btf: Add BTF kind layout encoding to UAPI

2026-03-26T20:53:56+00:00

BTF kind layouts provide information to parse BTF kinds. By separating
parsing BTF from using all the information it provides, we allow BTF
to encode new features even if they cannot be used by readers. This
will be helpful in particular for cases where older tools are used
to parse newer BTF with kinds the older tools do not recognize;
the BTF can still be parsed in such cases using kind layout.

The intent is to support encoding of kind layouts optionally so that
tools like pahole can add this information. For each kind, we record

- length of singular element following struct btf_type
- length of each of the btf_vlen() elements following
- a (currently unused) flags field

The ideas here were discussed at [1], [2]; hence

Suggested-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Signed-off-by: Alan Maguire 
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260326145444.2076244-2-alan.maguire@oracle.com

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/CAEf4BzYjWHRdNNw4B=eOXOs_ONrDwrgX4bn=Nuc1g8JPFC34MA@mail.gmail.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20230531201936.1992188-1-alan.maguire@oracle.com/

docs/bpf: Document the semantics of BTF tags with kind_flag

2025-02-06T00:17:59+00:00

Explain the meaning of kind_flag in BTF type_tags and decl_tags.
Update uapi btf.h kind_flag comment to reflect the changes.

Signed-off-by: Ihor Solodrai 
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20250130201239.1429648-3-ihor.solodrai@linux.dev

bpf: Add btf enum64 support

2022-06-07T17:20:42+00:00

Currently, BTF only supports upto 32bit enum value with BTF_KIND_ENUM.
But in kernel, some enum indeed has 64bit values, e.g.,
in uapi bpf.h, we have
  enum {
        BPF_F_INDEX_MASK                = 0xffffffffULL,
        BPF_F_CURRENT_CPU               = BPF_F_INDEX_MASK,
        BPF_F_CTXLEN_MASK               = (0xfffffULL << 32),
  };
In this case, BTF_KIND_ENUM will encode the value of BPF_F_CTXLEN_MASK
as 0, which certainly is incorrect.

This patch added a new btf kind, BTF_KIND_ENUM64, which permits
64bit value to cover the above use case. The BTF_KIND_ENUM64 has
the following three fields followed by the common type:
  struct bpf_enum64 {
    __u32 nume_off;
    __u32 val_lo32;
    __u32 val_hi32;
  };
Currently, btf type section has an alignment of 4 as all element types
are u32. Representing the value with __u64 will introduce a pad
for bpf_enum64 and may also introduce misalignment for the 64bit value.
Hence, two members of val_hi32 and val_lo32 are chosen to avoid these issues.

The kflag is also introduced for BTF_KIND_ENUM and BTF_KIND_ENUM64
to indicate whether the value is signed or unsigned. The kflag intends
to provide consistent output of BTF C fortmat with the original
source code. For example, the original BTF_KIND_ENUM bit value is 0xffffffff.
The format C has two choices, printing out 0xffffffff or -1 and current libbpf
prints out as unsigned value. But if the signedness is preserved in btf,
the value can be printed the same as the original source code.
The kflag value 0 means unsigned values, which is consistent to the default
by libbpf and should also cover most cases as well.

The new BTF_KIND_ENUM64 is intended to support the enum value represented as
64bit value. But it can represent all BTF_KIND_ENUM values as well.
The compiler ([1]) and pahole will generate BTF_KIND_ENUM64 only if the value has
to be represented with 64 bits.

In addition, a static inline function btf_kind_core_compat() is introduced which
will be used later when libbpf relo_core.c changed. Here the kernel shares the
same relo_core.c with libbpf.

  [1] https://reviews.llvm.org/D124641

Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Signed-off-by: Yonghong Song 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220607062600.3716578-1-yhs@fb.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov

bpf: Correct the comment for BTF kind bitfield

2022-04-04T00:06:52+00:00

The commit 8fd886911a6a ("bpf: Add BTF_KIND_FLOAT to uapi") has extended
the BTF kind bitfield from 4 to 5 bits, correct the comment.

Signed-off-by: Haiyue Wang 
Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20220403115327.205964-1-haiyue.wang@intel.com

bpf: Support BTF_KIND_TYPE_TAG for btf_type_tag attributes

2021-11-12T01:41:11+00:00

LLVM patches ([1] for clang, [2] and [3] for BPF backend)
added support for btf_type_tag attributes. This patch
added support for the kernel.

The main motivation for btf_type_tag is to bring kernel
annotations __user, __rcu etc. to btf. With such information
available in btf, bpf verifier can detect mis-usages
and reject the program. For example, for __user tagged pointer,
developers can then use proper helper like bpf_probe_read_user()
etc. to read the data.

BTF_KIND_TYPE_TAG may also useful for other tracing
facility where instead of to require user to specify
kernel/user address type, the kernel can detect it
by itself with btf.

  [1] https://reviews.llvm.org/D111199
  [2] https://reviews.llvm.org/D113222
  [3] https://reviews.llvm.org/D113496

Signed-off-by: Yonghong Song 
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20211112012609.1505032-1-yhs@fb.com

bpf: Rename BTF_KIND_TAG to BTF_KIND_DECL_TAG

2021-10-19T01:35:36+00:00

Patch set [1] introduced BTF_KIND_TAG to allow tagging
declarations for struct/union, struct/union field, var, func
and func arguments and these tags will be encoded into
dwarf. They are also encoded to btf by llvm for the bpf target.

After BTF_KIND_TAG is introduced, we intended to use it
for kernel __user attributes. But kernel __user is actually
a type attribute. Upstream and internal discussion showed
it is not a good idea to mix declaration attribute and
type attribute. So we proposed to introduce btf_type_tag
as a type attribute and existing btf_tag renamed to
btf_decl_tag ([2]).

This patch renamed BTF_KIND_TAG to BTF_KIND_DECL_TAG and some
other declarations with *_tag to *_decl_tag to make it clear
the tag is for declaration. In the future, BTF_KIND_TYPE_TAG
might be introduced per [3].

 [1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210914223004.244411-1-yhs@fb.com/
 [2] https://reviews.llvm.org/D111588
 [3] https://reviews.llvm.org/D111199

Fixes: b5ea834dde6b ("bpf: Support for new btf kind BTF_KIND_TAG")
Fixes: 5b84bd10363e ("libbpf: Add support for BTF_KIND_TAG")
Fixes: 5c07f2fec003 ("bpftool: Add support for BTF_KIND_TAG")
Signed-off-by: Yonghong Song 
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20211012164838.3345699-1-yhs@fb.com

bpf: Support for new btf kind BTF_KIND_TAG

2021-09-15T01:45:52+00:00

LLVM14 added support for a new C attribute ([1])
  __attribute__((btf_tag("arbitrary_str")))
This attribute will be emitted to dwarf ([2]) and pahole
will convert it to BTF. Or for bpf target, this
attribute will be emitted to BTF directly ([3], [4]).
The attribute is intended to provide additional
information for
  - struct/union type or struct/union member
  - static/global variables
  - static/global function or function parameter.

For linux kernel, the btf_tag can be applied
in various places to specify user pointer,
function pre- or post- condition, function
allow/deny in certain context, etc. Such information
will be encoded in vmlinux BTF and can be used
by verifier.

The btf_tag can also be applied to bpf programs
to help global verifiable functions, e.g.,
specifying preconditions, etc.

This patch added basic parsing and checking support
in kernel for new BTF_KIND_TAG kind.

 [1] https://reviews.llvm.org/D106614
 [2] https://reviews.llvm.org/D106621
 [3] https://reviews.llvm.org/D106622
 [4] https://reviews.llvm.org/D109560

Signed-off-by: Yonghong Song 
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210914223015.245546-1-yhs@fb.com

btf: Change BTF_KIND_* macros to enums

2021-09-15T01:45:52+00:00

Change BTF_KIND_* macros to enums so they are encoded in dwarf and
appear in vmlinux.h. This will make it easier for bpf programs
to use these constants without macro definitions.

Signed-off-by: Yonghong Song 
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Acked-by: Andrii Nakryiko 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210914223009.245307-1-yhs@fb.com

bpf: Add BTF_KIND_FLOAT to uapi

2021-03-05T01:58:15+00:00

Add a new kind value and expand the kind bitfield.

Signed-off-by: Ilya Leoshkevich 
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Acked-by: Yonghong Song 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20210226202256.116518-2-iii@linux.ibm.com

libbpf: Sanitize global functions

2020-01-10T16:20:07+00:00

In case the kernel doesn't support BTF_FUNC_GLOBAL sanitize BTF produced by the
compiler for global functions.

Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov 
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann 
Acked-by: Song Liu 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200110064124.1760511-2-ast@kernel.org