Exploring the Design Space for Early BPF Program Termination

Explore the design space for early termination of BPF programs in this 30-minute conference talk from the Linux Plumbers Conference. Delve into the critical need for abrupt termination mechanisms in kernel extensions, addressing issues such as kernel stalling and execution time restrictions. Examine the limitations of current solutions like the bpf_loop helper and BPF exception feature. Learn about a proposed fast-path approach that leverages the verifier's knowledge for zero-bookkeeping safe cleanup. Discover how this method patches helper function calls to halt resource allocation while allowing efficient release of existing locks and references. Gain insights into the advantages, limitations, and assumptions of this approach, and participate in a community discussion on refining this work for potential Linux upstream contribution.

When BPF programs need to die: exploring the design space for early BPF... - Dan William, Raj Sahu