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[Xen-devel] [DRAFT v3] XenSock protocol design document



Hi all,

This is the design document of the XenSock protocol. You can find
prototypes of the Linux frontend and backend drivers here:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sstabellini/xen.git xensock-3

To use them, make sure to enable CONFIG_XENSOCK in your kernel config
and add "xensock=1" to the command line of your DomU Linux kernel. You
also need the toolstack to create the initial xenstore nodes for the
protocol. To do that, please apply the attached patch to libxl (the
patch is based on Xen 4.7.0-rc3) and add "xensock=1" to your DomU config
file.

Cheers,

Stefano


Changes in v3:
- add a dummy element to struct xen_xensock_request to make sure the
  size of the struct is the same on both x86_32 and x86_64

Changes in v2:
- add max-dataring-page-order
- add "Publish backend features and transport parameters" to backend
  xenbus workflow
- update new cmd values
- update xen_xensock_request
- add backlog parameter to listen and binary layout
- add description of new data ring format (interface+data)
- modify connect and accept to reflect new data ring format
- add link to POSIX docs
- add error numbers
- add address format section and relevant numeric definitions
- add explicit mention of unimplemented commands
- add protocol node name
- add xenbus shutdown diagram
- add socket operation

---


# XenSocks Protocol v1

## Rationale

XenSocks is a paravirtualized protocol for the POSIX socket API.

The purpose of XenSocks is to allow the implementation of a specific set
of POSIX functions to be done in a domain other than your own. It allows
connect, accept, bind, release, listen, poll, recvmsg and sendmsg to be
implemented in another domain.

XenSocks provides the following benefits:
* guest networking works out of the box with VPNs, wireless networks and
  any other complex configurations on the host
* guest services listen on ports bound directly to the backend domain IP
  addresses
* localhost becomes a secure namespace for inter-VMs communications
* full visibility of the guest behavior on the backend domain, allowing
  for inexpensive filtering and manipulation of any guest calls
* excellent performance


## Design

### Xenstore

The frontend and the backend connect to each other exchanging information via
xenstore. The toolstack creates front and back nodes with state
XenbusStateInitialising. The protocol node name is **xensock**. There can only
be one XenSock frontend per domain.

#### Frontend XenBus Nodes

port
     Values:         <uint32_t>

     The identifier of the Xen event channel used to signal activity
     in the ring buffer.

ring-ref
     Values:         <uint32_t>

     The Xen grant reference granting permission for the backend to map
     the sole page in a single page sized ring buffer.

#### Backend XenBus Nodes

max-dataring-page-order
    Values:         <uint32_t>

    The maximum supported size of the data ring in units of lb(machine
    pages). (e.g. 0 == 1 page,  1 = 2 pages, 2 == 4 pages, etc.).

#### State Machine

Initialization:

    *Front*                               *Back*
    XenbusStateInitialising               XenbusStateInitialising
    - Query virtual device                - Query backend device
      properties.                           identification data.
    - Setup OS device instance.           - Publish backend features
    - Allocate and initialize the           and transport parameters
      request ring.                                      |
    - Publish transport parameters                       |
      that will be in effect during                      V
      this connection.                            XenbusStateInitWait
                 |
                 |
                 V
       XenbusStateInitialised

                                          - Query frontend transport parameters.
                                          - Connect to the request ring and
                                            event channel.
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                                         V
                                                 XenbusStateConnected

     - Query backend device properties.
     - Finalize OS virtual device
       instance.
                 |
                 |
                 V
        XenbusStateConnected

Once frontend and backend are connected, they have a shared page, which
will is used to exchange messages over a ring, and an event channel,
which is used to send notifications.

Shutdown:

    *Front*                            *Back*
    XenbusStateConnected               XenbusStateConnected
                |
                |
                V
       XenbusStateClosing

                                       - Unmap grants
                                       - Unbind evtchns
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 V
                                         XenbusStateClosing

    - Unbind evtchns
    - Free rings
    - Free data structures
               |
               |
               V
       XenbusStateClosed

                                       - Free remaining data structures
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 V
                                         XenbusStateClosed


### Commands Ring

The shared ring is used by the frontend to forward socket API calls to the
backend. I'll refer to this ring as **commands ring** to distinguish it from
other rings which will be created later in the lifecycle of the protocol (data
rings). The ring format is defined using the familiar `DEFINE_RING_TYPES` macro
(`xen/include/public/io/ring.h`). Frontend requests are allocated on the ring
using the `RING_GET_REQUEST` macro.

The format is defined as follows:
    
    #define XENSOCK_SOCKET         0
    #define XENSOCK_CONNECT        1
    #define XENSOCK_RELEASE        2
    #define XENSOCK_BIND           3
    #define XENSOCK_LISTEN         4
    #define XENSOCK_ACCEPT         5
    #define XENSOCK_POLL           6
    
    struct xen_xensock_request {
        uint32_t id; /* private to guest, echoed in response */
        uint32_t cmd; /* command to execute */
        uint64_t sockid;
        union {
                struct xen_xensock_socket {
                        uint32_t domain;
                        uint32_t type;
                        uint32_t protocol;
                } socket;
                struct xen_xensock_connect {
                        uint8_t addr[28];
                        uint32_t len;
                        uint32_t flags;
                        grant_ref_t ref;
                        uint32_t evtchn;
                } connect;
                struct xen_xensock_bind {
                        uint8_t addr[28];
                        uint32_t len;
                } bind;
                struct xen_xensock_listen {
                        uint32_t backlog;
                } listen;
                struct xen_xensock_accept {
                        uint64_t sockid;
                        grant_ref_t ref;
                        uint32_t evtchn;
                } accept;
                /* dummy member to force sizeof(struct xen_xensock_request) to 
match across archs */
                struct xen_xensock_dummy {
                        uint8_t dummy[48];
                } dummy;
        } u;
    };

The first three fields are common for every command. Their binary layout
is:

    0       4       8       12      16
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |  id   |  cmd  |     sockid    |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+

- **id** is generated by the frontend and identifies one specific request
- **cmd** is the command requested by the frontend:
    - `XENSOCK_SOCKET`:  0
    - `XENSOCK_CONNECT`: 1
    - `XENSOCK_RELEASE`: 2
    - `XENSOCK_BIND`:    3
    - `XENSOCK_LISTEN`:  4
    - `XENSOCK_ACCEPT`:  5
    - `XENSOCK_POLL`:    6
- **sockid** is generated by the frontend and identifies the socket to connect,
  bind, etc. A new sockid is required on the `XENSOCK_SOCKET` command. A new
  sockid is also required on `XENSOCK_ACCEPT`, for the new socket.

All three fields are echoed back by the backend.

As for the other Xen ring based protocols, after writing a request to the ring,
the frontend calls `RING_PUSH_REQUESTS_AND_CHECK_NOTIFY` and issues an event
channel notification when a notification is required.

Backend responses are allocated on the ring using the `RING_GET_RESPONSE` macro.
The format is the following:

    struct xen_xensock_response {
        uint32_t id;
        uint32_t cmd;
        uint64_t sockid;
        int32_t ret;
    };
    
    0       4       8       12      16      20
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
    |  id   |  cmd  |     sockid    |  ret  |
    +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

- **id**: echoed back from request
- **cmd**: echoed back from request
- **sockid**: echoed back from request
- **ret**: return value, identifies success (0) or failure (see error numbers
  below). If the **cmd** is not supported by the backend, ret is ENOTSUPP.

After calling `RING_PUSH_RESPONSES_AND_CHECK_NOTIFY`, the backend checks whether
it needs to notify the frontend and does so via event channel.

A description of each command, their additional request fields and the
expected responses follow.


#### Socket

The **socket** operation corresponds to the POSIX [socket][socket] function. It
creates a new socket of the specified family, type and protocol. **sockid** is
freely chosen by the frontend and references this specific socket from this
point forward. See "Socket families and address format" below.

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 0
- additional fields:
  - **domain**: the communication domain
  - **type**: the socket type
  - **protocol**: the particular protocol to be used with the socket, usually 0

Binary layout:

        16       20      24       28
        +--------+--------+--------+
        | domain |  type  |protocol|
        +--------+--------+--------+

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX socket function][connect] for error names; the corresponding
    error numbers are specified later in this document.

#### Connect

The **connect** operation corresponds to the POSIX [connect][connect] function.
It connects a previously created socket (identified by **sockid**) to the
specified address.

The connect operation creates a new shared ring, which we'll call **data
ring**. The data ring is used to send and receive data from the socket.
The connect operation passes two additional parameters which are
utilized to setup the new ring: **evtchn** and **ref**. **evtchn** is the
port number of a new event channel which will be used for notifications
of activity on the data ring. **ref** is the grant reference of a page
which containes shared pointers to write and read data from the data ring
and the full array of grant references for the ring buffers. It will be
described in more detailed later. The data ring is unmapped and freed upon
issuing a **release** command on the active socket identified by **sockid**.

When the frontend issues a **connect** command, the backend:
- finds its own internal socket corresponding to **sockid**
- connects the socket to **addr**
- maps the grant reference **ref**, the shared page contains the data
  ring interface (`struct xensock_data_intf`)
- maps all the grant references listed in `struct xensock_data_intf` and
  uses them as shared memory for the ring buffers
- bind the **evtchn**
- replies to the frontend

The data ring format will be described in the following section.

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 0
- additional fields:
  - **addr**: address to connect to, see the address format section for more
    information
  - **len**: address length
  - **flags**: flags for the connection, reserved for future usage
  - **ref**: grant reference of the page containing `struct
    xensock_data_intf`
  - **evtchn**: port number of the evtchn to signal activity on the data ring


Binary layout:

        16      20      24      28      32      36      40      44     48
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
        |                            addr                       |  len  |
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
        | flags |  ref  |evtchn |
        +-------+-------+-------+

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX connect function][connect] for error names; the corresponding
    error numbers are specified later in this document.

#### Release

The **release** operation closes an existing active or a passive socket.

When a release command is issued on a passive socket, the backend releases it
and frees its internal mappings. When a release command is issued for an active
socket, the data ring is also unmapped and freed:

- frontend sends release command for an active socket
- backend releases the socket
- backend unmaps the data ring buffers
- backend unmaps the data ring interface
- backend unbinds the evtchn
- backend replies to frontend
- frontend frees ring and unbinds evtchn

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 1
- additional fields: none

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX shutdown function][shutdown] for error names; the
    corresponding error numbers are specified later in this document.

#### Bind

The **bind** operation corresponds to the POSIX [bind][bind] function. It
assigns the address passed as parameter to a previously created socket,
identified by **sockid**. **Bind**, **listen** and **accept** are the three
operations required to have fully working passive sockets and should be issued
in this order.

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 2
- additional fields:
  - **addr**: address to connect to, see the address format section for more
    information
  - **len**: address length

Binary layout:

        16      20      24      28      32      36      40      44     48
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
        |                            addr                       |  len  |
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX bind function][bind] for error names; the corresponding error
    numbers are specified later in this document.


#### Listen

The **listen** operation marks the socket as a passive socket. It corresponds to
the [POSIX listen function][listen].

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 3
- additional fields:
  - **backlog**: the maximum length to which the queue of pending
    connections may grow

Binary layout:

        16      20
        +-------+
        |backlog|
        +-------+

Return value:
  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX listen function][listen] for error names; the corresponding
    error numbers are specified later in this document.


#### Accept

The **accept** operation extracts the first connection request on the queue of
pending connections for the listening socket identified by **sockid** and
creates a new connected socket. The **sockid** of the new socket is also chosen
by the frontend and passed as an additional field of the accept request struct.
See the [POSIX accept function][accept] as reference.

Similarly to the **connect** operation, **accept** creates a new data ring.
Information necessary to setup the new ring, such the grant table reference of
the page containing the data ring interface (`struct xensock_data_intf`) and
event channel port, are passed from the frontend to the backend as part of the
request.

The backend will reply to the request only when a new connection is successfully
accepted, i.e. the backend does not return EAGAIN or EWOULDBLOCK.

Example workflow:

- frontend issues an **accept** request
- backend waits for a connection to be available on the socket
- a new connection becomes available
- backend accepts the new connection
- backend creates an internal mapping from **sockid** to the new socket
- backend maps the grant reference **ref**, the shared page contains the
  data ring interface (`struct xensock_data_intf`)
- backend maps all the grant references listed in `struct
  xensock_data_intf` and uses them as shared memory for the new data
  ring
- backend binds the **evtchn**
- backend replies to the frontend

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 4
- additional fields:
  - **sockid**: id of the new socket
  - **ref**: grant reference of the data ring interface (`struct
    xensock_data_intf`)
  - **evtchn**: port number of the evtchn to signal activity on the data ring

Binary layout:

        16      20      24      28      32
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+
        |    sockid     |  ref  |evtchn |
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX accept function][accept] for error names; the corresponding
    error numbers are specified later in this document.


#### Poll

The **poll** operation is only valid for passive sockets. For active sockets,
the frontend should look at the state of the data ring. When a new connection is
available in the queue of the passive socket, the backend generates a response
and notifies the frontend.

Fields:

- **cmd** value: 5
- additional fields: none

Return value:

  - 0 on success
  - See the [POSIX poll function][poll] for error names; the corresponding error
    numbers are specified later in this document.

#### Error numbers

The numbers corresponding to the error names specified by POSIX are:

    [EPERM]         -1
    [ENOENT]        -2
    [ESRCH]         -3
    [EINTR]         -4
    [EIO]           -5
    [ENXIO]         -6
    [E2BIG]         -7
    [ENOEXEC]       -8
    [EBADF]         -9
    [ECHILD]        -10
    [EAGAIN]        -11
    [EWOULDBLOCK]   -11
    [ENOMEM]        -12
    [EACCES]        -13
    [EFAULT]        -14
    [EBUSY]         -16
    [EEXIST]        -17
    [EXDEV]         -18
    [ENODEV]        -19
    [EISDIR]        -21
    [EINVAL]        -22
    [ENFILE]        -23
    [EMFILE]        -24
    [ENOSPC]        -28
    [EROFS]         -30
    [EMLINK]        -31
    [EDOM]          -33
    [ERANGE]        -34
    [EDEADLK]       -35
    [EDEADLOCK]     -35
    [ENAMETOOLONG]  -36
    [ENOLCK]        -37
    [ENOTEMPTY]     -39
    [ENOSYS]        -38
    [ENODATA]       -61
    [ETIME]         -62
    [EBADMSG]       -74
    [EOVERFLOW]     -75
    [EILSEQ]        -84
    [ERESTART]      -85
    [ENOTSOCK]      -88
    [EOPNOTSUPP]    -95
    [EAFNOSUPPORT]  -97
    [EADDRINUSE]    -98
    [EADDRNOTAVAIL] -99
    [ENOBUFS]       -105
    [EISCONN]       -106
    [ENOTCONN]      -107
    [ETIMEDOUT]     -110
    [ENOTSUPP]      -524

#### Socket families and address format

The following definitions and explicit sizes, together with POSIX
[sys/socket.h][address] and [netinet/in.h][in] define socket families and
address format. Please be aware that only the **domain** `AF_INET`, **type**
`SOCK_STREAM` and **protocol** `0` are supported by this version of the spec.

    #define AF_UNSPEC   0
    #define AF_UNIX     1   /* Unix domain sockets      */
    #define AF_LOCAL    1   /* POSIX name for AF_UNIX   */
    #define AF_INET     2   /* Internet IP Protocol     */
    #define AF_INET6    10  /* IP version 6         */

    #define SOCK_STREAM 1
    #define SOCK_DGRAM  2
    #define SOCK_RAW    3

    /* generic address format */
    struct sockaddr {
        uint16_t sa_family_t;
        char sa_data[26];
    };

    struct in_addr {
        uint32_t s_addr;
    };

    /* AF_INET address format */
    struct sockaddr_in {
        uint16_t         sa_family_t;
        uint16_t         sin_port;
        struct in_addr   sin_addr;
        char             sin_zero[20];
    };


### Data ring

Data rings are used for sending and receiving data over a connected socket. They
are created upon a successful **accept** or **connect** command.

A data ring is composed of two pieces: the interface and the **in** and **out**
buffers. The interface, represented by `struct xensock_ring_intf` is shared
first and resides on the page whose grant reference is passed by **accept** and
**connect** as parameter. `struct xensock_ring_intf` contains the list of grant
references which constitute the **in** and **out** data buffers.

#### Data ring interface

    struct xensock_data_intf {
        XENSOCK_RING_IDX in_cons, in_prod;
        XENSOCK_RING_IDX out_cons, out_prod;
        int32_t in_error, out_error;
    
        uint32_t ring_order;
        grant_ref_t ref[];
    };

    /* not actually C compliant (ring_order changes from socket to socket) */
    struct xensock_data {
        char in[((1<<ring_order)<<PAGE_SHIFT)/2];
        char out[((1<<ring_order)<<PAGE_SHIFT)/2];
    };

- **ring_order**
  It represents the order of the data ring. The following list of grant
  references is of `(1 << ring_order)` elements. It cannot be greater than
  **max-dataring-page-order**, as specified by the backend on XenBus.
- **ref[]**
  The list of grant references which will contain the actual data. They are
  mapped contiguosly in virtual memory. The first half of the pages is the
  **in** array, the second half is the **out** array.
- **in** is an array used as circular buffer
  It contains data read from the socket. The producer is the backend, the
  consumer is the frontend.
- **out** is an array used as circular buffer
  It contains data to be written to the socket. The producer is the frontend,
  the consumer is the backend.
- **in_cons** and **in_prod**
  Consumer and producer pointers for data read from the socket. They keep track
  of how much data has already been consumed by the frontend from the **in**
  array. **in_prod** is increased by the backend, after writing data to **in**.
  **in_cons** is increased by the frontend, after reading data from **in**.
- **out_cons**, **out_prod**
  Consumer and producer pointers for the data to be written to the socket. They
  keep track of how much data has been written by the frontend to **out** and
  how much data has already been consumed by the backend. **out_prod** is
  increased by the frontend, after writing data to **out**. **out_cons** is
  increased by the backend, after reading data from **out**.
- **in_error** and **out_error** They signal errors when reading from the socket
  (**in_error**) or when writing to the socket (**out_error**). 0 means no
  errors. When an error occurs, no further reads or writes operations are
  performed on the socket. In the case of an orderly socket shutdown (i.e. read
  returns 0) **in_error** is set to ENOTCONN. **in_error** and **out_error**
  are never set to EAGAIN or EWOULDBLOCK.

The binary layout of `struct xensock_data_intf` follows:

    0         4         8         12        16        20        24        28
    +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
    | in_cons | in_prod |out_cons |out_prod |in_error |out_error|ring_order|
    +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+

    28        32        36        40        4092     4096
    +---------+---------+---------+----//---+---------+
    |  ref[0] |  ref[1] |  ref[2] |         |  ref[N] |
    +---------+---------+---------+----//---+---------+

The binary layout of the ring buffers follow:

    0         ((1<<ring_order)<<PAGE_SHIFT)/2       
((1<<ring_order)<<PAGE_SHIFT)
    +------------//-------------+------------//-------------+
    |            in             |           out             |
    +------------//-------------+------------//-------------+

#### Workflow

The **in** and **out** arrays are used as circular buffers:
    
    0                               sizeof(array) == 
((1<<ring_order)<<PAGE_SHIFT)/2
    +-----------------------------------+
    |to consume|    free    |to consume |
    +-----------------------------------+
               ^            ^
               prod         cons

    0                               sizeof(array)
    +-----------------------------------+
    |  free    | to consume |   free    |
    +-----------------------------------+
               ^            ^
               cons         prod

The following function is provided to calculate how many bytes are currently
left unconsumed in an array:

    #define _MASK_XENSOCK_IDX(idx, ring_size) ((idx) & (ring_size-1))

    static inline XENSOCK_RING_IDX xensock_ring_queued(XENSOCK_RING_IDX prod,
                XENSOCK_RING_IDX cons,
                XENSOCK_RING_IDX ring_size)
    {
        XENSOCK_RING_IDX size;
    
        if (prod == cons)
                return 0;
    
        prod = _MASK_XENSOCK_IDX(prod, ring_size);
        cons = _MASK_XENSOCK_IDX(cons, ring_size);
    
        if (prod == cons)
                return ring_size;
    
        if (prod > cons)
                size = prod - cons;
        else {
                size = ring_size - cons;
                size += prod;
        }
        return size;
    }

The producer (the backend for **in**, the frontend for **out**) writes to the
array in the following way:

- read *cons*, *prod*, *error* from shared memory
- memory barrier
- return on *error*
- write to array at position *prod* up to *cons*, wrapping around the circular
  buffer when necessary
- memory barrier
- increase *prod*
- notify the other end via evtchn

The consumer (the backend for **out**, the frontend for **in**) reads from the
array in the following way:

- read *prod*, *cons*, *error* from shared memory
- memory barrier
- return on *error*
- read from array at position *cons* up to *prod*, wrapping around the circular
  buffer when necessary
- memory barrier
- increase *cons*
- notify the other end via evtchn

The producer takes care of writing only as many bytes as available in the buffer
up to *cons*. The consumer takes care of reading only as many bytes as available
in the buffer up to *prod*. *error* is set by the backend when an error occurs
writing or reading from the socket.


[address]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/syssocket.h.html
[in]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/basedefs/netinet/in.h.html
[socket]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/socket.html
[connect]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/connect.html
[shutdown]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/shutdown.html
[bind]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/bind.html
[listen]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/listen.html
[accept]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xns/accept.html
[poll]: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xsh/poll.html

Attachment: xensock-libxl
Description: Text document

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