[cfe-dev] Adding clang extension support for BPF CO-RE relocation support

[Aaron Ballman via cfe-dev]

On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 11:33 PM Y Song <ys114321 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 6:36 PM John McCall <rjmccall at apple.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 5 Jan 2022, at 14:52, Y Song wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 11:40 AM Aaron Ballman <aaron at aaronballman.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >> On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM Y Song <ys114321 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>> Representation within the appropriate governing organization
> > >>> ============================================================
> > >>>
> > >>> N/A
> > >>
> > >> What organization determines things like the specification you posted
> > >> above, or is there no organization behind these efforts?
> > >
> > > The BPF foundation (https://ebpf.io/foundation/) is responsible for
> > > the specification. The general discussion (specification, loader
> > > implementation, etc.)
> > > also happened in mailing list https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/.
> >
> > Okay, thanks, this is what we’re looking for here.
> >
> > >>> A long-term support plan
> > >>> ========================
> > >>>
> > >>> The feature will be supported for ever.
> > >>
> > >> This is not a long term support plan. :-) When we have support needs
> > >> in the future, will there be people/a company/a community available
> > >> to
> > >> do that work or is the expectation that once this lands, the Clang
> > >> community is responsible for it? (This matters with the above
> > >> question
> > >> about the organization responsible for governing the specification --
> > >> can the Clang community do as they please here or do we need to
> > >> coordinate with others?)
> > >
> > > The best place probably is to engage with the mailing list
> > > https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/.
> > > People can also reach the bpf foundation for guidance/direction.
> >
> > Okay.  Just so we know, I assume you’re part of the BPF community?
>
> Yes, I am part of BPF community, and also part of
> LLVM community as I maintain the clang/llvm BPF backend with
> Alexei Starovoitov.

Thank you, that's good information!

> > Are you doing this by yourself, or is there a larger institution
> > supporting your efforts (for example, a company or university)?
>
> I am a software engineer from Meta (former Facebook). I am in
> the linux kernel team. Supporting the bpf community is part of my job,
> which benefits Meta too.

Thank you for this as well!

> > I’m sorry to pry, but we actually don’t have any information about
> > you except a gmail address. :)
>
> No problem! If the community has any questions regarding to
> BPF/BTF support in clang/llvm, they can reach me, Alexei, or
> bpf mailing list and we are glad to help.

Thanks! FWIW, the fact that this is backed by both the Linux kernel
team and has some corporate support from Meta makes me more
comfortable that long-term support isn't likely to cause an undue
burden for us.

~Aaron

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