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NAME

       bpf — Berkeley Packet Filter

SYNOPSIS

       device bpf

DESCRIPTION

       The  Berkeley  Packet  Filter  provides  a  raw  interface  to data link layers in a protocol independent
       fashion.  All packets on the network, even those destined for other hosts, are  accessible  through  this
       mechanism.

       The  packet  filter  appears as a character special device, /dev/bpf.  After opening the device, the file
       descriptor must be bound to a specific network interface with the BIOCSETIF ioctl.  A given interface can
       be shared by multiple listeners, and the filter underlying each descriptor will see an  identical  packet
       stream.

       A  separate  device  file is required for each minor device.  If a file is in use, the open will fail and
       errno will be set to EBUSY.

       Associated with each open instance of a bpf file is a user-settable packet filter.  Whenever a packet  is
       received  by  an  interface,  all  file descriptors listening on that interface apply their filter.  Each
       descriptor that accepts the packet receives its own copy.

       The packet filter will support any link level protocol that has fixed length  headers.   Currently,  only
       Ethernet, SLIP, and PPP drivers have been modified to interact with bpf.

       Since  packet  data  is in network byte order, applications should use the byteorder(3) macros to extract
       multi-byte values.

       A packet can be sent out on the network by writing to a bpf file descriptor.  The writes are  unbuffered,
       meaning  only  one packet can be processed per write.  Currently, only writes to Ethernets and SLIP links
       are supported.

BUFFER MODES

       bpf devices deliver packet data to the application via memory buffers provided by the  application.   The
       buffer mode is set using the BIOCSETBUFMODE ioctl, and read using the BIOCGETBUFMODE ioctl.

   Buffered read mode
       By default, bpf devices operate in the BPF_BUFMODE_BUFFER mode, in which packet data is copied explicitly
       from  kernel  to user memory using the read(2) system call.  The user process will declare a fixed buffer
       size that will be used both for sizing internal buffers and for all read(2) operations on the file.  This
       size is queried using the BIOCGBLEN ioctl, and is set using the BIOCSBLEN ioctl.  Note that an individual
       packet larger than the buffer size is necessarily truncated.

   Zero-copy buffer mode
       bpf devices may also operate in the BPF_BUFMODE_ZEROCOPY mode, in which packet data is  written  directly
       into  two user memory buffers by the kernel, avoiding both system call and copying overhead.  Buffers are
       of fixed (and equal) size, page-aligned, and an even multiple of the page size.   The  maximum  zero-copy
       buffer  size is returned by the BIOCGETZMAX ioctl.  Note that an individual packet larger than the buffer
       size is necessarily truncated.

       The user process registers two memory buffers  using  the  BIOCSETZBUF  ioctl,  which  accepts  a  struct
       bpf_zbuf pointer as an argument:

       struct bpf_zbuf {
               void *bz_bufa;
               void *bz_bufb;
               size_t bz_buflen;
       };

       bz_bufa  is  a pointer to the userspace address of the first buffer that will be filled, and bz_bufb is a
       pointer to the second buffer.  bpf will then  cycle  between  the  two  buffers  as  they  fill  and  are
       acknowledged.

       Each buffer begins with a fixed-length header to hold synchronization and data length information for the
       buffer:

       struct bpf_zbuf_header {
               volatile u_int  bzh_kernel_gen; /* Kernel generation number. */
               volatile u_int  bzh_kernel_len; /* Length of data in the buffer. */
               volatile u_int  bzh_user_gen;   /* User generation number. */
               /* ...padding for future use... */
       };

       The  header  structure  of  each  buffer, including all padding, should be zeroed before it is configured
       using BIOCSETZBUF.  Remaining space in the buffer will be used by the kernel to store packet  data,  laid
       out in the same format as with buffered read mode.

       The  kernel  and  the  user  process  follow  a  simple acknowledgement protocol via the buffer header to
       synchronize access to the buffer: when the header generation numbers,  bzh_kernel_gen  and  bzh_user_gen,
       hold the same value, the kernel owns the buffer, and when they differ, userspace owns the buffer.

       While the kernel owns the buffer, the contents are unstable and may change asynchronously; while the user
       process  owns  the  buffer,  its  contents  are  stable and will not be changed until the buffer has been
       acknowledged.

       Initializing the buffer headers to all 0's before registering the buffer  has  the  effect  of  assigning
       initial  ownership  of both buffers to the kernel.  The kernel signals that a buffer has been assigned to
       userspace by modifying bzh_kernel_gen, and userspace acknowledges the buffer and returns it to the kernel
       by setting the value of bzh_user_gen to the value of bzh_kernel_gen.

       In order to avoid caching and memory re-ordering effects, the user process must use atomic operations and
       memory barriers when checking for and acknowledging buffers:

       #include <machine/atomic.h>

       /*
        * Return ownership of a buffer to the kernel for reuse.
        */
       static void
       buffer_acknowledge(struct bpf_zbuf_header *bzh)
       {

               atomic_store_rel_int(&bzh->bzh_user_gen, bzh->bzh_kernel_gen);
       }

       /*
        * Check whether a buffer has been assigned to userspace by the kernel.
        * Return true if userspace owns the buffer, and false otherwise.
        */
       static int
       buffer_check(struct bpf_zbuf_header *bzh)
       {

               return (bzh->bzh_user_gen !=
                   atomic_load_acq_int(&bzh->bzh_kernel_gen));
       }

       The user process may force the assignment of the next buffer, if any data is pending, to userspace  using
       the BIOCROTZBUF ioctl.  This allows the user process to retrieve data in a partially filled buffer before
       the  buffer is full, such as following a timeout; the process must recheck for buffer ownership using the
       header generation numbers, as the buffer will not be assigned to userspace if no data was present.

       As in the buffered read mode, kqueue(2), poll(2), and  select(2)  may  be  used  to  sleep  awaiting  the
       availability  of  a  completed buffer.  They will return a readable file descriptor when ownership of the
       next buffer is assigned to user space.

       In the current implementation, the kernel may assign zero, one, or both  buffers  to  the  user  process;
       however,  an earlier implementation maintained the invariant that at most one buffer could be assigned to
       the user process at a time.  In order to both ensure progress and high performance, user processes should
       acknowledge a completely processed buffer as quickly as possible, returning it for reuse, and  not  block
       waiting on a second buffer while holding another buffer.

IOCTLS

       The ioctl(2) command codes below are defined in <net/bpf.h>.  All commands require these includes:

               #include <sys/types.h>
               #include <sys/time.h>
               #include <sys/ioctl.h>
               #include <net/bpf.h>

       Additionally, BIOCGETIF and BIOCSETIF require <sys/socket.h> and <net/if.h>.

       In addition to FIONREAD the following commands may be applied to any open bpf file.  The (third) argument
       to ioctl(2) should be a pointer to the type indicated.

       BIOCGBLEN       (u_int) Returns the required buffer length for reads on bpf files.

       BIOCSBLEN       (u_int) Sets the buffer length for reads on bpf files.  The buffer must be set before the
                       file  is attached to an interface with BIOCSETIF.  If the requested buffer size cannot be
                       accommodated, the closest allowable size will be set and returned  in  the  argument.   A
                       read call will result in EIO if it is passed a buffer that is not this size.

       BIOCGDLT        (u_int)  Returns  the  type  of  the  data  link layer underlying the attached interface.
                       EINVAL is returned if no interface has been specified.  The device types,  prefixed  with
                       “DLT_”, are defined in <net/bpf.h>.

       BIOCPROMISC     Forces the interface into promiscuous mode.  All packets, not just those destined for the
                       local  host,  are  processed.   Since  more  than  one  file  can be listening on a given
                       interface, a listener that opened its interface  non-promiscuously  may  receive  packets
                       promiscuously.  This problem can be remedied with an appropriate filter.

       BIOCFLUSH       Flushes  the  buffer  of incoming packets, and resets the statistics that are returned by
                       BIOCGSTATS.

       BIOCGETIF       (struct ifreq) Returns the name of the hardware interface that the file is listening  on.
                       The  name is returned in the ifr_name field of the ifreq structure.  All other fields are
                       undefined.

       BIOCSETIF       (struct ifreq) Sets the hardware interface associate with the file.  This command must be
                       performed before any packets can be read.  The device is  indicated  by  name  using  the
                       ifr_name field of the ifreq structure.  Additionally, performs the actions of BIOCFLUSH.

       BIOCSRTIMEOUT

       BIOCGRTIMEOUT   (struct  timeval)  Set  or  get  the  read timeout parameter.  The argument specifies the
                       length of time to  wait  before  timing  out  on  a  read  request.   This  parameter  is
                       initialized to zero by open(2), indicating no timeout.

       BIOCGSTATS      (struct bpf_stat) Returns the following structure of packet statistics:

                       struct bpf_stat {
                               u_int bs_recv;    /* number of packets received */
                               u_int bs_drop;    /* number of packets dropped */
                       };

                       The fields are:

                             bs_recv  the  number  of  packets  received by the descriptor since opened or reset
                                     (including any buffered since the last read call); and

                             bs_drop the number of packets which were accepted by the filter but dropped by  the
                                     kernel  because  of buffer overflows (i.e., the application's reads are not
                                     keeping up with the packet traffic).

       BIOCIMMEDIATE   (u_int) Enable or disable “immediate mode”, based on the truth  value  of  the  argument.
                       When  immediate  mode  is  enabled,  reads  return  immediately  upon  packet  reception.
                       Otherwise, a read will block until either the kernel buffer becomes  full  or  a  timeout
                       occurs.  This is useful for programs like rarpd(8) which must respond to messages in real
                       time.  The default for a new file is off.

       BIOCSETF

       BIOCSETFNR      (struct  bpf_program)  Sets  the  read  filter  program  used  by  the  kernel to discard
                       uninteresting packets.  An array of instructions and its length is passed  in  using  the
                       following structure:

                       struct bpf_program {
                               int bf_len;
                               struct bpf_insn *bf_insns;
                       };

                       The  filter  program  is  pointed  to  by the bf_insns field while its length in units of
                       ‘struct bpf_insn’ is given by the bf_len field.  See  section  “FILTER  MACHINE”  for  an
                       explanation  of the filter language.  The only difference between BIOCSETF and BIOCSETFNR
                       is BIOCSETF performs the actions of BIOCFLUSH while BIOCSETFNR does not.

       BIOCSETWF       (struct bpf_program) Sets the write filter program used by the  kernel  to  control  what
                       type  of  packets  can  be  written  to the interface.  See the BIOCSETF command for more
                       information on the bpf filter program.

       BIOCVERSION     (struct bpf_version) Returns the major and minor version numbers of the  filter  language
                       currently  recognized by the kernel.  Before installing a filter, applications must check
                       that the current version is compatible with the  running  kernel.   Version  numbers  are
                       compatible  if the major numbers match and the application minor is less than or equal to
                       the kernel minor.  The kernel version number is returned in the following structure:

                       struct bpf_version {
                               u_short bv_major;
                               u_short bv_minor;
                       };

                       The current version numbers are given by  BPF_MAJOR_VERSION  and  BPF_MINOR_VERSION  from
                       <net/bpf.h>.   An  incompatible  filter may result in undefined behavior (most likely, an
                       error returned by ioctl() or haphazard packet matching).

       BIOCSHDRCMPLT

       BIOCGHDRCMPLT   (u_int) Set or get the status of the “header complete” flag.  Set to  zero  if  the  link
                       level  source  address should be filled in automatically by the interface output routine.
                       Set to one if the link level source address will be written, as provided,  to  the  wire.
                       This flag is initialized to zero by default.

       BIOCSSEESENT

       BIOCGSEESENT    (u_int)  These  commands are obsolete but left for compatibility.  Use BIOCSDIRECTION and
                       BIOCGDIRECTION instead.  Set or  get  the  flag  determining  whether  locally  generated
                       packets  on  the  interface  should be returned by BPF.  Set to zero to see only incoming
                       packets on the interface.  Set to one to see packets originating locally and remotely  on
                       the interface.  This flag is initialized to one by default.

       BIOCSDIRECTION

       BIOCGDIRECTION  (u_int)  Set or get the setting determining whether incoming, outgoing, or all packets on
                       the interface should be returned by BPF.  Set to BPF_D_IN to see only incoming packets on
                       the interface.  Set to BPF_D_INOUT to see packets originating locally and remotely on the
                       interface.  Set to BPF_D_OUT to see only outgoing packets on the interface.  This setting
                       is initialized to BPF_D_INOUT by default.

       BIOCSTSTAMP

       BIOCGTSTAMP     (u_int) Set or get format and resolution of the time stamps  returned  by  BPF.   Set  to
                       BPF_T_MICROTIME,        BPF_T_MICROTIME_FAST,        BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC,        or
                       BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST to get time stamps in 64-bit struct timeval  format.   Set
                       to       BPF_T_NANOTIME,      BPF_T_NANOTIME_FAST,      BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC,      or
                       BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST to get time stamps in 64-bit struct timespec  format.   Set
                       to       BPF_T_BINTIME,       BPF_T_BINTIME_FAST,       BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC,      or
                       BPF_T_BINTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST to get time stamps in 64-bit struct bintime format.  Set  to
                       BPF_T_NONE  to  ignore  time  stamp.  All 64-bit time stamp formats are wrapped in struct
                       bpf_ts.     The    BPF_T_MICROTIME_FAST,     BPF_T_NANOTIME_FAST,     BPF_T_BINTIME_FAST,
                       BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST,             BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST,            and
                       BPF_T_BINTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST are analogs of corresponding formats  without  _FAST  suffix
                       but  do  not perform a full time counter query, so their accuracy is one timer tick.  The
                       BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC,       BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC,       BPF_T_BINTIME_MONOTONIC,
                       BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST,             BPF_T_NANOTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST,            and
                       BPF_T_BINTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST store the time elapsed since kernel boot.  This  setting  is
                       initialized to BPF_T_MICROTIME by default.

       BIOCFEEDBACK    (u_int)  Set  packet feedback mode.  This allows injected packets to be fed back as input
                       to the interface when output via the interface is successful.  When BPF_D_INOUT direction
                       is set, injected outgoing packet is not returned by BPF to avoid duplication.  This  flag
                       is initialized to zero by default.

       BIOCLOCK        Set the locked flag on the bpf descriptor.  This prevents the execution of ioctl commands
                       which could change the underlying operating parameters of the device.

       BIOCGETBUFMODE

       BIOCSETBUFMODE  (u_int)   Get   or   set   the   current   bpf   buffering   mode;  possible  values  are
                       BPF_BUFMODE_BUFFER, buffered read mode, and BPF_BUFMODE_ZBUF, zero-copy buffer mode.

       BIOCSETZBUF     (struct bpf_zbuf) Set the current zero-copy buffer locations; buffer locations may be set
                       only once zero-copy buffer  mode  has  been  selected,  and  prior  to  attaching  to  an
                       interface.   Buffers  must be of identical size, page-aligned, and an integer multiple of
                       pages in size.  The three fields bz_bufa, bz_bufb, and bz_buflen must be filled out.   If
                       buffers have already been set for this device, the ioctl will fail.

       BIOCGETZMAX     (size_t)  Get  the  largest individual zero-copy buffer size allowed.  As two buffers are
                       used in zero-copy buffer mode, the limit (in practice) is twice the  returned  size.   As
                       zero-copy  buffers consume kernel address space, conservative selection of buffer size is
                       suggested, especially when there are multiple bpf descriptors in use on 32-bit systems.

       BIOCROTZBUF     Force ownership of the next buffer to be assigned to userspace, if any  data  present  in
                       the  buffer.   If  no  data is present, the buffer will remain owned by the kernel.  This
                       allows consumers of zero-copy buffering to  implement  timeouts  and  retrieve  partially
                       filled  buffers.   In order to handle the case where no data is present in the buffer and
                       therefore ownership is not assigned, the user process must check  bzh_kernel_gen  against
                       bzh_user_gen.

BPF HEADER

       One  of  the  following  structures  is  prepended  to each packet returned by read(2) or via a zero-copy
       buffer:

       struct bpf_xhdr {
               struct bpf_ts   bh_tstamp;     /* time stamp */
               uint32_t        bh_caplen;     /* length of captured portion */
               uint32_t        bh_datalen;    /* original length of packet */
               u_short         bh_hdrlen;     /* length of bpf header (this struct
                                                 plus alignment padding) */
       };

       struct bpf_hdr {
               struct timeval  bh_tstamp;     /* time stamp */
               uint32_t        bh_caplen;     /* length of captured portion */
               uint32_t        bh_datalen;    /* original length of packet */
               u_short         bh_hdrlen;     /* length of bpf header (this struct
                                                 plus alignment padding) */
       };

       The fields, whose values are stored in host order, and are:

       bh_tstamp   The time at which the packet was processed by the packet filter.
       bh_caplen   The length of the captured portion of the packet.  This is  the  minimum  of  the  truncation
                   amount specified by the filter and the length of the packet.
       bh_datalen  The  length  of  the packet off the wire.  This value is independent of the truncation amount
                   specified by the filter.
       bh_hdrlen   The length of the  bpf  header,  which  may  not  be  equal  to  sizeof(struct  bpf_xhdr)  or
                   sizeof(struct bpf_hdr).

       The  bh_hdrlen  field  exists to account for padding between the header and the link level protocol.  The
       purpose here is to guarantee proper alignment of  the  packet  data  structures,  which  is  required  on
       alignment  sensitive  architectures  and  improves  performance  on many other architectures.  The packet
       filter ensures that the bpf_xhdr, bpf_hdr and the network layer header will be word aligned.   Currently,
       bpf_hdr   is   used   when   the   time   stamp   is   set   to   BPF_T_MICROTIME,  BPF_T_MICROTIME_FAST,
       BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC,  BPF_T_MICROTIME_MONOTONIC_FAST,  or  BPF_T_NONE  for  backward  compatibility
       reasons.   Otherwise, bpf_xhdr is used.  However, bpf_hdr may be deprecated in the near future.  Suitable
       precautions must be taken when accessing the link layer protocol fields on alignment restricted machines.
       (This is not a problem on an Ethernet, since the type field is a short falling on an even offset, and the
       addresses are probably accessed in a bytewise fashion).

       Additionally, individual packets are padded so that each starts on a word boundary.  This  requires  that
       an  application  has  some  knowledge  of  how  to get from packet to packet.  The macro BPF_WORDALIGN is
       defined in <net/bpf.h> to facilitate this process.  It rounds up its argument to the nearest word aligned
       value (where a word is BPF_ALIGNMENT bytes wide).

       For example, if ‘p’ points to the start of a packet, this expression will advance it to the next packet:
             p = (char *)p + BPF_WORDALIGN(p->bh_hdrlen + p->bh_caplen)

       For the alignment mechanisms to work properly, the buffer passed to read(2) must itself be word  aligned.
       The malloc(3) function will always return an aligned buffer.

FILTER MACHINE

       A  filter  program  is  an  array  of instructions, with all branches forwardly directed, terminated by a
       return instruction.  Each instruction performs some action on the pseudo-machine state, which consists of
       an accumulator, index register, scratch memory store, and implicit program counter.

       The following structure defines the instruction format:

       struct bpf_insn {
               u_short code;
               u_char  jt;
               u_char  jf;
               u_long k;
       };

       The k field is used in different ways by different instructions, and the jt and jf  fields  are  used  as
       offsets  by  the branch instructions.  The opcodes are encoded in a semi-hierarchical fashion.  There are
       eight classes of instructions: BPF_LD, BPF_LDX, BPF_ST, BPF_STX, BPF_ALU, BPF_JMP, BPF_RET, and BPF_MISC.
       Various other mode and operator bits are or'd into the  class  to  give  the  actual  instructions.   The
       classes and modes are defined in <net/bpf.h>.

       Below  are  the  semantics  for  each  defined  bpf  instruction.   We  use  the convention that A is the
       accumulator, X is the index register, P[] packet data, and M[] scratch memory store.   P[i:n]  gives  the
       data  at byte offset “i” in the packet, interpreted as a word (n=4), unsigned halfword (n=2), or unsigned
       byte (n=1).  M[i] gives the i'th word in the scratch memory store, which is only addressed in word units.
       The memory store is indexed from 0 to BPF_MEMWORDS - 1.  k, jt, and jf are the  corresponding  fields  in
       the instruction definition.  “len” refers to the length of the packet.

       BPF_LD    These  instructions  copy  a  value  into  the  accumulator.  The type of the source operand is
                 specified by an “addressing mode” and can be a constant  (BPF_IMM),  packet  data  at  a  fixed
                 offset (BPF_ABS), packet data at a variable offset (BPF_IND), the packet length (BPF_LEN), or a
                 word  in  the  scratch  memory store (BPF_MEM).  For BPF_IND and BPF_ABS, the data size must be
                 specified as a word (BPF_W), halfword (BPF_H), or byte  (BPF_B).   The  semantics  of  all  the
                 recognized BPF_LD instructions follow.

                 BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_ABS    A <- P[k:4]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS    A <- P[k:2]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_B+BPF_ABS    A <- P[k:1]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_IND    A <- P[X+k:4]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_IND    A <- P[X+k:2]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_B+BPF_IND    A <- P[X+k:1]
                 BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_LEN    A <- len
                 BPF_LD+BPF_IMM          A <- k
                 BPF_LD+BPF_MEM          A <- M[k]

       BPF_LDX   These  instructions  load  a value into the index register.  Note that the addressing modes are
                 more restrictive than those of the accumulator loads, but they  include  BPF_MSH,  a  hack  for
                 efficiently loading the IP header length.

                 BPF_LDX+BPF_W+BPF_IMM   X <- k
                 BPF_LDX+BPF_W+BPF_MEM   X <- M[k]
                 BPF_LDX+BPF_W+BPF_LEN   X <- len
                 BPF_LDX+BPF_B+BPF_MSH   X <- 4*(P[k:1]&0xf)

       BPF_ST    This  instruction stores the accumulator into the scratch memory.  We do not need an addressing
                 mode since there is only one possibility for the destination.

                 BPF_ST                  M[k] <- A

       BPF_STX   This instruction stores the index register in the scratch memory store.

                 BPF_STX                 M[k] <- X

       BPF_ALU   The alu instructions perform operations between the accumulator and index register or constant,
                 and store the result back in the accumulator.  For binary operations, a source mode is required
                 (BPF_K or BPF_X).

                 BPF_ALU+BPF_ADD+BPF_K   A <- A + k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_SUB+BPF_K   A <- A - k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_MUL+BPF_K   A <- A * k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_DIV+BPF_K   A <- A / k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_MOD+BPF_K   A <- A % k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_AND+BPF_K   A <- A & k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_OR+BPF_K    A <- A | k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_XOR+BPF_K   A <- A ^ k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_LSH+BPF_K   A <- A << k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_RSH+BPF_K   A <- A >> k
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_ADD+BPF_X   A <- A + X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_SUB+BPF_X   A <- A - X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_MUL+BPF_X   A <- A * X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_DIV+BPF_X   A <- A / X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_MOD+BPF_X   A <- A % X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_AND+BPF_X   A <- A & X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_OR+BPF_X    A <- A | X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_XOR+BPF_X   A <- A ^ X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_LSH+BPF_X   A <- A << X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_RSH+BPF_X   A <- A >> X
                 BPF_ALU+BPF_NEG         A <- -A

       BPF_JMP   The jump instructions alter flow of control.  Conditional jumps compare the accumulator against
                 a constant (BPF_K) or the index register (BPF_X).  If the result is  true  (or  non-zero),  the
                 true  branch is taken, otherwise the false branch is taken.  Jump offsets are encoded in 8 bits
                 so the longest jump is 256 instructions.  However, the jump always (BPF_JA) opcode uses the  32
                 bit  k  field  as  the offset, allowing arbitrarily distant destinations.  All conditionals use
                 unsigned comparison conventions.

                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JA          pc += k
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JGT+BPF_K   pc += (A > k) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JGE+BPF_K   pc += (A >= k) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K   pc += (A == k) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JSET+BPF_K  pc += (A & k) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JGT+BPF_X   pc += (A > X) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JGE+BPF_X   pc += (A >= X) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_X   pc += (A == X) ? jt : jf
                 BPF_JMP+BPF_JSET+BPF_X  pc += (A & X) ? jt : jf

       BPF_RET   The return instructions terminate the filter program and specify the amount of packet to accept
                 (i.e., they return the truncation amount).  A return value of zero indicates  that  the  packet
                 should be ignored.  The return value is either a constant (BPF_K) or the accumulator (BPF_A).

                 BPF_RET+BPF_A           accept A bytes
                 BPF_RET+BPF_K           accept k bytes

       BPF_MISC  The  miscellaneous  category was created for anything that does not fit into the above classes,
                 and for any new instructions that might need to be added.  Currently, these  are  the  register
                 transfer instructions that copy the index register to the accumulator or vice versa.

                 BPF_MISC+BPF_TAX        X <- A
                 BPF_MISC+BPF_TXA        A <- X

       The  bpf  interface  provides  the  following  macros  to facilitate array initializers: BPF_STMT(opcode,
       operand) and BPF_JUMP(opcode, operand, true_offset, false_offset).

SYSCTL VARIABLES

       A set of sysctl(8) variables controls the behaviour of the bpf subsystem

       net.bpf.optimize_writers: 0
               Various programs use BPF to send (but not receive) raw packets (cdpd, lldpd, dhcpd, dhcp  relays,
               etc.  are good examples of such programs).  They do not need incoming packets to be send to them.
               Turning this option on makes new BPF users to be attached  to  write-only  interface  list  until
               program  explicitly  specifies  read  filter via pcap_set_filter().  This removes any performance
               degradation for high-speed interfaces.

       net.bpf.stats:
               Binary interface for retrieving general statistics.

       net.bpf.zerocopy_enable: 0
               Permits zero-copy to be used with net BPF readers.  Use with caution.

       net.bpf.maxinsns: 512
               Maximum number of instructions that BPF  program  can  contain.   Use  tcpdump(1)  -d  option  to
               determine approximate number of instruction for any filter.

       net.bpf.maxbufsize: 524288
               Maximum buffer size to allocate for packets buffer.

       net.bpf.bufsize: 4096
               Default buffer size to allocate for packets buffer.

EXAMPLES

       The following filter is taken from the Reverse ARP Daemon.  It accepts only Reverse ARP requests.

       struct bpf_insn insns[] = {
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS, 12),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, ETHERTYPE_REVARP, 0, 3),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS, 20),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, REVARP_REQUEST, 0, 1),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, sizeof(struct ether_arp) +
                        sizeof(struct ether_header)),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, 0),
       };

       This filter accepts only IP packets between host 128.3.112.15 and 128.3.112.35.

       struct bpf_insn insns[] = {
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS, 12),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, ETHERTYPE_IP, 0, 8),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_ABS, 26),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 0x8003700f, 0, 2),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_ABS, 30),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 0x80037023, 3, 4),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 0x80037023, 0, 3),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_W+BPF_ABS, 30),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 0x8003700f, 0, 1),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, (u_int)-1),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, 0),
       };

       Finally,  this  filter  returns  only  TCP  finger packets.  We must parse the IP header to reach the TCP
       header.  The BPF_JSET instruction checks that the IP fragment offset is 0 so we are sure that we  have  a
       TCP header.

       struct bpf_insn insns[] = {
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS, 12),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, ETHERTYPE_IP, 0, 10),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_B+BPF_ABS, 23),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, IPPROTO_TCP, 0, 8),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_ABS, 20),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JSET+BPF_K, 0x1fff, 6, 0),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LDX+BPF_B+BPF_MSH, 14),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_IND, 14),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 79, 2, 0),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_LD+BPF_H+BPF_IND, 16),
               BPF_JUMP(BPF_JMP+BPF_JEQ+BPF_K, 79, 0, 1),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, (u_int)-1),
               BPF_STMT(BPF_RET+BPF_K, 0),
       };

SEE ALSO

       tcpdump(1), ioctl(2), kqueue(2), poll(2), select(2), byteorder(3), ng_bpf(4), bpf(9)

       McCanne, S.  and Jacobson V., An efficient, extensible, and portable network monitor.

HISTORY

       The Enet packet filter was created in 1980 by Mike Accetta and Rick Rashid at Carnegie-Mellon University.
       Jeffrey  Mogul,  at  Stanford,  ported the code to BSD and continued its development from 1983 on.  Since
       then, it has evolved into the Ultrix Packet Filter at DEC, a STREAMS NIT module under SunOS 4.1, and BPF.

AUTHORS

       Steven McCanne, of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, implemented BPF in Summer 1990.  Much of the  design  is
       due to Van Jacobson.

       Support for zero-copy buffers was added by Robert N. M. Watson under contract to Seccuris Inc.

BUGS

       The read buffer must be of a fixed size (returned by the BIOCGBLEN ioctl).

       A file that does not request promiscuous mode may receive promiscuously received packets as a side effect
       of  another  file requesting this mode on the same hardware interface.  This could be fixed in the kernel
       with additional processing overhead.  However, we favor the model where all files must  assume  that  the
       interface is promiscuous, and if so desired, must utilize a filter to reject foreign packets.

       Data link protocols with variable length headers are not currently supported.

       The  SEESENT,  DIRECTION,  and FEEDBACK settings have been observed to work incorrectly on some interface
       types, including  those  with  hardware  loopback  rather  than  software  loopback,  and  point-to-point
       interfaces.  They appear to function correctly on a broad range of Ethernet-style interfaces.

Debian                                          October 21, 2016                                          BPF(4)