Why does the Linux kernel have `struct sock` and` struct socket`?

Question

These questions were asked before on the Internet, but I could not find a good answer.

The Linux kernel network stack has two structures:

• struct socket , usually stored in the sock variable
• struct sock , usually stored in the variable sk

The two structures are essentially related to each other, but apparently have slightly different lifetimes. You can find sk through sock->sk or find sock via sk->sk_socket .

Why are there two structures for storing socket information? Assuming I need to add a new field when I add it to a struct socket and when struct sock ?

UPDATE . Note that I refer to the struct socket in include/linux/net.h in the Linux source code, which is intended only for kernel code, and not /usr/include/sys/socket.h , which is intended for the user.

Answer 1

struct socket seems to be a higher level interface that is used for system calls (therefore, it also has a pointer to a struct file , which represents the file descriptor here).

struct sock is a built-in implementation for AF_INET sockets (for AF_UNIX sockets it is also struct unix_sock ), which can be used by both the kernel and user space (via struct sock ).

Both were added to Linux 1.0 back in 1993, I doubt that you will find a document defining the initial design decision.

Answer 2

“The two structures are essentially connected” - not sure what you meant.

I think you could find the answer if you look at the source files for these structures:

 socket -> linux-src/include/linux/net.h sock -> linux-src/include/net/sock.h 

power socket

  * NET An implementation of the SOCKET network access protocol. * This is the master header file for the Linux NET layer, * or, in plain English: the networking handling part of the * kernel. 

sock

  * INET An implementation of the TCP/IP protocol suite for the LINUX * operating system. INET is implemented using the BSD Socket * interface as the means of communication with the user level. 

These structures are different and have a different representation of socket abstraction.

Here answer about different sockets.

Unix vs BSD vs TCP vs Internet sockets?

Where to define an additional field depends on your intention. Describe your task.

Please see the sources.

Linux-src / include / linux / net.h

 /* * NET An implementation of the SOCKET network access protocol. * This is the master header file for the Linux NET layer, * or, in plain English: the networking handling part of the * kernel. * * Version: @(#)net.h 1.0.3 05/25/93 * * Authors: Orest Zborowski, < [e-mail] > * Ross Biro * Fred N. van Kempen, < [e-mail] > * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version * 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. */ ..... ..... ..... /** * struct socket - general BSD socket * @state: socket state (%SS_CONNECTED, etc) * @type: socket type (%SOCK_STREAM, etc) * @flags: socket flags (%SOCK_NOSPACE, etc) * @ops: protocol specific socket operations * @file: File back pointer for gc * @sk: internal networking protocol agnostic socket representation * @wq: wait queue for several uses */ struct socket { socket_state state; kmemcheck_bitfield_begin(type); short type; kmemcheck_bitfield_end(type); unsigned long flags; struct socket_wq __rcu *wq; struct file *file; struct sock *sk; const struct proto_ops *ops; }; 

Linux-SRC / enable / network / sock.h

 /* * INET An implementation of the TCP/IP protocol suite for the LINUX * operating system. INET is implemented using the BSD Socket * interface as the means of communication with the user level. * * Definitions for the AF_INET socket handler. * * Version: @(#)sock.h 1.0.4 05/13/93 * * Authors: Ross Biro * Fred N. van Kempen, < [e-mail] > * Corey Minyard < wf-rch![e-mail] > * Florian La Roche < [e-mail] > * * Fixes: * Alan Cox : Volatiles in skbuff pointers. See * skbuff comments. May be overdone, * better to prove they can be removed * than the reverse. * Alan Cox : Added a zapped field for tcp to note * a socket is reset and must stay shut up * Alan Cox : New fields for options * Pauline Middelink : identd support * Alan Cox : Eliminate low level recv/recvfrom * David S. Miller : New socket lookup architecture. * Steve Whitehouse: Default routines for sock_ops * Arnaldo C. Melo : removed net_pinfo, tp_pinfo and made * protinfo be just a void pointer, as the * protocol specific parts were moved to * respective headers and ipv4/v6, etc now * use private slabcaches for its socks * Pedro Hortas : New flags field for socket options * * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version * 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. */ .... .... .... /** * struct sock - network layer representation of sockets * @__sk_common: shared layout with inet_timewait_sock * @sk_shutdown: mask of %SEND_SHUTDOWN and/or %RCV_SHUTDOWN * @sk_userlocks: %SO_SNDBUF and %SO_RCVBUF settings * @sk_lock: synchronizer * @sk_kern_sock: True if sock is using kernel lock classes * @sk_rcvbuf: size of receive buffer in bytes * @sk_wq: sock wait queue and async head * @sk_rx_dst: receive input route used by early demux * @sk_dst_cache: destination cache * @sk_dst_pending_confirm: need to confirm neighbour * @sk_policy: flow policy * @sk_receive_queue: incoming packets * @sk_wmem_alloc: transmit queue bytes committed * @sk_tsq_flags: TCP Small Queues flags * @sk_write_queue: Packet sending queue * @sk_omem_alloc: "o" is "option" or "other" * @sk_wmem_queued: persistent queue size * @sk_forward_alloc: space allocated forward * @sk_napi_id: id of the last napi context to receive data for sk * @sk_ll_usec: usecs to busypoll when there is no data * @sk_allocation: allocation mode * @sk_pacing_rate: Pacing rate (if supported by transport/packet scheduler) * @sk_pacing_status: Pacing status (requested, handled by sch_fq) * @sk_max_pacing_rate: Maximum pacing rate (%SO_MAX_PACING_RATE) * @sk_sndbuf: size of send buffer in bytes * @__sk_flags_offset: empty field used to determine location of bitfield * @sk_padding: unused element for alignment * @sk_no_check_tx: %SO_NO_CHECK setting, set checksum in TX packets * @sk_no_check_rx: allow zero checksum in RX packets * @sk_route_caps: route capabilities (eg %NETIF_F_TSO) * @sk_route_nocaps: forbidden route capabilities (eg NETIF_F_GSO_MASK) * @sk_gso_type: GSO type (eg %SKB_GSO_TCPV4) * @sk_gso_max_size: Maximum GSO segment size to build * @sk_gso_max_segs: Maximum number of GSO segments * @sk_lingertime: %SO_LINGER l_linger setting * @sk_backlog: always used with the per-socket spinlock held * @sk_callback_lock: used with the callbacks in the end of this struct * @sk_error_queue: rarely used * @sk_prot_creator: sk_prot of original sock creator (see ipv6_setsockopt, * IPV6_ADDRFORM for instance) * @sk_err: last error * @sk_err_soft: errors that don't cause failure but are the cause of a * persistent failure not just 'timed out' * @sk_drops: raw/udp drops counter * @sk_ack_backlog: current listen backlog * @sk_max_ack_backlog: listen backlog set in listen() * @sk_uid: user id of owner * @sk_priority: %SO_PRIORITY setting * @sk_type: socket type (%SOCK_STREAM, etc) * @sk_protocol: which protocol this socket belongs in this network family * @sk_peer_pid: &struct pid for this socket peer * @sk_peer_cred: %SO_PEERCRED setting * @sk_rcvlowat: %SO_RCVLOWAT setting * @sk_rcvtimeo: %SO_RCVTIMEO setting * @sk_sndtimeo: %SO_SNDTIMEO setting * @sk_txhash: computed flow hash for use on transmit * @sk_filter: socket filtering instructions * @sk_timer: sock cleanup timer * @sk_stamp: time stamp of last packet received * @sk_tsflags: SO_TIMESTAMPING socket options * @sk_tskey: counter to disambiguate concurrent tstamp requests * @sk_zckey: counter to order MSG_ZEROCOPY notifications * @sk_socket: Identd and reporting IO signals * @sk_user_data: RPC layer private data * @sk_frag: cached page frag * @sk_peek_off: current peek_offset value * @sk_send_head: front of stuff to transmit * @sk_security: used by security modules * @sk_mark: generic packet mark * @sk_cgrp_data: cgroup data for this cgroup * @sk_memcg: this socket memory cgroup association * @sk_write_pending: a write to stream socket waits to start * @sk_state_change: callback to indicate change in the state of the sock * @sk_data_ready: callback to indicate there is data to be processed * @sk_write_space: callback to indicate there is bf sending space available * @sk_error_report: callback to indicate errors (eg %MSG_ERRQUEUE) * @sk_backlog_rcv: callback to process the backlog * @sk_destruct: called at sock freeing time, ie when all refcnt == 0 * @sk_reuseport_cb: reuseport group container * @sk_rcu: used during RCU grace period */ struct sock { /* * Now struct inet_timewait_sock also uses sock_common, so please just * don't add nothing before this first member (__sk_common) --acme */ struct sock_common __sk_common; #define sk_node __sk_common.skc_node #define sk_nulls_node __sk_common.skc_nulls_node #define sk_refcnt __sk_common.skc_refcnt #define sk_tx_queue_mapping __sk_common.skc_tx_queue_mapping #define sk_dontcopy_begin __sk_common.skc_dontcopy_begin #define sk_dontcopy_end __sk_common.skc_dontcopy_end #define sk_hash __sk_common.skc_hash #define sk_portpair __sk_common.skc_portpair #define sk_num __sk_common.skc_num #define sk_dport __sk_common.skc_dport #define sk_addrpair __sk_common.skc_addrpair #define sk_daddr __sk_common.skc_daddr #define sk_rcv_saddr __sk_common.skc_rcv_saddr #define sk_family __sk_common.skc_family #define sk_state __sk_common.skc_state #define sk_reuse __sk_common.skc_reuse #define sk_reuseport __sk_common.skc_reuseport #define sk_ipv6only __sk_common.skc_ipv6only #define sk_net_refcnt __sk_common.skc_net_refcnt #define sk_bound_dev_if __sk_common.skc_bound_dev_if #define sk_bind_node __sk_common.skc_bind_node #define sk_prot __sk_common.skc_prot #define sk_net __sk_common.skc_net #define sk_v6_daddr __sk_common.skc_v6_daddr #define sk_v6_rcv_saddr __sk_common.skc_v6_rcv_saddr #define sk_cookie __sk_common.skc_cookie #define sk_incoming_cpu __sk_common.skc_incoming_cpu #define sk_flags __sk_common.skc_flags #define sk_rxhash __sk_common.skc_rxhash socket_lock_t sk_lock; atomic_t sk_drops; int sk_rcvlowat; struct sk_buff_head sk_error_queue; struct sk_buff_head sk_receive_queue; /* * The backlog queue is special, it is always used with * the per-socket spinlock held and requires low latency * access. Therefore we special case it implementation. * Note : rmem_alloc is in this structure to fill a hole * on 64bit arches, not because its logically part of * backlog. */ struct { atomic_t rmem_alloc; int len; struct sk_buff *head; struct sk_buff *tail; } sk_backlog; #define sk_rmem_alloc sk_backlog.rmem_alloc int sk_forward_alloc; #ifdef CONFIG_NET_RX_BUSY_POLL unsigned int sk_ll_usec; /* ===== mostly read cache line ===== */ unsigned int sk_napi_id; #endif int sk_rcvbuf; struct sk_filter __rcu *sk_filter; union { struct socket_wq __rcu *sk_wq; struct socket_wq *sk_wq_raw; }; #ifdef CONFIG_XFRM struct xfrm_policy __rcu *sk_policy[2]; #endif struct dst_entry *sk_rx_dst; struct dst_entry __rcu *sk_dst_cache; atomic_t sk_omem_alloc; int sk_sndbuf; /* ===== cache line for TX ===== */ int sk_wmem_queued; refcount_t sk_wmem_alloc; unsigned long sk_tsq_flags; struct sk_buff *sk_send_head; struct sk_buff_head sk_write_queue; __s32 sk_peek_off; int sk_write_pending; __u32 sk_dst_pending_confirm; u32 sk_pacing_status; /* see enum sk_pacing */ long sk_sndtimeo; struct timer_list sk_timer; __u32 sk_priority; __u32 sk_mark; u32 sk_pacing_rate; /* bytes per second */ u32 sk_max_pacing_rate; struct page_frag sk_frag; netdev_features_t sk_route_caps; netdev_features_t sk_route_nocaps; int sk_gso_type; unsigned int sk_gso_max_size; gfp_t sk_allocation; __u32 sk_txhash; /* * Because of non atomicity rules, all * changes are protected by socket lock. */ unsigned int __sk_flags_offset[0]; #ifdef __BIG_ENDIAN_BITFIELD #define SK_FL_PROTO_SHIFT 16 #define SK_FL_PROTO_MASK 0x00ff0000 #define SK_FL_TYPE_SHIFT 0 #define SK_FL_TYPE_MASK 0x0000ffff #else #define SK_FL_PROTO_SHIFT 8 #define SK_FL_PROTO_MASK 0x0000ff00 #define SK_FL_TYPE_SHIFT 16 #define SK_FL_TYPE_MASK 0xffff0000 #endif kmemcheck_bitfield_begin(flags); unsigned int sk_padding : 1, sk_kern_sock : 1, sk_no_check_tx : 1, sk_no_check_rx : 1, sk_userlocks : 4, sk_protocol : 8, sk_type : 16; #define SK_PROTOCOL_MAX U8_MAX kmemcheck_bitfield_end(flags); u16 sk_gso_max_segs; unsigned long sk_lingertime; struct proto *sk_prot_creator; rwlock_t sk_callback_lock; int sk_err, sk_err_soft; u32 sk_ack_backlog; u32 sk_max_ack_backlog; kuid_t sk_uid; struct pid *sk_peer_pid; const struct cred *sk_peer_cred; long sk_rcvtimeo; ktime_t sk_stamp; u16 sk_tsflags; u8 sk_shutdown; u32 sk_tskey; atomic_t sk_zckey; struct socket *sk_socket; void *sk_user_data; #ifdef CONFIG_SECURITY void *sk_security; #endif struct sock_cgroup_data sk_cgrp_data; struct mem_cgroup *sk_memcg; void (*sk_state_change)(struct sock *sk); void (*sk_data_ready)(struct sock *sk); void (*sk_write_space)(struct sock *sk); void (*sk_error_report)(struct sock *sk); int (*sk_backlog_rcv)(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb); void (*sk_destruct)(struct sock *sk); struct sock_reuseport __rcu *sk_reuseport_cb; struct rcu_head sk_rcu; };