Safe Programs The Foundation of BPF – Alexei Starovoitov, Facebook – Full Keynote
Everything runs in the cloud. The cloud is built on the linux kernel.
Extending the linux kernel is not an easy task: One mistake and the monolithic kernel will crash taking down the cloud. When bugs are finally fixed the reboot of the large cloud will take a long time.
BPF is the kernel programming model that lets developers extend the kernel safely and add features to the live system without reboot.
The verifier ensures safety of the BPF programs, but it’s not just the verifier. The accelerating trend in the BPF universe is BPF Type Format and its use in safe argument matching, pointer dereferences, exception tables, and program portability from 64-bit x86 to 32-bit arm. Safety is a foundation.
linux foundation
