xref: /linux/Documentation/bpf/map_of_maps.rst (revision dfd5e53dd72113f37663f59a6337fe9a0dfbf0f6)
1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
2.. Copyright (C) 2022 Red Hat, Inc.
3
4========================================================
5BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS and BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH_OF_MAPS
6========================================================
7
8.. note::
9   - ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS`` and ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH_OF_MAPS`` were
10     introduced in kernel version 4.12
11
12``BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS`` and ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH_OF_MAPS`` provide general
13purpose support for map in map storage. One level of nesting is supported, where
14an outer map contains instances of a single type of inner map, for example
15``array_of_maps->sock_map``.
16
17When creating an outer map, an inner map instance is used to initialize the
18metadata that the outer map holds about its inner maps. This inner map has a
19separate lifetime from the outer map and can be deleted after the outer map has
20been created.
21
22The outer map supports element lookup, update and delete from user space using
23the syscall API. A BPF program is only allowed to do element lookup in the outer
24map.
25
26.. note::
27   - Multi-level nesting is not supported.
28   - Any BPF map type can be used as an inner map, except for
29     ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_PROG_ARRAY``.
30   - A BPF program cannot update or delete outer map entries.
31
32For ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS`` the key is an unsigned 32-bit integer index
33into the array. The array is a fixed size with ``max_entries`` elements that are
34zero initialized when created.
35
36For ``BPF_MAP_TYPE_HASH_OF_MAPS`` the key type can be chosen when defining the
37map. The kernel is responsible for allocating and freeing key/value pairs, up to
38the max_entries limit that you specify. Hash maps use pre-allocation of hash
39table elements by default. The ``BPF_F_NO_PREALLOC`` flag can be used to disable
40pre-allocation when it is too memory expensive.
41
42Usage
43=====
44
45Kernel BPF Helper
46-----------------
47
48.. c:function::
49   void *bpf_map_lookup_elem(struct bpf_map *map, const void *key)
50
51Inner maps can be retrieved using the ``bpf_map_lookup_elem()`` helper. This
52helper returns a pointer to the inner map, or ``NULL`` if no entry was found.
53
54Examples
55========
56
57Kernel BPF Example
58------------------
59
60This snippet shows how to create and initialise an array of devmaps in a BPF
61program. Note that the outer array can only be modified from user space using
62the syscall API.
63
64.. code-block:: c
65
66    struct inner_map {
67            __uint(type, BPF_MAP_TYPE_DEVMAP);
68            __uint(max_entries, 10);
69            __type(key, __u32);
70            __type(value, __u32);
71    } inner_map1 SEC(".maps"), inner_map2 SEC(".maps");
72
73    struct {
74            __uint(type, BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS);
75            __uint(max_entries, 2);
76            __type(key, __u32);
77            __array(values, struct inner_map);
78    } outer_map SEC(".maps") = {
79            .values = { &inner_map1,
80                        &inner_map2 }
81    };
82
83See ``progs/test_btf_map_in_map.c`` in ``tools/testing/selftests/bpf`` for more
84examples of declarative initialisation of outer maps.
85
86User Space
87----------
88
89This snippet shows how to create an array based outer map:
90
91.. code-block:: c
92
93    int create_outer_array(int inner_fd) {
94            LIBBPF_OPTS(bpf_map_create_opts, opts, .inner_map_fd = inner_fd);
95            int fd;
96
97            fd = bpf_map_create(BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY_OF_MAPS,
98                                "example_array",       /* name */
99                                sizeof(__u32),         /* key size */
100                                sizeof(__u32),         /* value size */
101                                256,                   /* max entries */
102                                &opts);                /* create opts */
103            return fd;
104    }
105
106
107This snippet shows how to add an inner map to an outer map:
108
109.. code-block:: c
110
111    int add_devmap(int outer_fd, int index, const char *name) {
112            int fd;
113
114            fd = bpf_map_create(BPF_MAP_TYPE_DEVMAP, name,
115                                sizeof(__u32), sizeof(__u32), 256, NULL);
116            if (fd < 0)
117                    return fd;
118
119            return bpf_map_update_elem(outer_fd, &index, &fd, BPF_ANY);
120    }
121
122References
123==========
124
125- https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20170322170035.923581-3-kafai@fb.com/
126- https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20170322170035.923581-4-kafai@fb.com/
127