Gadget helper API

The gadget helper API is a set of features exposed by Inspektor Gadget that is accessible from eBPF code.

Container enrichment

To make use of container enrichment, gadgets must include gadget/mntns.h :

#include <gadget/mntns.h>

Inspektor Gadget will automatically enrich events with container information when the events include the mount namespace in this way:

struct event {
        gadget_mntns_id mntns_id;
        /* other fields */
}

An eBPF program can look up the mount namespace with the following:

u64 mntns_id;
mntns_id = gadget_get_mntns_id();

eBPF programs of type socket filter cannot use gadget_get_mntns_id(), but instead use socket enrichment to find the mount namespace.

Container filtering

To make use of container filtering, gadgets must include gadget/mntns_filter.h :

#include <gadget/mntns_filter.h>

eBPF programs should stop processing an event when it does not originate from a container the user is interested in.

if (gadget_should_discard_mntns_id(mntns_id))
        return 0;

Socket enrichment

To make use of socket enrichment, gadgets must include gadget/sockets-map.h .

For eBPF programs of type socket filter:

#define GADGET_TYPE_NETWORKING
#include <gadget/sockets-map.h>

For eBPF programs of other kinds:

#define GADGET_TYPE_TRACING
#include <gadget/sockets-map.h>

This will define the following struct:

#define TASK_COMM_LEN 16
struct sockets_value {
        __u64 mntns;
        __u64 pid_tgid;
        __u64 uid_gid;
        char task[TASK_COMM_LEN];
        /* other private fields */
};

Then, an eBPF can find additional details about a socket with gadget_socket_lookup(). There are two different definitions of this function depending on the eBPF program type. The developer must define either GADGET_TYPE_NETWORKING or GADGET_TYPE_TRACING to define the right one. It can return NULL if the socket is not found.

For eBPF programs of type socket filter:

struct sockets_value *skb_val = gadget_socket_lookup(skb);
if (skb_val != NULL) {
        /* Access skb_val->mntns and other fields */
}

For eBPF programs of other kinds:

struct sockets_value *skb_val = gadget_socket_lookup(sk, netns);
if (skb_val != NULL) {
        /* Access skb_val->mntns and other fields */
}

Enriched types

When a gadget emits an event with one of the following fields, it will be automatically enriched.

struct event {
        struct gadget_l3endpoint_t  field1;
        struct gadget_l4endpoint_t  field2;
        gadget_mntns_id             field3;
        gadget_timestamp            field4;
}

• struct gadget_l3endpoint_t and struct gadget_l4endpoint_t: enrich with the Kubernetes endpoint. TODO: add details.
• typedef __u64 gadget_mntns_id: container enrichment (see #container-enrichment)
• typedef __u64 gadget_timestamp: add human-readable timestamp from bpf_ktime_get_boot_ns().

Buffer API

There are two kind of eBPF maps used to send events to userspace: (a) perf ring buffer or (b) eBPF ring buffer. The later is more efficient and flexible, however it’s only available from kernel 5.8. Check https://nakryiko.com/posts/bpf-ringbuf/ to get more details about the differences. <gadget/buffer.h> provides an abstraction to automatically use the right buffer according to the kernel features.

First, you need to declare the buffer with the following macro:

GADGET_TRACER_MAP(events, 1024 * 256);

Then, you can interact with the buffer using these functions:

1. void *gadget_reserve_buf(void *map, __u64 size): Reserves memory in the corresponding buffer.
2. long gadget_submit_buf(void *ctx, void *map, void *buf, __u64 size): Writes the previously reserved memory in the corresponding buffer.
3. void gadget_discard_buf(void *buf): Discards the previously reserved buffer. This is needed to avoid wasting memory.
4. long gadget_output_buf(void *ctx, void *map, void *buf, __u64 size): Reserves and writes the buffer in the corresponding map. This is equivalent to calling gadget_reserve_buf() and gadget_submit_buf().

The following snippet demonstrates how to use the code available in <gadget/buffer.h>, it is taken from trace_open:

#include <gadget/buffer.h>

/* ... */

GADGET_TRACER_MAP(events, 1024 * 256);

GADGET_TRACER(exit, events, event);

/* ... */

static __always_inline int trace_exit(struct syscall_trace_exit *ctx)
{
	struct event *event;

	/* ... */

	event = gadget_reserve_buf(&events, sizeof(*event));
	if (!event)
		goto cleanup;

	/* fill the event here */

	/* ... */
	gadget_submit_buf(ctx, &events, event, sizeof(*event));

	/* ... */
}

If you know you will not make use of gadget_reserve_buf()/gadget_submit_buf() and only rely on gadget_output_buf(), you can define the GADGET_NO_BUF_RESERVE macro before including <gadget/buffer.h>. This will not declare the map associated with gadget_reserve_buf() as well as the other functions. Here is an example, taken from trace_exec, of using gadget_output_buf():

#define GADGET_NO_BUF_RESERVE
#include <gadget/buffer.h>

/* ... */

GADGET_TRACER_MAP(events, 1024 * 256);

GADGET_TRACER(exec, events, event);

/* ... */

SEC("tracepoint/syscalls/sys_exit_execve")
int ig_execve_x(struct syscall_trace_exit *ctx)
{
	/* ... */
	struct event *event;

	/* ... */

	event = bpf_map_lookup_elem(&execs, &pid);
	if (!event)
		return 0;

	/* ... */

	if (len <= sizeof(*event))
		gadget_output_buf(ctx, &events, event, len);

	/* ... */
}