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Date:   Thu, 13 Dec 2018 12:43:39 +0100
From:   Christian Brauner <christian@brauner.io>
To:     Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
Cc:     davem@davemloft.net, netdev@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org,
        coreteam@netfilter.org, bridge@lists.linux-foundation.org,
        tyhicks@canonical.com, kadlec@blackhole.kfki.hu, fw@strlen.de,
        roopa@cumulusnetworks.com, nikolay@cumulusnetworks.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next 1/2] br_netfilter: add struct netns_brnf
Message-ID: <20181213114338.j3thzzu7cvrpz72e@brauner.io>
References: <20181107134859.19896-1-christian@brauner.io>
 <20181107134859.19896-2-christian@brauner.io>
 <20181127002047.7jzpfy32oupsthtj@salvia>
 <20181127022043.mzpqxlknqxcl6fmg@brauner.io>
 <20181127082349.ummq2perajt6olhh@salvia>
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On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 09:23:49AM +0100, Pablo Neira Ayuso wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 03:20:45AM +0100, Christian Brauner wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 01:20:47AM +0100, Pablo Neira Ayuso wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 02:48:58PM +0100, Christian Brauner wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > > diff --git a/include/net/netns/netfilter.h b/include/net/netns/netfilter.h
> > > > index ca043342c0eb..eedbd1ac940e 100644
> > > > --- a/include/net/netns/netfilter.h
> > > > +++ b/include/net/netns/netfilter.h
> > > > @@ -35,4 +35,20 @@ struct netns_nf {
> > > >  	bool			defrag_ipv6;
> > > >  #endif
> > > >  };
> > > > +
> > > > +struct netns_brnf {
> > > > +#ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL
> > > > +	struct ctl_table_header *ctl_hdr;
> > > > +#endif
> > > > +
> > > > +	/* default value is 1 */
> > > > +	int call_iptables;
> > > > +	int call_ip6tables;
> > > > +	int call_arptables;
> > > > +
> > > > +	/* default value is 0 */
> > > > +	int filter_vlan_tagged;
> > > > +	int filter_pppoe_tagged;
> > > > +	int pass_vlan_indev;
> > > > +};
> > > 
> > > I have spun on this several times, wondering if there's a way to avoid
> > > scratching these many bytes per netns to expose these sysctl entries
> > > that are plain on/off toggles... You said this:
> > > 
> > > >Currently, the /proc/sys/net/bridge folder is only created in the
> > > >initial network namespace
> > > 
> > > I think we can add one single sysctl to expose these as flags from net
> > > namespaces. Idea is to keep the existing (legacy) sysctl entries for
> > > init_net only, and add a new single new one that exposes these as flags
> > > (should be also available for consistency in init_net I'd suggest).
> > > Flags could be map in this way, eg.
> > > 
> > >         0x1     call_iptables
> > >         0x2     call_ip6tables
> > >         0x4     call_arptables
> > >         0x8     filter_vlan_tagged
> > >         ...
> > > 
> > > Also documentation would be good to have for this.
> > > 
> > > Would this idea fly for you? Thanks.
> > 
> > My suggestion is to keep these files per network namespace but have a
> > single flag argument in struct netns_brnf:
> > +struct netns_brnf {
> > +#ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL
> > +        struct ctl_table_header *ctl_hdr;
> > +#endif
> > +
> > +       /* default value is 1 */
> > +       unsigned int filter_flags;
> > +};
> > 
> > #define BRNF_CALL_IPTABLES    0x1
> > #define BRNF_CALL_IP6TABLES   0x2
> > #define BRNF_CALL_ARPTABLES   0x4
> > #define BRNF_CALL_VLAN_TAGGED 0x8
> > 
> > a write to the corresponding file would then cause the flag to be set or
> > unset in filter_flags.
> > This way we are a) space-efficient internally not bloating struct net
> > while b) not breaking running tools in non-initial network namespaces
> > that expect the files to be there. b) is really the important bit here. :)
> 
> OK, please, go explore this space-efficient approach. Thanks.

Sorry for the wait. Other patches came up. :)
So, I looked into this approach and it is annoying to do:
- the sysctl proc parsing infrastructure is not equipped to deal with
  flags at all and expanding it to it would be a lot of code
- we would need either an atomic type or locking for filter_flags in the
  netns_brnf struct if multiple proc sysctl handlers try to raise or
  lower bits in filter_flags via different files at the same time

So I feel that this is not a feasible solution. We could make netns_brnf
a pointer in struct net and allocate it on new network namespace
creation if we care about space but then we take the performance hit of
k*alloc().
What I stressed before: for userspace it's important that we don't
change the semantics how br netfilter is configured in a non-initial
network namespace to not break existing tools in such environments.

Christian