3 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
Rayhaan JaufeerallyandClaude Fable 5.1 175a13d506 Hygiene: scripts, CI, docs and manifests
- scripts/in-namespace.sh set CARGO_TARGET_DIR to the empty string when
  it was unset, which cargo refuses, and dropped RUSTFLAGS, so the run
  in the namespace rebuilt what kernel-tests.sh had just built. Each is
  passed on only where set.
- The README's list of unsupported features still had route reflection
  and graceful restart, both of which exist; the command-line reference
  lacked SIGUSR1 and exit status 75; the HTTP API reference did not say
  what errors look like.
- The event stream said "missed 0 events" for the best-routes stream,
  which does not count what it missed; it leaves the count out now.
- CI lints bgp-bench with its count-memory feature, which nothing built.
- bgp-bench had two unused dev-dependencies; bgp-integration-tests had
  three dependencies that only its tests and examples use.
- install.sh updates apt before installing; two-routers.sh loses an
  unused variable; small things in the web crate.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-06 11:15:58 +02:00
Rayhaan JaufeerallyandClaude Fable 5.1 1de75fc610 Install a full table in the kernel in about a second
A million IPv4 routes took 1.6 s to install (release build); they take
1.1 s now, and 0.5 s to remove instead of 1.15 s. Most of what is left is
the kernel's own work on each route.

- Nexthop objects (Linux 5.3 and later): a gateway is put in the kernel
  once and routes name it, so the kernel checks it once and not for every
  route. The daemon makes its own objects, uses nobody else's, is told
  when one of its own is removed and puts it back, and removes them when
  it stops, which takes all the routes that name them along at once.
  `without_nexthop_objects` turns this off; a kernel without them is
  noticed and served as before.
- Writing to the kernel is a task of its own, fed through a short queue,
  so the next batch is worked out while the kernel is busy with the last.
  "In step" is said when the kernel has done the batch that completes the
  table, not when it was handed over.
- What a next hop resolves to is kept, by next hop: it was looked up among
  the machine's addresses for every route.
- A quicker hash for the plan's maps, and no lookups in the ones that are
  empty.

Fixes a hole found on the way: when an interface went down and came back
within the second it takes us to react, the kernel had dropped our routes
and we did not put them back, since nothing about them had changed for
us. After such a change the kernel is now asked what it actually has.

scripts/in-namespace.sh runs one command in a scratch namespace;
FERRIX_ROUTES sets the size of the timing test.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-02 17:13:44 +02:00
Rayhaan JaufeerallyandClaude Fable 5.1 1fc44798b7 Install best routes in the Linux kernel over netlink
New crate bgp-fib. It follows the routing table's best routes and keeps
the kernel's routing table the same, and learns the machine's interfaces
and addresses from the kernel, which is what says whether a next hop can
be reached.

- netlink: the rtnetlink messages used (routes, addresses, links, errors),
  as bytes and back. No I/O; property tested and fuzzed.
- interfaces: what is directly reachable, and from which interface.
- plan: what to ask the kernel for, given the best routes and what the
  kernel has. No I/O; tested against a model kernel.
- kernel (Linux only): the sockets and the task. Requests go in batches;
  routes of ours found at startup are kept if still right and removed if
  not; a change of interfaces has every route worked out again; a clean
  stop removes our routes.

Only routes marked proto bgp with the configured table and metric are
ever touched. A best route is installed if its next hop is a neighbor;
next hops further away are not resolved through other routes yet, and
such prefixes are counted and shown instead.

Configured with `kernel { table metric }`; off by default. The daemon
needs CAP_NET_ADMIN and stops if the kernel refuses it. On shutdown it
closes sessions and then removes its routes.

/api/kernel and the status page show installed, unresolved and refused
counts, the last error and the interfaces; five bgp_kernel_* metrics.

Testing: scripts/kernel-tests.sh runs, in network namespaces of their
own and with only the capabilities the daemon needs, the installer
against `ip route`, the daemon with a peer, and two daemons that route
for each other with pings across over IPv4 and IPv6.
scripts/linux-vm.sh runs that, or anything else, in a Lima VM from
macOS. CI runs the kernel tests and fuzzes the netlink decoder.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-02 15:15:43 +02:00