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0001 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
0002 
0003 ============
0004 Timestamping
0005 ============
0006 
0007 
0008 1. Control Interfaces
0009 =====================
0010 
0011 The interfaces for receiving network packages timestamps are:
0012 
0013 SO_TIMESTAMP
0014   Generates a timestamp for each incoming packet in (not necessarily
0015   monotonic) system time. Reports the timestamp via recvmsg() in a
0016   control message in usec resolution.
0017   SO_TIMESTAMP is defined as SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW or SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD
0018   based on the architecture type and time_t representation of libc.
0019   Control message format is in struct __kernel_old_timeval for
0020   SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD and in struct __kernel_sock_timeval for
0021   SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW options respectively.
0022 
0023 SO_TIMESTAMPNS
0024   Same timestamping mechanism as SO_TIMESTAMP, but reports the
0025   timestamp as struct timespec in nsec resolution.
0026   SO_TIMESTAMPNS is defined as SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW or SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD
0027   based on the architecture type and time_t representation of libc.
0028   Control message format is in struct timespec for SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD
0029   and in struct __kernel_timespec for SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW options
0030   respectively.
0031 
0032 IP_MULTICAST_LOOP + SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]
0033   Only for multicast:approximate transmit timestamp obtained by
0034   reading the looped packet receive timestamp.
0035 
0036 SO_TIMESTAMPING
0037   Generates timestamps on reception, transmission or both. Supports
0038   multiple timestamp sources, including hardware. Supports generating
0039   timestamps for stream sockets.
0040 
0041 
0042 1.1 SO_TIMESTAMP (also SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW)
0043 -------------------------------------------------------------
0044 
0045 This socket option enables timestamping of datagrams on the reception
0046 path. Because the destination socket, if any, is not known early in
0047 the network stack, the feature has to be enabled for all packets. The
0048 same is true for all early receive timestamp options.
0049 
0050 For interface details, see `man 7 socket`.
0051 
0052 Always use SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
0053 struct __kernel_sock_timeval format.
0054 
0055 SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
0056 on 32 bit machines.
0057 
0058 1.2 SO_TIMESTAMPNS (also SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW)
0059 -------------------------------------------------------------------
0060 
0061 This option is identical to SO_TIMESTAMP except for the returned data type.
0062 Its struct timespec allows for higher resolution (ns) timestamps than the
0063 timeval of SO_TIMESTAMP (ms).
0064 
0065 Always use SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
0066 struct __kernel_timespec format.
0067 
0068 SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
0069 on 32 bit machines.
0070 
0071 1.3 SO_TIMESTAMPING (also SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW)
0072 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
0073 
0074 Supports multiple types of timestamp requests. As a result, this
0075 socket option takes a bitmap of flags, not a boolean. In::
0076 
0077   err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, &val, sizeof(val));
0078 
0079 val is an integer with any of the following bits set. Setting other
0080 bit returns EINVAL and does not change the current state.
0081 
0082 The socket option configures timestamp generation for individual
0083 sk_buffs (1.3.1), timestamp reporting to the socket's error
0084 queue (1.3.2) and options (1.3.3). Timestamp generation can also
0085 be enabled for individual sendmsg calls using cmsg (1.3.4).
0086 
0087 
0088 1.3.1 Timestamp Generation
0089 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0090 
0091 Some bits are requests to the stack to try to generate timestamps. Any
0092 combination of them is valid. Changes to these bits apply to newly
0093 created packets, not to packets already in the stack. As a result, it
0094 is possible to selectively request timestamps for a subset of packets
0095 (e.g., for sampling) by embedding an send() call within two setsockopt
0096 calls, one to enable timestamp generation and one to disable it.
0097 Timestamps may also be generated for reasons other than being
0098 requested by a particular socket, such as when receive timestamping is
0099 enabled system wide, as explained earlier.
0100 
0101 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE:
0102   Request rx timestamps generated by the network adapter.
0103 
0104 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE:
0105   Request rx timestamps when data enters the kernel. These timestamps
0106   are generated just after a device driver hands a packet to the
0107   kernel receive stack.
0108 
0109 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE:
0110   Request tx timestamps generated by the network adapter. This flag
0111   can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
0112 
0113 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE:
0114   Request tx timestamps when data leaves the kernel. These timestamps
0115   are generated in the device driver as close as possible, but always
0116   prior to, passing the packet to the network interface. Hence, they
0117   require driver support and may not be available for all devices.
0118   This flag can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
0119 
0120 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SCHED:
0121   Request tx timestamps prior to entering the packet scheduler. Kernel
0122   transmit latency is, if long, often dominated by queuing delay. The
0123   difference between this timestamp and one taken at
0124   SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE will expose this latency independent
0125   of protocol processing. The latency incurred in protocol
0126   processing, if any, can be computed by subtracting a userspace
0127   timestamp taken immediately before send() from this timestamp. On
0128   machines with virtual devices where a transmitted packet travels
0129   through multiple devices and, hence, multiple packet schedulers,
0130   a timestamp is generated at each layer. This allows for fine
0131   grained measurement of queuing delay. This flag can be enabled
0132   via both socket options and control messages.
0133 
0134 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK:
0135   Request tx timestamps when all data in the send buffer has been
0136   acknowledged. This only makes sense for reliable protocols. It is
0137   currently only implemented for TCP. For that protocol, it may
0138   over-report measurement, because the timestamp is generated when all
0139   data up to and including the buffer at send() was acknowledged: the
0140   cumulative acknowledgment. The mechanism ignores SACK and FACK.
0141   This flag can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
0142 
0143 
0144 1.3.2 Timestamp Reporting
0145 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0146 
0147 The other three bits control which timestamps will be reported in a
0148 generated control message. Changes to the bits take immediate
0149 effect at the timestamp reporting locations in the stack. Timestamps
0150 are only reported for packets that also have the relevant timestamp
0151 generation request set.
0152 
0153 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE:
0154   Report any software timestamps when available.
0155 
0156 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE:
0157   This option is deprecated and ignored.
0158 
0159 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE:
0160   Report hardware timestamps as generated by
0161   SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE when available.
0162 
0163 
0164 1.3.3 Timestamp Options
0165 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0166 
0167 The interface supports the options
0168 
0169 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID:
0170   Generate a unique identifier along with each packet. A process can
0171   have multiple concurrent timestamping requests outstanding. Packets
0172   can be reordered in the transmit path, for instance in the packet
0173   scheduler. In that case timestamps will be queued onto the error
0174   queue out of order from the original send() calls. It is not always
0175   possible to uniquely match timestamps to the original send() calls
0176   based on timestamp order or payload inspection alone, then.
0177 
0178   This option associates each packet at send() with a unique
0179   identifier and returns that along with the timestamp. The identifier
0180   is derived from a per-socket u32 counter (that wraps). For datagram
0181   sockets, the counter increments with each sent packet. For stream
0182   sockets, it increments with every byte.
0183 
0184   The counter starts at zero. It is initialized the first time that
0185   the socket option is enabled. It is reset each time the option is
0186   enabled after having been disabled. Resetting the counter does not
0187   change the identifiers of existing packets in the system.
0188 
0189   This option is implemented only for transmit timestamps. There, the
0190   timestamp is always looped along with a struct sock_extended_err.
0191   The option modifies field ee_data to pass an id that is unique
0192   among all possibly concurrently outstanding timestamp requests for
0193   that socket.
0194 
0195 
0196 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG:
0197   Support recv() cmsg for all timestamped packets. Control messages
0198   are already supported unconditionally on all packets with receive
0199   timestamps and on IPv6 packets with transmit timestamp. This option
0200   extends them to IPv4 packets with transmit timestamp. One use case
0201   is to correlate packets with their egress device, by enabling socket
0202   option IP_PKTINFO simultaneously.
0203 
0204 
0205 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY:
0206   Applies to transmit timestamps only. Makes the kernel return the
0207   timestamp as a cmsg alongside an empty packet, as opposed to
0208   alongside the original packet. This reduces the amount of memory
0209   charged to the socket's receive budget (SO_RCVBUF) and delivers
0210   the timestamp even if sysctl net.core.tstamp_allow_data is 0.
0211   This option disables SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG.
0212 
0213 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_STATS:
0214   Optional stats that are obtained along with the transmit timestamps.
0215   It must be used together with SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY. When the
0216   transmit timestamp is available, the stats are available in a
0217   separate control message of type SCM_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_STATS, as a
0218   list of TLVs (struct nlattr) of types. These stats allow the
0219   application to associate various transport layer stats with
0220   the transmit timestamps, such as how long a certain block of
0221   data was limited by peer's receiver window.
0222 
0223 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_PKTINFO:
0224   Enable the SCM_TIMESTAMPING_PKTINFO control message for incoming
0225   packets with hardware timestamps. The message contains struct
0226   scm_ts_pktinfo, which supplies the index of the real interface which
0227   received the packet and its length at layer 2. A valid (non-zero)
0228   interface index will be returned only if CONFIG_NET_RX_BUSY_POLL is
0229   enabled and the driver is using NAPI. The struct contains also two
0230   other fields, but they are reserved and undefined.
0231 
0232 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TX_SWHW:
0233   Request both hardware and software timestamps for outgoing packets
0234   when SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
0235   are enabled at the same time. If both timestamps are generated,
0236   two separate messages will be looped to the socket's error queue,
0237   each containing just one timestamp.
0238 
0239 New applications are encouraged to pass SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID to
0240 disambiguate timestamps and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY to operate
0241 regardless of the setting of sysctl net.core.tstamp_allow_data.
0242 
0243 An exception is when a process needs additional cmsg data, for
0244 instance SOL_IP/IP_PKTINFO to detect the egress network interface.
0245 Then pass option SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG. This option depends on
0246 having access to the contents of the original packet, so cannot be
0247 combined with SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY.
0248 
0249 
0250 1.3.4. Enabling timestamps via control messages
0251 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0252 
0253 In addition to socket options, timestamp generation can be requested
0254 per write via cmsg, only for SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* (see Section 1.3.1).
0255 Using this feature, applications can sample timestamps per sendmsg()
0256 without paying the overhead of enabling and disabling timestamps via
0257 setsockopt::
0258 
0259   struct msghdr *msg;
0260   ...
0261   cmsg                         = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(msg);
0262   cmsg->cmsg_level             = SOL_SOCKET;
0263   cmsg->cmsg_type              = SO_TIMESTAMPING;
0264   cmsg->cmsg_len               = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(__u32));
0265   *((__u32 *) CMSG_DATA(cmsg)) = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SCHED |
0266                                  SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE |
0267                                  SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK;
0268   err = sendmsg(fd, msg, 0);
0269 
0270 The SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* flags set via cmsg will override
0271 the SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* flags set via setsockopt.
0272 
0273 Moreover, applications must still enable timestamp reporting via
0274 setsockopt to receive timestamps::
0275 
0276   __u32 val = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE |
0277               SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID /* or any other flag */;
0278   err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, &val, sizeof(val));
0279 
0280 
0281 1.4 Bytestream Timestamps
0282 -------------------------
0283 
0284 The SO_TIMESTAMPING interface supports timestamping of bytes in a
0285 bytestream. Each request is interpreted as a request for when the
0286 entire contents of the buffer has passed a timestamping point. That
0287 is, for streams option SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE will record
0288 when all bytes have reached the device driver, regardless of how
0289 many packets the data has been converted into.
0290 
0291 In general, bytestreams have no natural delimiters and therefore
0292 correlating a timestamp with data is non-trivial. A range of bytes
0293 may be split across segments, any segments may be merged (possibly
0294 coalescing sections of previously segmented buffers associated with
0295 independent send() calls). Segments can be reordered and the same
0296 byte range can coexist in multiple segments for protocols that
0297 implement retransmissions.
0298 
0299 It is essential that all timestamps implement the same semantics,
0300 regardless of these possible transformations, as otherwise they are
0301 incomparable. Handling "rare" corner cases differently from the
0302 simple case (a 1:1 mapping from buffer to skb) is insufficient
0303 because performance debugging often needs to focus on such outliers.
0304 
0305 In practice, timestamps can be correlated with segments of a
0306 bytestream consistently, if both semantics of the timestamp and the
0307 timing of measurement are chosen correctly. This challenge is no
0308 different from deciding on a strategy for IP fragmentation. There, the
0309 definition is that only the first fragment is timestamped. For
0310 bytestreams, we chose that a timestamp is generated only when all
0311 bytes have passed a point. SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK as defined is easy to
0312 implement and reason about. An implementation that has to take into
0313 account SACK would be more complex due to possible transmission holes
0314 and out of order arrival.
0315 
0316 On the host, TCP can also break the simple 1:1 mapping from buffer to
0317 skbuff as a result of Nagle, cork, autocork, segmentation and GSO. The
0318 implementation ensures correctness in all cases by tracking the
0319 individual last byte passed to send(), even if it is no longer the
0320 last byte after an skbuff extend or merge operation. It stores the
0321 relevant sequence number in skb_shinfo(skb)->tskey. Because an skbuff
0322 has only one such field, only one timestamp can be generated.
0323 
0324 In rare cases, a timestamp request can be missed if two requests are
0325 collapsed onto the same skb. A process can detect this situation by
0326 enabling SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID and comparing the byte offset at
0327 send time with the value returned for each timestamp. It can prevent
0328 the situation by always flushing the TCP stack in between requests,
0329 for instance by enabling TCP_NODELAY and disabling TCP_CORK and
0330 autocork.
0331 
0332 These precautions ensure that the timestamp is generated only when all
0333 bytes have passed a timestamp point, assuming that the network stack
0334 itself does not reorder the segments. The stack indeed tries to avoid
0335 reordering. The one exception is under administrator control: it is
0336 possible to construct a packet scheduler configuration that delays
0337 segments from the same stream differently. Such a setup would be
0338 unusual.
0339 
0340 
0341 2 Data Interfaces
0342 ==================
0343 
0344 Timestamps are read using the ancillary data feature of recvmsg().
0345 See `man 3 cmsg` for details of this interface. The socket manual
0346 page (`man 7 socket`) describes how timestamps generated with
0347 SO_TIMESTAMP and SO_TIMESTAMPNS records can be retrieved.
0348 
0349 
0350 2.1 SCM_TIMESTAMPING records
0351 ----------------------------
0352 
0353 These timestamps are returned in a control message with cmsg_level
0354 SOL_SOCKET, cmsg_type SCM_TIMESTAMPING, and payload of type
0355 
0356 For SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD::
0357 
0358         struct scm_timestamping {
0359                 struct timespec ts[3];
0360         };
0361 
0362 For SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW::
0363 
0364         struct scm_timestamping64 {
0365                 struct __kernel_timespec ts[3];
0366 
0367 Always use SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
0368 struct scm_timestamping64 format.
0369 
0370 SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
0371 on 32 bit machines.
0372 
0373 The structure can return up to three timestamps. This is a legacy
0374 feature. At least one field is non-zero at any time. Most timestamps
0375 are passed in ts[0]. Hardware timestamps are passed in ts[2].
0376 
0377 ts[1] used to hold hardware timestamps converted to system time.
0378 Instead, expose the hardware clock device on the NIC directly as
0379 a HW PTP clock source, to allow time conversion in userspace and
0380 optionally synchronize system time with a userspace PTP stack such
0381 as linuxptp. For the PTP clock API, see Documentation/driver-api/ptp.rst.
0382 
0383 Note that if the SO_TIMESTAMP or SO_TIMESTAMPNS option is enabled
0384 together with SO_TIMESTAMPING using SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE, a false
0385 software timestamp will be generated in the recvmsg() call and passed
0386 in ts[0] when a real software timestamp is missing. This happens also
0387 on hardware transmit timestamps.
0388 
0389 2.1.1 Transmit timestamps with MSG_ERRQUEUE
0390 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0391 
0392 For transmit timestamps the outgoing packet is looped back to the
0393 socket's error queue with the send timestamp(s) attached. A process
0394 receives the timestamps by calling recvmsg() with flag MSG_ERRQUEUE
0395 set and with a msg_control buffer sufficiently large to receive the
0396 relevant metadata structures. The recvmsg call returns the original
0397 outgoing data packet with two ancillary messages attached.
0398 
0399 A message of cm_level SOL_IP(V6) and cm_type IP(V6)_RECVERR
0400 embeds a struct sock_extended_err. This defines the error type. For
0401 timestamps, the ee_errno field is ENOMSG. The other ancillary message
0402 will have cm_level SOL_SOCKET and cm_type SCM_TIMESTAMPING. This
0403 embeds the struct scm_timestamping.
0404 
0405 
0406 2.1.1.2 Timestamp types
0407 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0408 
0409 The semantics of the three struct timespec are defined by field
0410 ee_info in the extended error structure. It contains a value of
0411 type SCM_TSTAMP_* to define the actual timestamp passed in
0412 scm_timestamping.
0413 
0414 The SCM_TSTAMP_* types are 1:1 matches to the SOF_TIMESTAMPING_*
0415 control fields discussed previously, with one exception. For legacy
0416 reasons, SCM_TSTAMP_SND is equal to zero and can be set for both
0417 SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE. It
0418 is the first if ts[2] is non-zero, the second otherwise, in which
0419 case the timestamp is stored in ts[0].
0420 
0421 
0422 2.1.1.3 Fragmentation
0423 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0424 
0425 Fragmentation of outgoing datagrams is rare, but is possible, e.g., by
0426 explicitly disabling PMTU discovery. If an outgoing packet is fragmented,
0427 then only the first fragment is timestamped and returned to the sending
0428 socket.
0429 
0430 
0431 2.1.1.4 Packet Payload
0432 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0433 
0434 The calling application is often not interested in receiving the whole
0435 packet payload that it passed to the stack originally: the socket
0436 error queue mechanism is just a method to piggyback the timestamp on.
0437 In this case, the application can choose to read datagrams with a
0438 smaller buffer, possibly even of length 0. The payload is truncated
0439 accordingly. Until the process calls recvmsg() on the error queue,
0440 however, the full packet is queued, taking up budget from SO_RCVBUF.
0441 
0442 
0443 2.1.1.5 Blocking Read
0444 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0445 
0446 Reading from the error queue is always a non-blocking operation. To
0447 block waiting on a timestamp, use poll or select. poll() will return
0448 POLLERR in pollfd.revents if any data is ready on the error queue.
0449 There is no need to pass this flag in pollfd.events. This flag is
0450 ignored on request. See also `man 2 poll`.
0451 
0452 
0453 2.1.2 Receive timestamps
0454 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0455 
0456 On reception, there is no reason to read from the socket error queue.
0457 The SCM_TIMESTAMPING ancillary data is sent along with the packet data
0458 on a normal recvmsg(). Since this is not a socket error, it is not
0459 accompanied by a message SOL_IP(V6)/IP(V6)_RECVERROR. In this case,
0460 the meaning of the three fields in struct scm_timestamping is
0461 implicitly defined. ts[0] holds a software timestamp if set, ts[1]
0462 is again deprecated and ts[2] holds a hardware timestamp if set.
0463 
0464 
0465 3. Hardware Timestamping configuration: SIOCSHWTSTAMP and SIOCGHWTSTAMP
0466 =======================================================================
0467 
0468 Hardware time stamping must also be initialized for each device driver
0469 that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is defined in
0470 include/uapi/linux/net_tstamp.h as::
0471 
0472         struct hwtstamp_config {
0473                 int flags;      /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
0474                 int tx_type;    /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
0475                 int rx_filter;  /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
0476         };
0477 
0478 Desired behavior is passed into the kernel and to a specific device by
0479 calling ioctl(SIOCSHWTSTAMP) with a pointer to a struct ifreq whose
0480 ifr_data points to a struct hwtstamp_config. The tx_type and
0481 rx_filter are hints to the driver what it is expected to do. If
0482 the requested fine-grained filtering for incoming packets is not
0483 supported, the driver may time stamp more than just the requested types
0484 of packets.
0485 
0486 Drivers are free to use a more permissive configuration than the requested
0487 configuration. It is expected that drivers should only implement directly the
0488 most generic mode that can be supported. For example if the hardware can
0489 support HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V2_EVENT, then it should generally always upscale
0490 HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V2_L2_SYNC, and so forth, as HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V2_EVENT
0491 is more generic (and more useful to applications).
0492 
0493 A driver which supports hardware time stamping shall update the struct
0494 with the actual, possibly more permissive configuration. If the
0495 requested packets cannot be time stamped, then nothing should be
0496 changed and ERANGE shall be returned (in contrast to EINVAL, which
0497 indicates that SIOCSHWTSTAMP is not supported at all).
0498 
0499 Only a processes with admin rights may change the configuration. User
0500 space is responsible to ensure that multiple processes don't interfere
0501 with each other and that the settings are reset.
0502 
0503 Any process can read the actual configuration by passing this
0504 structure to ioctl(SIOCGHWTSTAMP) in the same way.  However, this has
0505 not been implemented in all drivers.
0506 
0507 ::
0508 
0509     /* possible values for hwtstamp_config->tx_type */
0510     enum {
0511             /*
0512             * no outgoing packet will need hardware time stamping;
0513             * should a packet arrive which asks for it, no hardware
0514             * time stamping will be done
0515             */
0516             HWTSTAMP_TX_OFF,
0517 
0518             /*
0519             * enables hardware time stamping for outgoing packets;
0520             * the sender of the packet decides which are to be
0521             * time stamped by setting SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
0522             * before sending the packet
0523             */
0524             HWTSTAMP_TX_ON,
0525     };
0526 
0527     /* possible values for hwtstamp_config->rx_filter */
0528     enum {
0529             /* time stamp no incoming packet at all */
0530             HWTSTAMP_FILTER_NONE,
0531 
0532             /* time stamp any incoming packet */
0533             HWTSTAMP_FILTER_ALL,
0534 
0535             /* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
0536             HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
0537 
0538             /* PTP v1, UDP, any kind of event packet */
0539             HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V1_L4_EVENT,
0540 
0541             /* for the complete list of values, please check
0542             * the include file include/uapi/linux/net_tstamp.h
0543             */
0544     };
0545 
0546 3.1 Hardware Timestamping Implementation: Device Drivers
0547 --------------------------------------------------------
0548 
0549 A driver which supports hardware time stamping must support the
0550 SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl and update the supplied struct hwtstamp_config with
0551 the actual values as described in the section on SIOCSHWTSTAMP.  It
0552 should also support SIOCGHWTSTAMP.
0553 
0554 Time stamps for received packets must be stored in the skb. To get a pointer
0555 to the shared time stamp structure of the skb call skb_hwtstamps(). Then
0556 set the time stamps in the structure::
0557 
0558     struct skb_shared_hwtstamps {
0559             /* hardware time stamp transformed into duration
0560             * since arbitrary point in time
0561             */
0562             ktime_t     hwtstamp;
0563     };
0564 
0565 Time stamps for outgoing packets are to be generated as follows:
0566 
0567 - In hard_start_xmit(), check if (skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP)
0568   is set no-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected to do hardware time
0569   stamping.
0570 - If this is possible for the skb and requested, then declare
0571   that the driver is doing the time stamping by setting the flag
0572   SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags , e.g. with::
0573 
0574       skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
0575 
0576   You might want to keep a pointer to the associated skb for the next step
0577   and not free the skb. A driver not supporting hardware time stamping doesn't
0578   do that. A driver must never touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store
0579   software generated time stamps by the network subsystem.
0580 - Driver should call skb_tx_timestamp() as close to passing sk_buff to hardware
0581   as possible. skb_tx_timestamp() provides a software time stamp if requested
0582   and hardware timestamping is not possible (SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS not set).
0583 - As soon as the driver has sent the packet and/or obtained a
0584   hardware time stamp for it, it passes the time stamp back by
0585   calling skb_tstamp_tx() with the original skb, the raw
0586   hardware time stamp. skb_tstamp_tx() clones the original skb and
0587   adds the timestamps, therefore the original skb has to be freed now.
0588   If obtaining the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver
0589   should not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
0590   this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline than other
0591   software time stamping and therefore could lead to unexpected deltas
0592   between time stamps.
0593 
0594 3.2 Special considerations for stacked PTP Hardware Clocks
0595 ----------------------------------------------------------
0596 
0597 There are situations when there may be more than one PHC (PTP Hardware Clock)
0598 in the data path of a packet. The kernel has no explicit mechanism to allow the
0599 user to select which PHC to use for timestamping Ethernet frames. Instead, the
0600 assumption is that the outermost PHC is always the most preferable, and that
0601 kernel drivers collaborate towards achieving that goal. Currently there are 3
0602 cases of stacked PHCs, detailed below:
0603 
0604 3.2.1 DSA (Distributed Switch Architecture) switches
0605 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0606 
0607 These are Ethernet switches which have one of their ports connected to an
0608 (otherwise completely unaware) host Ethernet interface, and perform the role of
0609 a port multiplier with optional forwarding acceleration features.  Each DSA
0610 switch port is visible to the user as a standalone (virtual) network interface,
0611 and its network I/O is performed, under the hood, indirectly through the host
0612 interface (redirecting to the host port on TX, and intercepting frames on RX).
0613 
0614 When a DSA switch is attached to a host port, PTP synchronization has to
0615 suffer, since the switch's variable queuing delay introduces a path delay
0616 jitter between the host port and its PTP partner. For this reason, some DSA
0617 switches include a timestamping clock of their own, and have the ability to
0618 perform network timestamping on their own MAC, such that path delays only
0619 measure wire and PHY propagation latencies. Timestamping DSA switches are
0620 supported in Linux and expose the same ABI as any other network interface (save
0621 for the fact that the DSA interfaces are in fact virtual in terms of network
0622 I/O, they do have their own PHC).  It is typical, but not mandatory, for all
0623 interfaces of a DSA switch to share the same PHC.
0624 
0625 By design, PTP timestamping with a DSA switch does not need any special
0626 handling in the driver for the host port it is attached to.  However, when the
0627 host port also supports PTP timestamping, DSA will take care of intercepting
0628 the ``.ndo_eth_ioctl`` calls towards the host port, and block attempts to enable
0629 hardware timestamping on it. This is because the SO_TIMESTAMPING API does not
0630 allow the delivery of multiple hardware timestamps for the same packet, so
0631 anybody else except for the DSA switch port must be prevented from doing so.
0632 
0633 In the generic layer, DSA provides the following infrastructure for PTP
0634 timestamping:
0635 
0636 - ``.port_txtstamp()``: a hook called prior to the transmission of
0637   packets with a hardware TX timestamping request from user space.
0638   This is required for two-step timestamping, since the hardware
0639   timestamp becomes available after the actual MAC transmission, so the
0640   driver must be prepared to correlate the timestamp with the original
0641   packet so that it can re-enqueue the packet back into the socket's
0642   error queue. To save the packet for when the timestamp becomes
0643   available, the driver can call ``skb_clone_sk`` , save the clone pointer
0644   in skb->cb and enqueue a tx skb queue. Typically, a switch will have a
0645   PTP TX timestamp register (or sometimes a FIFO) where the timestamp
0646   becomes available. In case of a FIFO, the hardware might store
0647   key-value pairs of PTP sequence ID/message type/domain number and the
0648   actual timestamp. To perform the correlation correctly between the
0649   packets in a queue waiting for timestamping and the actual timestamps,
0650   drivers can use a BPF classifier (``ptp_classify_raw``) to identify
0651   the PTP transport type, and ``ptp_parse_header`` to interpret the PTP
0652   header fields. There may be an IRQ that is raised upon this
0653   timestamp's availability, or the driver might have to poll after
0654   invoking ``dev_queue_xmit()`` towards the host interface.
0655   One-step TX timestamping do not require packet cloning, since there is
0656   no follow-up message required by the PTP protocol (because the
0657   TX timestamp is embedded into the packet by the MAC), and therefore
0658   user space does not expect the packet annotated with the TX timestamp
0659   to be re-enqueued into its socket's error queue.
0660 
0661 - ``.port_rxtstamp()``: On RX, the BPF classifier is run by DSA to
0662   identify PTP event messages (any other packets, including PTP general
0663   messages, are not timestamped). The original (and only) timestampable
0664   skb is provided to the driver, for it to annotate it with a timestamp,
0665   if that is immediately available, or defer to later. On reception,
0666   timestamps might either be available in-band (through metadata in the
0667   DSA header, or attached in other ways to the packet), or out-of-band
0668   (through another RX timestamping FIFO). Deferral on RX is typically
0669   necessary when retrieving the timestamp needs a sleepable context. In
0670   that case, it is the responsibility of the DSA driver to call
0671   ``netif_rx()`` on the freshly timestamped skb.
0672 
0673 3.2.2 Ethernet PHYs
0674 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0675 
0676 These are devices that typically fulfill a Layer 1 role in the network stack,
0677 hence they do not have a representation in terms of a network interface as DSA
0678 switches do. However, PHYs may be able to detect and timestamp PTP packets, for
0679 performance reasons: timestamps taken as close as possible to the wire have the
0680 potential to yield a more stable and precise synchronization.
0681 
0682 A PHY driver that supports PTP timestamping must create a ``struct
0683 mii_timestamper`` and add a pointer to it in ``phydev->mii_ts``. The presence
0684 of this pointer will be checked by the networking stack.
0685 
0686 Since PHYs do not have network interface representations, the timestamping and
0687 ethtool ioctl operations for them need to be mediated by their respective MAC
0688 driver.  Therefore, as opposed to DSA switches, modifications need to be done
0689 to each individual MAC driver for PHY timestamping support. This entails:
0690 
0691 - Checking, in ``.ndo_eth_ioctl``, whether ``phy_has_hwtstamp(netdev->phydev)``
0692   is true or not. If it is, then the MAC driver should not process this request
0693   but instead pass it on to the PHY using ``phy_mii_ioctl()``.
0694 
0695 - On RX, special intervention may or may not be needed, depending on the
0696   function used to deliver skb's up the network stack. In the case of plain
0697   ``netif_rx()`` and similar, MAC drivers must check whether
0698   ``skb_defer_rx_timestamp(skb)`` is necessary or not - and if it is, don't
0699   call ``netif_rx()`` at all.  If ``CONFIG_NETWORK_PHY_TIMESTAMPING`` is
0700   enabled, and ``skb->dev->phydev->mii_ts`` exists, its ``.rxtstamp()`` hook
0701   will be called now, to determine, using logic very similar to DSA, whether
0702   deferral for RX timestamping is necessary.  Again like DSA, it becomes the
0703   responsibility of the PHY driver to send the packet up the stack when the
0704   timestamp is available.
0705 
0706   For other skb receive functions, such as ``napi_gro_receive`` and
0707   ``netif_receive_skb``, the stack automatically checks whether
0708   ``skb_defer_rx_timestamp()`` is necessary, so this check is not needed inside
0709   the driver.
0710 
0711 - On TX, again, special intervention might or might not be needed.  The
0712   function that calls the ``mii_ts->txtstamp()`` hook is named
0713   ``skb_clone_tx_timestamp()``. This function can either be called directly
0714   (case in which explicit MAC driver support is indeed needed), but the
0715   function also piggybacks from the ``skb_tx_timestamp()`` call, which many MAC
0716   drivers already perform for software timestamping purposes. Therefore, if a
0717   MAC supports software timestamping, it does not need to do anything further
0718   at this stage.
0719 
0720 3.2.3 MII bus snooping devices
0721 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0722 
0723 These perform the same role as timestamping Ethernet PHYs, save for the fact
0724 that they are discrete devices and can therefore be used in conjunction with
0725 any PHY even if it doesn't support timestamping. In Linux, they are
0726 discoverable and attachable to a ``struct phy_device`` through Device Tree, and
0727 for the rest, they use the same mii_ts infrastructure as those. See
0728 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ptp/timestamper.txt for more details.
0729 
0730 3.2.4 Other caveats for MAC drivers
0731 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0732 
0733 Stacked PHCs, especially DSA (but not only) - since that doesn't require any
0734 modification to MAC drivers, so it is more difficult to ensure correctness of
0735 all possible code paths - is that they uncover bugs which were impossible to
0736 trigger before the existence of stacked PTP clocks.  One example has to do with
0737 this line of code, already presented earlier::
0738 
0739       skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
0740 
0741 Any TX timestamping logic, be it a plain MAC driver, a DSA switch driver, a PHY
0742 driver or a MII bus snooping device driver, should set this flag.
0743 But a MAC driver that is unaware of PHC stacking might get tripped up by
0744 somebody other than itself setting this flag, and deliver a duplicate
0745 timestamp.
0746 For example, a typical driver design for TX timestamping might be to split the
0747 transmission part into 2 portions:
0748 
0749 1. "TX": checks whether PTP timestamping has been previously enabled through
0750    the ``.ndo_eth_ioctl`` ("``priv->hwtstamp_tx_enabled == true``") and the
0751    current skb requires a TX timestamp ("``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags &
0752    SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP``"). If this is true, it sets the
0753    "``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``" flag. Note: as
0754    described above, in the case of a stacked PHC system, this condition should
0755    never trigger, as this MAC is certainly not the outermost PHC. But this is
0756    not where the typical issue is.  Transmission proceeds with this packet.
0757 
0758 2. "TX confirmation": Transmission has finished. The driver checks whether it
0759    is necessary to collect any TX timestamp for it. Here is where the typical
0760    issues are: the MAC driver takes a shortcut and only checks whether
0761    "``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``" was set. With a stacked
0762    PHC system, this is incorrect because this MAC driver is not the only entity
0763    in the TX data path who could have enabled SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in the first
0764    place.
0765 
0766 The correct solution for this problem is for MAC drivers to have a compound
0767 check in their "TX confirmation" portion, not only for
0768 "``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``", but also for
0769 "``priv->hwtstamp_tx_enabled == true``". Because the rest of the system ensures
0770 that PTP timestamping is not enabled for anything other than the outermost PHC,
0771 this enhanced check will avoid delivering a duplicated TX timestamp to user
0772 space.