[PATCH net-next v4 07/10] ip_tunnel: add drop reasons to the transmit path
From: Anton Danilov <hidden>
Date: 2026-09-22 22:15:36
Also in:
lkml
Subsystem:
networking [general], networking [ipv4/ipv6], the rest · Maintainers:
"David S. Miller", Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni, David Ahern, Ido Schimmel, Linus Torvalds
ip_tunnel_xmit() and ip_md_tunnel_xmit() encapsulate the packets sent through the tunnel, and every failure these two functions detect ends in a plain kfree_skb(). The device counters separate them a little, but they are too coarse to act on: tx_errors counts an encapsulation failure, a routing failure, a routing loop and a packet that is simply too big alike. The packet that is too big deserves attention. tnl_update_pmtu() returns -E2BIG for a non-GSO packet larger than the MTU if it is IPv4 with the DF bit set, or IPv6 and the MTU is at least IPV6_MIN_MTU, after it has already sent the ICMP error back to the sender. That is path MTU discovery working as intended, yet among the device counters the drop only bumps tx_errors, like a failed encapsulation and a few other failures do. If the ICMP error never reaches the sender, the resulting MTU black hole cannot be told from those by the device counters. A failed route lookup and a routing loop do have counters of their own, tx_carrier_errors and collisions, but in both functions all of these packets end up in the same kfree_skb() call. No new reason is needed for most of it: - SKB_DROP_REASON_PKT_TOO_BIG for the case above, - SKB_DROP_REASON_IP_OUTNOROUTES when the route lookup fails, - SKB_DROP_REASON_RECURSION_LIMIT when the route points back at the tunnel device itself, which is the "dead loop on virtual device" that reason describes, - SKB_DROP_REASON_NOMEM when the headroom cannot be expanded, - SKB_DROP_REASON_NEIGH_CREATEFAIL when the NBMA neighbour lookup fails, SKB_DROP_REASON_NO_TX_TARGET when no destination can be derived at all, and, on the same NBMA path, SKB_DROP_REASON_UNHANDLED_PROTO for a payload that is neither IPv4 nor IPv6, - SKB_DROP_REASON_TUNNEL_TXINFO, which already documents a packet reaching an external mode device without metadata, for the collect_md path. Only the encapsulation failure has no fitting reason, so add SKB_DROP_REASON_TNL_ENCAP for it. Drop reasons on transmit are not new: vxlan already reports several of them from its xmit path, and ip_tunnel_core.c reports SKB_DROP_REASON_RECURSION_LIMIT. They are most useful for forwarded packets, which is what a tunnel gateway mostly transmits: the sender is another host, which gets an ICMP error for only some of these failures, so the drop has to be explained on the gateway. Assisted-by: Claude-Code:claude-opus-5 Signed-off-by: Anton Danilov <redacted> --- include/net/dropreason-core.h | 7 ++++++ net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 2 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/net/dropreason-core.h b/include/net/dropreason-core.h
index 186d9e70e9cb..a72b84b07daa 100644
--- a/include/net/dropreason-core.h
+++ b/include/net/dropreason-core.h@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ FN(GRE_INVALID_HDR) \ FN(GRE_CSUM) \ FN(GRE_TUNNEL_NOT_FOUND) \ + FN(TNL_ENCAP) \ FNe(MAX) /**
@@ -644,6 +645,12 @@ enum skb_drop_reason { * endpoints and the key the packet carries. */ SKB_DROP_REASON_GRE_TUNNEL_NOT_FOUND, + /** + * @SKB_DROP_REASON_TNL_ENCAP: failed to build the + * encapsulation header of a tunnel, e.g. an unknown or + * unregistered encapsulation type. + */ + SKB_DROP_REASON_TNL_ENCAP, /** * @SKB_DROP_REASON_MAX: the maximum of core drop reasons, which * shouldn't be used as a real 'reason' - only for tracing code gen
diff --git a/net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c b/net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c
index c94f4c055027..66cb0b86fa79 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c@@ -586,6 +586,7 @@ static int tnl_update_pmtu(struct net_device *dev, struct sk_buff *skb, void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, u8 proto, int tunnel_hlen) { + enum skb_drop_reason reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NOT_SPECIFIED; struct ip_tunnel *tunnel = netdev_priv(dev); u32 headroom = sizeof(struct iphdr); struct ip_tunnel_info *tun_info;
@@ -599,8 +600,10 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, tun_info = skb_tunnel_info(skb); if (unlikely(!tun_info || !(tun_info->mode & IP_TUNNEL_INFO_TX) || - ip_tunnel_info_af(tun_info) != AF_INET)) + ip_tunnel_info_af(tun_info) != AF_INET)) { + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_TUNNEL_TXINFO; goto tx_error; + } key = &tun_info->key; memset(&(IPCB(skb)->opt), 0, sizeof(IPCB(skb)->opt)); inner_iph = (const struct iphdr *)skb_inner_network_header(skb);
@@ -619,8 +622,10 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (!tunnel_hlen) tunnel_hlen = ip_encap_hlen(&tun_info->encap); - if (ip_tunnel_encap(skb, &tun_info->encap, &proto, &fl4) < 0) + if (ip_tunnel_encap(skb, &tun_info->encap, &proto, &fl4) < 0) { + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_TNL_ENCAP; goto tx_error; + } use_cache = ip_tunnel_dst_cache_usable(skb, tun_info); if (use_cache)
@@ -629,6 +634,7 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, rt = ip_route_output_key(tunnel->net, &fl4); if (IS_ERR(rt)) { DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_carrier_errors); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_IP_OUTNOROUTES; goto tx_error; } if (use_cache)
@@ -638,6 +644,7 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (rt->dst.dev == dev) { ip_rt_put(rt); DEV_STATS_INC(dev, collisions); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_RECURSION_LIMIT; goto tx_error; }
@@ -646,6 +653,7 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (tnl_update_pmtu(dev, skb, rt, df, inner_iph, tunnel_hlen, key->u.ipv4.dst, true)) { ip_rt_put(rt); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_PKT_TOO_BIG; goto tx_error; }
@@ -663,6 +671,7 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, headroom += LL_RESERVED_SPACE(rt->dst.dev) + rt->dst.header_len; if (skb_cow_head(skb, headroom)) { ip_rt_put(rt); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NOMEM; goto tx_dropped; }
@@ -677,13 +686,14 @@ void ip_md_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, tx_dropped: DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_dropped); kfree: - kfree_skb(skb); + kfree_skb_reason(skb, reason); } EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(ip_md_tunnel_xmit); void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, const struct iphdr *tnl_params, u8 protocol) { + enum skb_drop_reason reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NOT_SPECIFIED; struct ip_tunnel *tunnel = netdev_priv(dev); struct ip_tunnel_info *tun_info = NULL; const struct iphdr *inner_iph;
@@ -711,9 +721,15 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (!skb_dst(skb)) { DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_fifo_errors); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NO_TX_TARGET; goto tx_error; } + /* Only the branches below can derive a destination. If + * none of them matches, the payload protocol is not one + * this tunnel can carry. + */ + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_UNHANDLED_PROTO; tun_info = skb_tunnel_info(skb); if (tun_info && (tun_info->mode & IP_TUNNEL_INFO_TX) && ip_tunnel_info_af(tun_info) == AF_INET &&
@@ -734,8 +750,10 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, neigh = dst_neigh_lookup(skb_dst(skb), &ipv6_hdr(skb)->daddr); - if (!neigh) + if (!neigh) { + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NEIGH_CREATEFAIL; goto tx_error; + } addr6 = (const struct in6_addr *)&neigh->primary_key; addr_type = ipv6_addr_type(addr6);
@@ -752,8 +770,10 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, dst = addr6->s6_addr32[3]; } neigh_release(neigh); - if (do_tx_error_icmp) + if (do_tx_error_icmp) { + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_NO_TX_TARGET; goto tx_error_icmp; + } } #endif else
@@ -780,8 +800,10 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, tunnel->net, READ_ONCE(tunnel->parms.link), tunnel->fwmark, skb_get_hash(skb), 0); - if (ip_tunnel_encap(skb, &tunnel->encap, &protocol, &fl4) < 0) + if (ip_tunnel_encap(skb, &tunnel->encap, &protocol, &fl4) < 0) { + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_TNL_ENCAP; goto tx_error; + } if (connected && md) { use_cache = ip_tunnel_dst_cache_usable(skb, tun_info);
@@ -798,6 +820,7 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (IS_ERR(rt)) { DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_carrier_errors); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_IP_OUTNOROUTES; goto tx_error; } if (use_cache)
@@ -811,6 +834,7 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (rt->dst.dev == dev) { ip_rt_put(rt); DEV_STATS_INC(dev, collisions); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_RECURSION_LIMIT; goto tx_error; }
@@ -820,6 +844,7 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (tnl_update_pmtu(dev, skb, rt, df, inner_iph, 0, 0, false)) { ip_rt_put(rt); + reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_PKT_TOO_BIG; goto tx_error; }
@@ -854,7 +879,7 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, if (skb_cow_head(skb, max_headroom)) { ip_rt_put(rt); DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_dropped); - kfree_skb(skb); + kfree_skb_reason(skb, SKB_DROP_REASON_NOMEM); return; }
@@ -870,7 +895,7 @@ void ip_tunnel_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, #endif tx_error: DEV_STATS_INC(dev, tx_errors); - kfree_skb(skb); + kfree_skb_reason(skb, reason); } EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(ip_tunnel_xmit);
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2.47.3