LWN: Comments on "An introduction to the BPF Compiler Collection"

An introduction to the BPF Compiler Collection

ncm — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 19:58:27 +0000

Everyone seems to assume that eBPF program source is C. But LLVM is happy to generate code from IF produced from other languages, notably C++ and Rust. It would be unfortunate if BCC fails to make available improved ways to express eBPF programs.

People have asked me why anyone would code small program fragments like eBPF in C++. The short answer is that C++ and Rust enable better encapsulation of semantics, particularly those useful for a whole collection of eBPF program fragments. Once you find a use for eBPF in one place, you are likely to notice many other places.

Bcc would be a good place to park C++ and Rust abstractions useful for any eBPF program fragment.

An introduction to the BPF Compiler Collection

flb — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 14:33:35 +0000

I've recently come across ply (https://wkz.github.io/ply/) which is a lightweight language for some BPF tracing tasks. It doesn't require access to kernel headers, so it cannot dissect structs for example, but in simple cases it might be enough.

An introduction to the BPF Compiler Collection

unixbhaskar — Sat, 23 Dec 2017 03:38:17 +0000

Thanks, Matt!