On Tue Mar 10, 2026 at 12:34 PM -03, Fernando Fernandez Mancera wrote:

Historically, the Linux kernel has supported compiling the IPv6 stack as
a loadable module. While this made sense in the early days of IPv6
adoption, modern deployments and distributions overwhelmingly either
build IPv6 directly into the kernel (CONFIG_IPV6=y) or disable it
entirely (CONFIG_IPV6=n). The modular IPv6 use-case offers image size
and memory savings for specific setups, this benefit is outweighed by
the architectural burden it imposes on the subsystems on implementation
and maintenance.

To allow core networking, BPF, Netfilter, and various device drivers to
safely interact with a potentially unloaded IPv6 module, the kernel
relies on indirect call structures like ipv6_stub, ipv6_bpf_stub, and
nf_ipv6_ops, along with dynamic RCU registrations for things like ICMPv6
senders.

This patch series addresses this by changing CONFIG_IPV6 from a tristate
to a boolean, enforcing that IPv6 is either built-in or disabled. This
allows us to completely rip out the stub infrastructures and safely
replace them with direct function calls.

The bloat-o-meter report the following results for m68k, arm64, x86_64
defconfig.

m68k (keep on mind that CONFIG_IPV6 is disabled now):
add/remove: 65/938 grow/shrink: 36/254 up/down: 3022/-49692 (-46670)

arm64:
add/remove: 1251/265 grow/shrink: 81/46 up/down: 448740/-71519 (377221)

x86_64:
add/remove: 62/98 grow/shrink: 10/39 up/down: 2497/-4357 (-1860)

All the patches has been independently build tested. With allmodconfig
and allmodconfig + CONFIG_IPV6=n. In addition, net selftest has been run
against them on virtme-ng.

The series applied as a whole as been tested with allyesconfig and also
allyesconfig + CONFIG_IPV6=n but not all patches has been independently
tested this way.

This will like need to wait for [1] and [2] to be applied to avoid
conflicts from net tree and rebased in top of them.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20260307-net-nd_tbl_fixes-v4-0-e2677e85628c@suse.com/ (local)

[2] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20260308032304.1841198-1-kuniyu@google.com/ (local)

Fernando Fernandez Mancera (10):
  ipv6: convert CONFIG_IPV6 to built-in only and clean up Kconfigs
  ipv6: replace IS_BUILTIN(CONFIG_IPV6) with IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_IPV6)
  ipv6: remove dynamic ICMPv6 sender registration infrastructure
  ipv6: prepare headers for ipv6_stub removal
  drivers: net: drop ipv6_stub usage and use direct function calls
  ipv4: drop ipv6_stub usage and use direct function calls
  net: convert remaining ipv6_stub users to direct function calls
  bpf: remove ipv6_bpf_stub completely and use direct function calls
  ipv6: remove ipv6_stub infrastructure completely
  netfilter: remove nf_ipv6_ops and use direct function calls

Using defconfig + tools/testing/selftests/net/config:

- All commits build with both IPV6=y and IPV6=n with no problems.
- All net selftests report OK on tip commit.

Tested-by: Ricardo B. Marlière <redacted>

 arch/arm64/configs/defconfig                  |   2 +-
 arch/m68k/configs/amiga_defconfig             |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/apollo_defconfig            |  46 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/atari_defconfig             |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/bvme6000_defconfig          |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/hp300_defconfig             |  47 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/mac_defconfig               |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/multi_defconfig             |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/mvme147_defconfig           |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/mvme16x_defconfig           |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/q40_defconfig               |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/sun3_defconfig              |  45 +-------
 arch/m68k/configs/sun3x_defconfig             |  45 +-------
 drivers/infiniband/Kconfig                    |   1 -
 drivers/infiniband/core/addr.c                |   3 +-
 drivers/infiniband/hw/ocrdma/Kconfig          |   2 +-
 drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe_net.c           |   6 +-
 drivers/infiniband/ulp/ipoib/Kconfig          |   2 +-
 drivers/net/Kconfig                           |   9 --
 drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/Kconfig         |   2 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/chelsio/Kconfig          |   2 +-
 .../mellanox/mlx5/core/en/rep/neigh.c         |  12 ++-
 .../ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en/tc_tun.c   |   3 +-
 .../mellanox/mlx5/core/en/tc_tun_encap.c      |   2 +-
 .../mellanox/mlx5/core/en_accel/ipsec.c       |   1 -
 .../net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_rep.c  |   1 -
 .../net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_tc.c   |   1 -
 drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlxsw/Kconfig   |   1 -
 .../ethernet/mellanox/mlxsw/spectrum_router.c |   9 +-
 .../ethernet/mellanox/mlxsw/spectrum_span.c   |   3 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/netronome/Kconfig        |   1 -
 .../ethernet/netronome/nfp/flower/action.c    |   2 +-
 .../netronome/nfp/flower/tunnel_conf.c        |   9 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/tc_counters.c        |   2 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/tc_encap_actions.c   |   5 +-
 drivers/net/geneve.c                          |   1 -
 drivers/net/gtp.c                             |   2 +-
 drivers/net/ovpn/peer.c                       |   3 +-
 drivers/net/ovpn/udp.c                        |   3 +-
 drivers/net/usb/cdc_mbim.c                    |  17 +--
 drivers/net/vrf.c                             |   3 +-
 drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_core.c                |  11 +-
 drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_multicast.c           |   6 +-
 drivers/net/wireguard/socket.c                |   3 +-
 drivers/net/wireless/intel/ipw2x00/ipw2100.c  |   2 +-
 drivers/scsi/bnx2fc/Kconfig                   |   1 -
 drivers/scsi/bnx2i/Kconfig                    |   1 -
 drivers/scsi/cxgbi/cxgb3i/Kconfig             |   2 +-
 drivers/scsi/cxgbi/cxgb4i/Kconfig             |   2 +-
 fs/dlm/Kconfig                                |   2 +-
 fs/gfs2/Kconfig                               |   2 +-
 include/linux/icmpv6.h                        |  26 +----
 include/linux/indirect_call_wrapper.h         |   2 +-
 include/linux/netfilter_ipv6.h                | 102 ++----------------
 include/net/ip.h                              |   5 -
 include/net/ip6_fib.h                         |  34 +++++-
 include/net/ip6_route.h                       |  26 +++++
 include/net/ipv6.h                            |  12 +++
 include/net/ipv6_stubs.h                      | 102 ------------------
 include/net/ndisc.h                           |  38 +++----
 include/net/udp_tunnel.h                      |   3 +-
 net/bridge/Kconfig                            |   1 -
 net/bridge/br_arp_nd_proxy.c                  |   3 +-
 net/bridge/br_netfilter_hooks.c               |  12 +--
 net/bridge/br_netfilter_ipv6.c                |   7 +-
 net/core/filter.c                             |  70 ++++++------
 net/core/lwt_bpf.c                            |  10 +-
 net/ieee802154/6lowpan/tx.c                   |   2 +-
 net/ipv4/Kconfig                              |   9 +-
 net/ipv4/fib_semantics.c                      |  11 +-
 net/ipv4/icmp.c                               |   2 +-
 net/ipv4/nexthop.c                            |  21 ++--
 net/ipv4/route.c                              |   2 +-
 net/ipv4/udp.c                                |   7 +-
 net/ipv6/Kconfig                              |   6 +-
 net/ipv6/addrconf.c                           |  10 +-
 net/ipv6/addrconf_core.c                      |  91 ----------------
 net/ipv6/af_inet6.c                           |  69 ++----------
 net/ipv6/icmp.c                               |   6 --
 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c                            |  10 +-
 net/ipv6/ip6_icmp.c                           |  46 +-------
 net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c                        |   4 +-
 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c                         |   5 +-
 net/ipv6/ip6_udp_tunnel.c                     |   3 +-
 net/ipv6/ndisc.c                              |  35 +++---
 net/ipv6/netfilter.c                          |  48 ---------
 net/ipv6/route.c                              |  13 +--
 net/l2tp/Kconfig                              |   1 -
 net/mpls/af_mpls.c                            |   3 +-
 net/netfilter/Kconfig                         |   8 --
 net/netfilter/core.c                          |   3 -
 net/netfilter/nf_nat_masquerade.c             |  21 +---
 net/netfilter/nfnetlink_queue.c               |  22 +++-
 net/netfilter/utils.c                         |   1 -
 net/openvswitch/actions.c                     |   3 +-
 net/rxrpc/Kconfig                             |   2 +-
 net/sched/sch_frag.c                          |   4 +-
 net/sctp/Kconfig                              |   1 -
 net/tipc/Kconfig                              |   1 -
 net/tipc/udp_media.c                          |   9 +-
 net/xfrm/espintcp.c                           |   5 +-
 net/xfrm/xfrm_nat_keepalive.c                 |   4 +-
 net/xfrm/xfrm_output.c                        |   3 +-
 103 files changed, 328 insertions(+), 1301 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 include/net/ipv6_stubs.h