4 // Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS)
5 // Competence Center NETwork research (NET), St. Augustin, GERMANY
6 // Stefan Bund <g0dil@berlios.de>
8 // This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
9 // it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10 // the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
11 // (at your option) any later version.
13 // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
14 // but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15 // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
16 // GNU General Public License for more details.
18 // You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 // along with this program; if not, write to the
20 // Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
21 // 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
23 /** \mainpage Defining and using a new 'libPacket' Packet Type
25 This howto will introduce the facilities needed to define a new packet type. As example, the
26 \c GREPacket type is defined.
31 \section howto_newpacket_overview Overview
33 The packet library supports two basic packet representations, the more generic one being
34 senf::Packet. This representation does not know anything about the type of packet, its fields or
35 properties. It really only is a bunch of bytes. Possibly there is a preceding packet (header) or
36 a following one, but that is all, a senf::Packet knows.
38 The second representation is implemented by senf::ConcretePacket. This representation derives
39 from senf::Packet and adds information about the packet type, its fields, eventually some
40 invariants or packet specific operations etc. In what follows, we will concentrate on this
41 latter representation.
43 A concrete packet type in senf provides a lot of detailed information about a specific type of
46 \li It provides access to the packets fields
47 \li It may provide additional packet specific functions (e.g. calculating or validating a
49 \li It provides information on the nesting of packets
50 \li It implements packet invariants
52 To define a new packet type, we need to implement two classes which together provide all this
55 \li a \e parser (a class derived from senf::PacketParserBase). This class defines the data
56 fields of the packet header and may also provide additional packet specific functionality.
57 \li a \e packet \e type (a class derived from senf::PacketTypeBase). This class defines, how
58 packets are nested and how to initialize and maintain invariants.
60 The following sections describe how to define these classes. Where appropriate, we will use GRE
61 (Generic Routing Encapsulation) as an example.
63 \section howto_newpacket_gre Introducing the GRE example packet type
65 When defining a new packet type, we start out by answering two important questions:
67 \li What kind of parser is needed for this packet type (fixed size or variable sized).
68 \li Whether the packet has another packet as payload (a nested packet) and how the type of this
69 payload is found (whether a registry is used and if yes, which).
71 In the case of GRE, these questions can be answered by just looking at the GRE specification in
72 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2784">RFC 2784</a>. In Section 2.1 we find the header
76 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
77 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
78 |C| Reserved0 | Ver | Protocol Type |
79 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
80 | Checksum (optional) | Reserved1 (Optional) |
81 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
84 This header is followed by the payload data.
86 Using this protocol definition, we see that the header incorporates optional fields. Therefore
87 it must be dynamically sized: if the \a Checksum \a Present bit \a C is set, both \a Checksum
88 and \a Reserved1 are present, otherwise both must be omitted.
90 Further inspection of the RFC reveals that the \a Protocol \a Type is used to define the type of
91 payload which directly follows the GRE header. This value is an <a
92 href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/ethernet-numbers">ETHERTYPE</a> value. To allow the packet
93 library to automatically parse the GRE payload data, we need to tell the packet library which
94 ETHERTYPE is implemented by which packet type. This kind of association already exists in the
95 form of the senf::EtherTypes registry. Our GRE packet will therefore use this registry.
99 \li The GRE packet header is a dynamically sized header.
100 \li The GRE packet header uses the senf::EtherTypes registry for next-header selection.
103 \section howto_newpacket_parser Implementing the packet parser
105 Each parser is responsible for turning a bunch of bytes into an interpreted header with specific
106 fields. A parser instance is initialized with an iterator (pointer) to the first byte to be
107 interpreted (the first byte of the packet data) and provides member functions to access the
108 header fields. You could implement these members manually, but the SENF library provides a large
109 set of helper macros which simplify this task considerably.
111 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_skeleton The PacketParser skeleton
114 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
116 struct GREPacketParser : public senf::PacketParserBase
118 # include SENF_PARSER()
123 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser);
127 This is the standard skeleton of any parser class: We need to inherit senf::PacketParserBase and
128 start out by including either \ref SENF_PARSER() or \ref SENF_FIXED_PARSER(), depending on
129 whether we define a fixed size or a dynamically sized parser. As \c GREPacketParser is
130 dynamically sized, we include \ref SENF_PARSER().
132 The definition of fields will be described in the next subsection.
134 After the fields have been defined, we need to call the \ref SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE() macro to
135 close of the parser definition. This call takes the name of the parser being defined as it's
138 This is already a valid parser, albeit not a very usable one, since it does not define any
139 fields. We now go back to define the parser fields and begin with the simple part: fields which
142 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_simple Simple field definitions
144 Packet parser fields are defined using special \ref packetparsermacros. We take the fields
145 directly from the packet definition (the GRE RFC in this case). This will give us to the
146 following code fragment:
149 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
150 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 12 );
151 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( version, 3, unsigned );
152 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( protocolType, 16, unsigned );
155 This is a correct \c GREPacket header definition, but there is room for a small optimization:
156 Since the \a protocolType field is exactly 2 bytes wide and is aligned on a byte boundary, we
157 can define it as a UInt16 field (instead of a bitfield):
160 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
161 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 12 );
162 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( version, 3, unsigned );
163 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( protocolType, senf::UInt16Parser );
166 Whereas \ref SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD can only define bit-fields, \ref SENF_PARSER_FIELD can define
167 almost arbitrary field types. The type is specified by passing the name of another parser to
168 \ref SENF_PARSER_FIELD.
170 It is important to understand, that the accessors do \e not return the parsed field value.
171 Instead, they return another \e parser which is used to further interpret the value. This is due
172 to the inherently recursive nature of the SENF packet parsers, that allows us to define rather
173 complex header formats if needed. Of course, at some point we will hit bottom and need real
174 values. This is, what <em>value parsers</em> do: they interpret some bytes or bits and return
175 the value of that field (not a parser). Examples are the bitfield parsers returned by the
176 accessors generated by SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD (like senf::UIntFieldParser) or the
179 What is going on inside the macros above? Basically, they define accessor functions for a
180 specific field, like \a checksumPresent() or \a protocolType(). They also manage a <em>current
181 Offset</em>. This value is advanced according to the field size whenever a new field is defined
182 (and since this parser is defined as a dynamically sized parser, this offset is not constant but
183 an expression which calculates the offset of a field depending on the preceding data).
185 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_variant Defining optional fields: The 'variant' parser
187 The parser is currently very simple, and it could have been defined as a fixed size parser. Now
188 for the tricky part: defining parsers the optional fields. The mechanism described here is
189 suitable for a single optional field as well as for an optional contiguous sequence of fields.
191 In our GRE example, there are two fields which need to be enabled/disabled en bloc. We first
192 define an auxiliary sub-parser which combines the two fields.
195 struct GREPacketParser_OptFields : public senf::PacketParserBase
197 # include SENF_FIXED_PARSER()
199 // typedef checksum_t uint16_t; XXX defined automatically???
201 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( checksum, senf::UInt16Parser );
202 SENF_PARSER_SKIP ( 2 );
204 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser_OptFields);
208 This parser only parses the two optional fields, the second ("Reserved1") field just being
209 skipped. It is a fixed size parser, as indicated by the SENF_FIXED_PARSER() macro. We can
210 now use \ref SENF_PARSER_VARIANT() to add it as an optional parser to the GRE header in our \c
211 GREPacketParser implementation (the typedef'ed checksum_t will be used later on):
214 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
215 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 12 );
216 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( version, 3, unsigned );
218 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( protocolType, senf::UInt16Parser );
220 SENF_PARSER_VARIANT ( optionalFields, checksumPresent,
221 (senf::VoidPacketParser)
222 (GREPacketParser_OptFields) );
225 For a variant parser, two things need to be specified: a selector and a list of variant parsers.
226 The selector is a distinct parser field that is used to decide which variant to choose. In this
227 simple case, the field must be an unsigned integer (more precisely: a value parser returning a
228 value which is implicitly convertible to \c unsigned). This value is used as an index into the
229 list of variant types. So in our case, the value 0 (zero) is associated with
230 senf::VoidPacketParser, whereas the value 1 (one) is associated with \c
231 GREPacketParser_OptFields. senf::VoidPacketParser is a special (empty or no-op) parser which is
232 used in a variant to denote a case in which the variant parser should not parse anything.
234 This parser will work, it is however not very safe and not very usable. If \a p is a
235 GREPacketParser instance, than we would access the fields via:
237 p.checksumPresent() = true;
239 p.protocolType() = 0x86dd;
240 p.optionalFields().get<1>().checksum() = 12345u;
243 This code has two problems:
244 \li accessing the checksum field is quite unwieldy
245 \li changing the checksumPresent() value will break the parser
247 The second problem is caused by the fact that the variant parser needs to be informed whenever
248 the selector (here \a checksumPresent) is changed, since the variant parser must ensure that the
249 header data stays consistent. Whenever the checksumPresent field is enabled, the variant parser
250 needs to insert additional 4 bytes of data. And it must remove those bytes whenever the
251 checksumPresent field is disabled.
253 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_fixvariant Fixing access by providing custom accessor members
255 The problems outlined above will happen whenever we use variant parsers, and they will often
256 occur with other complex parsers too (most XXX \ref parsercollection reference some field
257 external to themselves, and they will break if that value is changed without them knowing about
258 it). There might be other reasons to restrict access to a field: the field may be set
259 automatically or it may be calculated from other values (we'll see later how to do this).
261 In all these cases we will want to disallow the user to directly change the value, while still
262 allowing to read the value. To do this, we can mark \e value \e fields as read-only:
265 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
268 \e Value \e fields are fields implemented by parsers returning a simple value (i.e. bit-field,
269 integer and some additional parsers like those parsing network addresses) as apposed to complex
272 In this case however, we still want to allow the user to change the field value, albeit not
273 directly. We will need to go through the collection parser, in this case the variant.
275 The syntax for accessing a variant is quite cumbersome. Therefore we adjust the variant
276 definition to generate a more usable interface:
279 SENF_PARSER_VARIANT ( optionalFields_, checksumPresent,
280 (novalue(disable_checksum, senf::VoidPacketParser))
281 ( id(checksum, GREPacketParser_OptFields)) );
284 Here, we added some optional information to the variants type list.
286 With this information, \ref SENF_PARSER_VARIANT() will create some additional \e public accessor
287 members and will automatically make the variant itself private. The members generated work like:
289 void disable_checksum() const { optionalFields_().init<0>; }
291 typedef GREPacketParser_OptFields checksum_t;
292 checksum_t checksum() const { return optionalFields_().get<1>(); }
293 void init_checksum() const { optionalFields_().init<1>; }
294 bool has_checksum() const { return optionalFields_().variant() == 1; }
296 (Again: We don't implement these fields ourselves, this is done by \ref SENF_PARSER_VARIANT())
298 \c disable_checksum() and \c init_checksum() change the selected variant. This will
299 automatically change the \c checksumPresent() field accordingly.
301 The \c GREPacketParser is now simple and safe to use. The only responsibility of the user now is to
302 only access \a checksum() if the \a checksumPresent() field is set. Otherwise, the behavior is
303 undefined (in debug builds, the parser will terminate the application with an assert).
306 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_add Providing additional functionality
308 We have now implemented parsing all the header fields. However, often packets would benefit from
309 additional functionality. In the case of GRE, this could be a function to calculate the checksum
310 value if it is enabled. Defining this member will also show, how to safely access the raw packet
311 data from a parser member.
314 #include <senf/Utils/IpChecksum.hh>
316 checksum_t::checksum_t::value_type calculateChecksum() const
318 if (!checksumEnabled())
322 cs.feed( i(), i(4) );
323 // Skip even number of 0 bytes (the 2 bytes checksum field)
324 // cs.feed(0); cs.feed(0);
325 cs.feed( i(6), data().end() );
331 This code just implements what is defined in the RFC: The checksum covers the complete GRE
332 packet including it's header with the checksum field temporarily set to 0. Instead of really
333 changing the checksum field we manually pass the correct data to \a cs.
335 We use the special <tt>i(</tt><i>offset</i><tt>)</tt> helper to get iterators \a offset number
336 of bytes into the data. This helper has the additional benefit of range-checking the returned
337 iterator and is thereby safe from errors due to truncated packets: If the offset is out of
338 range, a TruncatedPacketException will be thrown.
340 The \a data() function on the other hand returns a reference to the complete data container of
341 the packet under inspection (the GRE packet in this case). Access to \a data() should be
342 restricted as much as possible. It is safe when defining new packet parsers (parsers, which
343 parser a complete packet like GREPacketParser). It's usage from sub parsers (like
344 GREPacketParser_OptFields or even senf::UInt16Parser) would be much more arcane and should be
348 \subsection howto_newpacket_parser_final The complete GREPacketParser implementation
350 So this is now the complete implementation of the \c GREPacketParser:
353 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
355 struct GREPacketParser_OptFields : public senf::PacketParserBase
357 # include SENF_FIXED_PARSER()
359 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( checksum, senf::UInt16Parser );
360 SENF_PARSER_SKIP ( 2 );
362 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser_OptFields);
365 struct GREPacketParser : public senf::PacketParserBase
367 # include SENF_PARSER()
369 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
370 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 12 );
371 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD ( version, 3, unsigned );
373 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( protocolType, senf::UInt16Parser );
375 SENF_PARSER_PRIVATE_VARIANT ( optionalFields_, checksumPresent,
376 (novalue(disable_checksum, senf::VoidPacketParser))
377 ( id(checksum, GREPacketParser_OptFields)) );
379 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser);
381 checksum_t::checksum_t::value_type calculateChecksum() const;
384 // In the implementation (.cc) file:
386 #include <senf/Utils/IpChecksum.hh>
388 GREPacketParser::checksum_t::value_type GREPacketParser::calculateChecksum() const
390 if (!checksumEnabled())
395 cs.feed( i(), i()+4 );
396 // Skip even number of 0 bytes (the 2 bytes checksum field)
397 // cs.feed(0); cs.feed(0);
398 cs.feed( i()+6, data().end() );
405 \section howto_newpacket_type Defining the packet type
407 After defining the packet parser, the <em>packet type</em> must be defined. This class is used
408 as a policy and collects all the information necessary to be known about the packet type.
410 The <em>packet type</em> class is \e never instantiated. It has only typedef, constants or
413 \subsection howto_newpacket_type_skeleton The packet type skeleton
415 For every type of packet, the <em>packet type</em> class will look roughly the same. If the
416 packet uses a registry and is not hopelessly complex, the packet type will almost always
420 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
423 : public senf::PacketTypeBase,
424 public senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes>
426 typedef senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes> mixin;
427 typedef senf::ConcretePacket<GREPacketType> packet;
428 typedef senf::GREPacketParser parser;
430 using mixin::nextPacketRange;
431 using mixin::nextPacketType;
433 using mixin::initSize;
435 // Define members here
439 We note, that it derives from two classes: senf::PacketTypeBase and
440 senf::PacketTypeMixin. senf::PacketTypeBase must be inherited by every packet type class. the
441 senf::PacketTypeMixin provides default implementations for some members which are useful for
442 most kinds of packets. If a packet type is very complex and these defaults don't work, the mixin
443 class can and should be left out. More on this (what the default members do exactly and when the
444 mixin can be used) can be found in the senf::PacketTypeMixin documentation.
446 Of the typedefs, only \a parser is mandatory. It defines the packet parser to use to interpret
447 this type of packet. \a mixin and \a packet are defined to simplify the following
448 definitions (More on \a packet and senf::ConcretePacket later).
450 The next block of statements imports all the default implementations provided by the mixin
453 \li \a nextPacketRange provides information about where the next packet lives within the GRE
455 \li \a nextPacketType provides the type of the next packet from information in the GRE packet.
456 \li \a init is called to initialize a new GRE packet. This call is forwarded to \c
457 GREPacketParser::init.
458 \li \a initSize is called to find the size of an empty (newly create) GRE packet. This is also
459 provided by GREPacketParser.
461 With these default implementations provided by the mixin, only a few additional members are
462 needed to complete the \c GREPacketType: \a nextPacketKey, \a finalize, and \a dump.
465 \subsection howto_newpacket_type_registry Utilizing the packet registry
467 A packet registry maps an arbitrary key value to a type of packet represented by a packet
468 factory instance. There may be any number of packet registries. When working with packet
469 registries, there are three separate steps:
470 \li Using the registry to tell the packet library, what type of packet to instantiate for the
472 \li Given a payload packet of some type, set the appropriate payload type field in the packet
473 header to the correct value (inverse of above).
474 \li Adding packets to the registry.
476 We want the GRE packet to utilize the senf::EtherTypes registry to find the type of packet
477 contained in the GRE payload. The details have already been taken care of by the
478 senf::PacketTypeMixin (it provides the \a nextPacketType member). However, to lookup the packet
479 in the registry, the mixin needs to know the key value. To this end, we implement \a
480 nextPacketKey(), which is very simple:
483 static key_t nextPacketKey(packet p) { return p->protocolType(); }
486 Since all \c GREPacketType members are static, they are passed the packet in question as an
487 argument. \a nextPacketKey() just needs to return the value of the correct packet field. And
488 since the \c packet type (as defined as a typedef) allows direct access to the packet parser
489 using the <tt>-></tt> operator, we can simply access that value.
491 The \c key_t return type is a typedef provided by the mixin class. It is taken from the type of
492 registry, in this case it is senf::EtherTypes::key_t (which is defined as a 16 bit unsigned
495 With this information, the packet library can now find out the type of packet needed to parse
496 the GRE payload -- as long as the \a protocolType() is registered with the senf::EtherTypes
497 registry. If this is not the case, the packet library will not try to interpret the payload, it
498 will return a senf::DataPacket.
500 One special case of GRE encapsulation occurs when layer 2 frames and especially ethernet frames
501 are carried in the GRE payload. The ETHERTYPE registry normally only contains layer 3 protocols
502 (like IP or IPX) however for this special case, the value 0x6558 has been added to the ETHERTYPE
503 registry. So we need to add this value to inform the packet library to parse the payload as an
504 ethernet packet if the \a protocolType() is 0x6558. This happens in the implementation file (the
508 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/EthernetPacket.hh>
510 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::EtherTypes, 0x6558, senf::EthernetPacket );
513 This macro registers the value 0x6558 in the senf::EtherTypes registry and associates it with
514 the packet type senf::EthernetPacket. This macro declares an anonymous static variable, it
515 therefore must always be placed in the implementation file and \e never in an include file.
517 Additionally, we want the GRE packet to be parsed when present as an IP payload. Therefore we
518 additionally need to register GRE in the senf::IpTypes registry. Looking at the <a
519 href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers">IP protocol numbers</a>, we find that
520 GRE has been assigned the value 47:
523 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/IPv4Packet.hh>
525 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::IpTypes, 47, GREPacket );
528 But wait -- what is \c GREPacket ? This question is answered a few section further down.
530 The last thing we need to do is, we need to set the \a protocolType() field to the correct value
531 when packets are newly created or changed. This is done within \a finalize:
534 static void finalize(packet p) { p->protocolType() << key(p.next(senf::nothrow)); }
537 The \c key() function is provided by the mixin class: It will lookup the \e type of a packet in
538 the registry and return that packets key in the registry. If the key cannot be found, the return
539 value is such that the assignment is effectively skipped.
542 \subsection howto_newpacket_type_invariants Providing packet invariants
544 Many packets have some invariants that must hold: The payload size must be equal to some field,
545 a checksum must match and so on. When packets are newly created or changed, these invariants
546 have to be updated to be correct. This is the responsibility of the \a finalize() member.
549 static void finalize(packet p)
551 p->protocolType() << key(p.next(senf::nothrow));
552 if (p->checksumPresent())
553 p->checksum() << p->calculateChecksum();
557 We already used finalize above to set the \a protocolType() field. Now we add code to update the
558 \a checksum() field if present (this always needs to be done last since the checksum depends on
559 the other field values).
561 Here we are using the more generic parser assignment expressed using the \c << operator. This
562 operator in the most cases works like an ordinary assignment, however it can also be used to
563 assign parsers to each other efficiently and it supports 'optional values' (as provided by <a
564 href="http://www.boost.org/libs/optional/doc/optional.html">Boost.Optional</a> and as returned
568 \subsection howto_newpacket_type_dump Writing out a complete packet: The 'dump()' member
570 For diagnostic purposes, every packet should provide a meaningful \a dump() member which writes
571 out the complete packet. This member is simple to implement and is often very helpful when
572 tracking down problems.
575 #include <boost/io/ios_state.hpp>
577 static void dump(packet p, std::ostream & os)
579 boost::io::ios_all_saver ias(os);
580 os << "General Routing Encapsulation:\n"
581 << " checksum present : " << p->checksumPresent() ? "true" : "false" << "\n"
582 << " version : " << p->version() << "\n"
583 << " protocol type : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4) << std::setfill('0')
584 << p->protocolType() << "\n";
585 if (p->checksumPresent())
586 os << " checksum : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4)
587 << std::setfill('0') << p->checksum() << "\n";
591 This member is quite straight forward. We should try to adhere to the formating standard shown
592 above: The first line should be the type of packet/header being dumped followed by one line for
593 each protocol field. The colon's should be aligned at column 33 with the field name indented by
596 The \c boost::ios_all_saver is just used to ensure, that the stream formatting state is restored
597 correctly at the end of the method. An instance of this type will save the stream state when
598 constructed and will restore that state when destructed.
600 \subsection howto_newpacket_type_final Final touches
602 The \c GREPacket implementation is now almost complete. The only thing missing is the \c
603 GREPacket itself. \c GREPacket is just a typedef for a specific senf::ConcretePacket template
604 instantiation. Here the complete GREPacket definition:
607 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
610 : public senf::PacketTypeBase,
611 public senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes>
613 typedef senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes> mixin;
614 typedef senf::ConcretePacket<GREPacketType> packet;
615 typedef senf::GREPacketParser parser;
617 using mixin::nextPacketRange;
618 using mixin::nextPacketType;
620 using mixin::initSize;
622 static key_t nextPacketKey(packet p) { return p->protocolType(); }
624 static void finalize(packet p) {
625 p->protocolType() << key(p.next(senf::nothrow));
626 if (p->checksumPresent()) p->checksum() << p->calculateChecksum();
629 static void dump(packet p, std::ostream & os);
632 typedef GREPacketType::packet GREPacket;
634 // In the implementation (.cc) file:
636 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/EthernetPacket.hh>
637 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/IPv4Packet.hh>
639 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::EtherTypes, 0x6558, senf::EthernetPacket );
640 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::IpTypes, 47, GREPacket );
642 void GREPacketType::dump(packet p, std::ostream & os)
644 boost::io::ios_all_saver ias(os);
645 os << "General Routing Encapsulation:\n"
646 << " checksum present : " << p->checksumPresent() ? "true" : "false" << "\n"
647 << " version : " << p->version() << "\n"
648 << " protocol type : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4) << std::setfill('0')
649 << p->protocolType() << "\n";
650 if (p->checksumPresent())
651 os << " checksum : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4)
652 << std::setfill('0') << p->checksum() << "\n";
657 \section howto_newpacket_advanced Going further
659 \subsection howto_newpacket_advanced_valid Checking the GRE packet for validity
661 We now know how to define packets, but there is more. In this section we will explore the
662 features available to make the packet chaining more flexible. We will show, how to implement
663 more complex logic than simple registry lookup to find the nested packet (the payload) type.
665 In our concrete example, reading the RFC we find there are some restrictions which a GRE packet
666 needs to obey to be considered valid. If the packet is not valid it cannot be parsed and should
667 be dropped. We can't drop it here but if the packet is invalid, we certainly must refrain from
668 trying to parser any payload since we cannot assume the packet to have the format we assume our
671 There are two conditions defined in the RFC which render a GRE packet invalid: If one of the \a
672 reserved0() fields first 5 bits is set or if the version is not 0. We will add a \a valid()
673 check to the parser and utilize this check in the packet type.
675 So first lets update the parser. We will need to change the fields a little bit so we have
676 access to the first 5 bits of \a reserved0. We therefore replace the first three field
680 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
681 SENF_PARSER_PRIVATE_BITFIELD ( reserved0_5bits_, 5, unsigned );
682 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 7 );
683 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( version, 3, unsigned );
686 We have added an additional private bitfield \a reserved0_5bits_() and we made the \a version()
689 We will now add a simple additional member to the parser:
692 bool valid() const { return version() == 0 && reserved0_5bits_() == 0; }
695 I think, this is quite straight forward: \a valid() will just check the restrictions as defined
698 Now to the packet type. We want to refrain from parsing the payload if the packet is
699 invalid. This is important: If the packet is not valid, we have no idea, whether the payload is
700 what we surmise it to be (if any of the \a reserved0_5bits_() are set, the packet is from an
701 older GRE RFC and the header is quite a bit longer so the payload will be incorrect).
703 So we need to change the logic which is used by the packet library to find the type of the next
704 packet. We have two ways to do this: We keep using the default \c nextPacketType()
705 implementation as provided by the senf::PacketTypeMixin and have our \a nextPacketKey()
706 implementation return a key value which is guaranteed never to be registered in the registry.
708 The more flexible possibility is implementing \c nextPacketType() ourselves. In this case, the
709 first method would suffice, but we will choose to go the second route to show how to write the
710 \c nextPacketType() member. We therefore remove the \c using declaration of \c nextPacketType()
711 and also remove the \a nextPacketKey() implementation. Instead we add the following to the
715 // disabled: using mixin::nextPacketType;
717 factory_t nextPacketType(packet p) { return p->valid() ? lookup(p->protocolType()) : no_factory(); }
720 As we see, this is still quite simple. \c factory_t is provided by senf::PacketTypeBase. For our
721 purpose it is an opaque type which somehow enables the packet library to create a new packet of
722 a specified packet type. The \c factory_t has a special value, \c no_factory() which stands for
723 the absence of any concrete factory. In a boolean context this (and only this) \c factory_t
724 value tests \c false.
726 The \c lookup() member is provided by the senf::PacketTypeMixin. It looks up the key passed as
727 argument in the registry and returns the factory or \c no_factory(), if the key was not found in
730 In this case this is all. But let's elaborate on this example. What if we need to return some
731 specific factory from \a nextPacketType(), e.g. what, if we want to handle the case of
732 transparent ethernet bridging explicitly instead of registering the value in the
733 senf::EtherTypes registry ? Here one way to do this:
736 factory_t nextPacketType(packet p) {
738 if (p->protocolType() == 0x6558) return senf::EthernetPacket::factory();
739 else return lookup(p->protocolType());
741 else return no_factory();
745 As can be seen above, every packet type has a (static) \a factory() member which returns the
746 factory for this type of packet.
749 \subsection howto_newpacket_advanced_init Non-trivial packet initialization
751 Every packet when created is automatically initialized with 0 bytes (all data bytes will be
752 0). In the case of GRE this is enough. But other packets will need other more complex
753 initialization to be performed.
755 Lets just for the sake of experiment assume, the GRE packet would have to set \a version() to 1
756 not 0. In this case, the default initialization would not suffice. It is however very simple to
757 explicitly initialize the packet. The initialization happens within the parser. We just add
760 SENF_PARSER_INIT() { version_() << 1u; }
763 to \c GREPacketParser. For every read-only defined field, the macros automatically define a \e
764 private read-write accessor which may be used internally. This read-write accessor is used here
765 to initialize the value.
768 \section howto_newpacket_final The ultimate GRE packet implementation completed
770 So here we now have \c GREPacket finally complete in all it's glory. First the header file \c
774 #ifndef HH_GREPacket_
775 #define HH_GREPacket_
777 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
779 struct GREPacketParser_OptFields : public senf::PacketParserBase
781 # include SENF_FIXED_PARSER()
783 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( checksum, senf::UInt16Parser );
784 SENF_PARSER_SKIP ( 2 );
786 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser_OptFields);
789 struct GREPacketParser : public senf::PacketParserBase
791 # include SENF_PARSER()
793 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( checksumPresent, 1, bool );
794 SENF_PARSER_PRIVATE_BITFIELD ( reserved0_5bits_, 5, unsigned );
795 SENF_PARSER_SKIP_BITS ( 7 );
796 SENF_PARSER_BITFIELD_RO ( version, 3, unsigned );
798 SENF_PARSER_FIELD ( protocolType, senf::UInt16Parser );
800 SENF_PARSER_PRIVATE_VARIANT ( optionalFields_, checksumPresent,
801 (novalue(disable_checksum, senf::VoidPacketParser))
802 ( id(checksum, GREPacketParser_OptFields)) );
804 bool valid() const { return version() == 0 && reserved0_5bits_() == 0; }
806 SENF_PARSER_FINALIZE(GREPacketParser);
808 checksum_t::checksum_t::value_type calculateChecksum() const;
812 : public senf::PacketTypeBase,
813 public senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes>
815 typedef senf::PacketTypeMixin<GREPacketType, EtherTypes> mixin;
816 typedef senf::ConcretePacket<GREPacketType> packet;
817 typedef senf::GREPacketParser parser;
819 using mixin::nextPacketRange;
821 using mixin::initSize;
823 factory_t nextPacketType(packet p)
824 { return p->valid() ? lookup(p->protocolType()) : no_factory(); }
826 static void finalize(packet p) {
827 p->protocolType() << key(p.next(senf::nothrow));
828 if (p->checksumPresent()) p->checksum() << p->calculateChecksum();
831 static void dump(packet p, std::ostream & os);
834 typedef GREPacketType::packet GREPacket;
839 And the implementation file \c GREPacket.cc:
842 #include "GREPacket.hh"
843 #include <senf/Utils/IpChecksum.hh>
844 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/EthernetPacket.hh>
845 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/IPv4Packet.hh>
847 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::EtherTypes, 0x6558, senf::EthernetPacket );
848 SENF_PACKET_REGISTRY_REGISTER( senf::IpTypes, 47, GREPacket );
850 GREPacketParser::checksum_t::checksum_t::value_type GREPacketParser::calculateChecksum() const
852 if (!checksumEnabled())
857 cs.feed( i(), i()+4 );
858 // Skip even number of 0 bytes (the 2 bytes checksum field)
859 // cs.feed(0); cs.feed(0);
860 cs.feed( i()+6, data().end() );
865 void GREPacketType::dump(packet p, std::ostream & os)
867 boost::io::ios_all_saver ias(os);
868 os << "General Routing Encapsulation:\n"
869 << " checksum present : " << p->checksumPresent() ? "true" : "false" << "\n"
870 << " version : " << p->version() << "\n"
871 << " protocol type : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4) << std::setfill('0')
872 << p->protocolType() << "\n";
873 if (p->checksumPresent())
874 os << " checksum : 0x" << std::hex << std::setw(4)
875 << std::setfill('0') << p->checksum() << "\n";
880 \section howto_newpacket_using Using the newly created GRE packet type
882 The GRE packet is now fully integrated into the packet library framework. For example, we can
883 read GRE packets from a raw INet socket and forward decapsulated Ethernet frames to a packet
888 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
889 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/EthernetPacket.hh>
890 #include <senf/Socket/Protocols/INet/RawINetProtocol.hh>
891 #include <senf/Socket/Protocols/Raw/PacketSocketHandle.hh>
892 #include "GREPacket.hh"
894 int main(int, char const **)
896 senf::RawV6ClientSocketHandle isock (47u); // 47 = Read GRE packets
897 senf::PacketSocketHandle osock;
901 GREPacket gre (GREPacket::create(senf::noinit));
902 isock.read(gre.data(),0u);
903 if (gre->checksumPresent() && gre->checksum() != gre->calculateChecksum())
904 throw InvalidPacketChainException();
905 osock.write(gre.next<EthernetPacket>().data())
907 catch (senf::TruncatedPacketException & ex) {
908 std::cerr << "Malformed packet dropped\n";
910 catch (senf::InvalidPacketChainException & ex) {
911 std::cerr << "Invalid GRE packet dropped\n";
917 Or we can do the opposite: Read ethernet packets from a \c tap device and send them out GRE
922 #include <senf/Packets.hh>
923 #include <senf/Packets/DefaultBundle/EthernetPacket.hh>
924 #include <senf/Socket/Protocols/INet/RawINetProtocol.hh>
925 #include <senf/Socket/Protocols/Raw/TunTapSocketHandle.hh>
926 #include "GREPacket.hh"
928 int main(int argc, char const ** argv)
931 std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " <tunnel endpoint>\n";
935 senf::TapSocketHandle tap ("tap0");
936 senf::ConnectedRawV6ClientSocketHandle osock (47u, senf::INet6SocketAddress(argv[1]));
939 senf::EthernetPacket eth (senf::EthernetPacket::create(senf::noinit));
940 isock.read(eth.data(),0u);
941 GREPacket gre (senf::GREPacket::createBefore(eth));
943 osock.write(gre.data());
949 \section howto_newpacket_further Further reading
951 Lets start with references to the important API's (Use the <i>List of all members</i> link to
952 get the complete API of one of the classes and templates):
954 <table class="senf fixedcolumn">
956 <tr><td>senf::ConcretePacket</td> <td>this is the API provided by the packet handles.</td></tr>
958 <tr><td>senf::PacketData</td> <td>this API provides raw data access accessible via the handles
959 'data' member.</td></tr>
961 <tr><td>senf::PacketParserBase</td> <td>this is the generic parser API. This API is accessible
962 via the packets \c -> operator or via the sub-parsers returned by the field accessors.</td></tr>
966 When implementing new packet's, the following information will be helpful:
968 <table class="senf fixedcolumn">
970 <tr><td>senf::PacketTypeBase</td> <td>here you find a description of the members which need to
971 be implemented to provide a 'packet type'. Most of these members will normally be provided by
972 the mixin helper.</td></tr>
974 <tr><td>senf::PacketTypeMixin</td> <td>here you find all about the packet type mixin and how to
977 <tr><td>\ref packetparser</td> <td>This section describes the packet parser facility.</td></tr>
979 <tr><td>\link packetparsermacros Packet parser macros\endlink</td> <td>A complete list and
980 documentation of all the packet parser macros.</td></tr>
982 <tr><td>\ref parseint, \n \ref parsecollection</td> <td>There are several lists of available
983 reusable packet parsers. However, these lists are not complete as there are other protocol
984 specific reusable parsers (without claiming to be exhaustive: senf::INet4AddressParser,
985 senf::INet6AddressParser, senf::MACAddressParser)</td></tr>
995 // comment-column: 40
996 // c-file-style: "senf"
997 // indent-tabs-mode: nil
998 // ispell-local-dictionary: "american"
999 // compile-command: "scons -u doc"
1002 // vim:filetype=doxygen:textwidth=100: