Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753014AbaF1PgO (ORCPT ); Sat, 28 Jun 2014 11:36:14 -0400 Received: from mail-la0-f51.google.com ([209.85.215.51]:40219 "EHLO mail-la0-f51.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751482AbaF1PgN (ORCPT ); Sat, 28 Jun 2014 11:36:13 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20140628152104.GB29548@kroah.com> References: <1403913966-4927-1-git-send-email-ast@plumgrid.com> <1403913966-4927-8-git-send-email-ast@plumgrid.com> <20140628152104.GB29548@kroah.com> From: Andy Lutomirski Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:35:51 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC net-next 07/14] bpf: expand BPF syscall with program load/unload To: Greg KH Cc: Alexei Starovoitov , "David S. Miller" , Ingo Molnar , Linus Torvalds , Steven Rostedt , Daniel Borkmann , Chema Gonzalez , Eric Dumazet , Peter Zijlstra , Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo , Jiri Olsa , Thomas Gleixner , "H. Peter Anvin" , Andrew Morton , Kees Cook , Linux API , Network Development , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 8:21 AM, Greg KH wrote: > On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 12:26:14AM -0700, Alexei Starovoitov wrote: >> On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:28 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote: >> > On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:12 PM, Alexei Starovoitov wrote: >> > If you want to add GPL-only functions in the future, that would be one >> > thing. But if someone writes a nice eBPF compiler, and someone else >> > writes a little program that filters on network packets, I see no >> > reason to claim that the little program is a derivative work of the >> > kernel and therefore must be GPL. >> >> I think we have to draw a line somewhere. Say, tomorrow I want >> to modify libpcap to emit eBPF based on existing tcpdump syntax. >> Would it mean that tcpdump filter strings are GPLed? Definitely not, >> since they existed before and can function without new libpcap. >> But if I write a new packet filtering program in C, compile it >> using LLVM->eBPF and call into in-kernel helper functions >> (like bpf_map_lookup_elem()), I think it's exactly the derivative work. >> It's analogous to kernel modules. If module wants to call >> export_symbol_gpl() functions, it needs to be GPLed. Here all helper >> functions are GPL. So we just have a blank check for eBPF program. > > I agree, these eBFP programs should be GPL-compatible licensed as well. I think I'd be happy with an export_symbol_gpl analogue. I might argue that bpf_map_lookup_elem shouldn't be gpl-only, though. Something like "look up the uid that opened a port," on the other hand, maybe should be. --Andy -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/