Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] How far to go with eBPF

On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 9:54 AM Jiri Kosina <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022, James Bottomley wrote:
>
> > > If you want a "stable ebpf program" then you submit it upstream and
> > > we can make sure that it works with any internal API changes, the
> > > same way we do for modules. Those with out-of-tree modules will have
> > > the technical debt of changing every time a new kernel release is
> > > out, and so should out-of-tree bpf programs.
> >
> > Assuming eBPF takes off, that would have some poor maintainer managing
> > the whole of the compatibility changes for the entire eBPF ecosystem
> > ... I really don't think that's scalable.
>
> I nevertheless still see this as the best and only option we have; that
> is, have an infrastructure in the kernel tree for maintaining eBPF
> programs, somehow sorted per subsystem so that it mirrors the standard
> maintainership / subsystem structure proper, and have the maintainers
> responsible for keeping the eBPF programs related to their subsystem in
> sync with the internal changes happening in the subsystem.

It's similar to what we have for Device Tree bindings already,
and those are in many cases handled by the relevant subsystem
maintainer, both review and merge.

> At the end of the day, it will be the subsystem maintainers themsleves
> accepting the program into the tree in the first place, so it's not like
> they are receiving responsibility for something they never wanted in the
> first place. So we'll probably end up with subsystems with many eBPF
> programs, and also subsystems with zero. Similarly to tracepoints.

The concern is that as subsystem maintainers had to learn YAML
to deal with device tree bindings, they now have to learn eBPF
syntax, and there is also Rust in the kernel around the corner to
learn.

Plenty of languages to learn. Oh well, they keep us on the move.

Yours,
Linus Walleij
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