Introduction
Welcome to Building eBPF Programs with Aya: An introductory book about using the Rust Programming Language and Aya library to build extended Berkley Packet Filter (eBPF) programs.
Who Aya Is For
Rust is proving to be a popular systems programming language because of its safety features and excellent C interoperability. The safety features are less important in the context of eBPF as programs often need to read kernel memory, which is considered unsafe. However, what Rust combined with Aya does offer is a fast and efficient development experience:
- Cargo for project scaffolding, build, test and debugging
- Generation of Rust bindings to Kernel Headers with Compile-Once, Run-Everywhere (CO-RE) support
- Easy code sharing between user-space and eBPF programs
- Fast compile times
- No runtime dependency on LLVM or BCC
Scope
The goals of this book are:
-
Get developers up to speed with eBPF Rust development. i.e. How to set up a development environment.
-
Share current best practices about using Rust for eBPF
Who This Book is For
This book caters towards people with either some eBPF or some Rust background. For those without any prior knowledge we suggest you read the "Assumptions and Prerequisites" section first. You can check out the "Other Resources" section to find resources on topics you might want to read up on.
Assumptions and Prerequisites
- You are comfortable using the Rust Programming Language, and have written, run, and debugged Rust applications on a desktop environment. You should also be familiar with the idioms of the 2018 edition as this book targets Rust 2018.
- You are familiar with the core concepts of eBPF
Other Resources
If you are unfamiliar with anything mentioned above or if you want more information about a specific topic mentioned in this book you might find some of these resources helpful.
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rust | Rust Book | If you are not yet comfortable with Rust, we highly suggest reading this book. |
| eBPF | Cilium BPF and XDP Reference Guide | If you are not yet comfortable with eBPF, this guide is excellent. |
How to Use This Book
This book generally assumes that you’re reading it front-to-back. Later chapters build on concepts in earlier chapters, and earlier chapters may not dig into details on a topic, revisiting the topic in a later chapter.
Source Code
The source files from which this book is generated can be found on GitHub.