hhook(9)	       FreeBSD Kernel Developer's Manual	      hhook(9)


NAME

     hhook, hhook_head_register, hhook_head_deregister,
     hhook_head_deregister_lookup, hhook_run_hooks, HHOOKS_RUN_IF,
     HHOOKS_RUN_LOOKUP_IF -- Helper Hook Framework


SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/hhook.h>

     typedef int
     (*hhook_func_t)(int32_t hhook_type, int32_t hhook_id, void *udata,
	 void *ctx_data, void *hdata, struct osd *hosd);

     int hhook_head_register(int32_t hhook_type, int32_t hhook_id,
	 struct hhook_head **hhh, uint32_t flags);

     int hhook_head_deregister(struct hhook_head *hhh);

     int hhook_head_deregister_lookup(int32_t hhook_type, int32_t hhook_id);

     void hhook_run_hooks(struct hhook_head *hhh, void *ctx_data,
	 struct osd *hosd);

     HHOOKS_RUN_IF(hhh, ctx_data, hosd);

     HHOOKS_RUN_LOOKUP_IF(hhook_type, hhook_id, ctx_data, hosd);


DESCRIPTION

     hhook provides a framework for managing and running arbitrary hook func-
     tions at defined hook points within the kernel.  The KPI was inspired by
     pfil(9), and in many respects can be thought of as a more generic super-
     set of pfil.

     The khelp(9) and hhook frameworks are tightly integrated.	Khelp is
     responsible for registering and deregistering Khelp module hook functions
     with hhook points.  The KPI functions used by khelp(9) to do this are not
     documented here as they are not relevant to consumers wishing to instan-
     tiate hook points.

   Information for Khelp Module Implementors
     Khelp modules indirectly interact with hhook by defining appropriate hook
     functions for insertion into hook points.	Hook functions must conform to
     the hhook_func_t function pointer declaration outlined in the SYNOPSIS.

     The hhook_type and hhook_id arguments identify the hook point which has
     called into the hook function.  These are useful when a single hook func-
     tion is registered for multiple hook points and wants to know which hook
     point has called into it.	<sys/hhook.h> lists available hhook_type
     defines and subsystems which export hook points are responsible for
     defining the hhook_id value in appropriate header files.

     The udata argument will be passed to the hook function if it was speci-
     fied in the struct hookinfo at hook registration time.

     The ctx_data argument contains context specific data from the hook point
     call site.  The data type passed is subsystem dependent.

     The hdata argument is a pointer to the persistent per-object storage
     allocated for use by the module if required.  The pointer will only ever
     be NULL if the module did not request per-object storage.

     The hosd argument can be used with the khelp(9) framework's
     khelp_get_osd() function to access data belonging to a different Khelp
     module.

     Khelp modules instruct the Khelp framework to register their hook func-
     tions with hhook points by creating a struct hookinfo per hook point,
     which contains the following members:

	   struct hookinfo {
		   hhook_func_t    hook_func;
		   struct helper   *hook_helper;
		   void 	   *hook_udata;
		   int32_t	   hook_id;
		   int32_t	   hook_type;
	   };

     Khelp modules are responsible for setting all members of the struct
     except hook_helper which is handled by the Khelp framework.

   Creating and Managing Hook Points
     Kernel subsystems that wish to provide hhook points typically need to
     make four and possibly five key changes to their implementation:

     o	 Define a list of hhook_id mappings in an appropriate subsystem
	 header.

     o	 Register each hook point with the hhook_head_register() function dur-
	 ing initialisation of the subsystem.

     o	 Select or create a standardised data type to pass to hook functions
	 as contextual data.

     o	 Add a call to HHOOKS_RUN_IF() or HHOOKS_RUN_IF_LOOKUP() at the point
	 in the subsystem's code where the hook point should be executed.

     o	 If the subsystem can be dynamically added/removed at runtime, each
	 hook point registered with the hhook_head_register() function when
	 the subsystem was initialised needs to be deregistered with the
	 hhook_head_deregister() or hhook_head_deregister_lookup() functions
	 when the subsystem is being deinitialised prior to removal.

     The hhook_head_register() function registers a hook point with the hhook
     framework.  The hook_type argument defines the high level type for the
     hook point.  Valid types are defined in <sys/hhook.h> and new types
     should be added as required.  The hook_id argument specifies a unique,
     subsystem specific identifier for the hook point.	The hhh argument will,
     if not NULL, be used to store a reference to the struct hhook_head cre-
     ated as part of the registration process.	Subsystems will generally want
     to store a local copy of the struct hhook_head so that they can use the
     HHOOKS_RUN_IF() macro to instantiate hook points.	The HHOOK_WAITOK flag
     may be passed in via the flags argument if malloc(9) is allowed to sleep
     waiting for memory to become available.  If the hook point is within a
     virtualised subsystem (e.g. the network stack), the HHOOK_HEADISINVNET
     flag should be passed in via the flags argument so that the struct
     hhook_head created during the registration process will be added to a
     virtualised list.

     The hhook_head_deregister() function deregisters a previously registered
     hook point from the hhook framework.  The hhh argument is the pointer to
     the struct hhook_head returned by hhoook_head_register() when the hook
     point was registered.

     The hhook_head_deregister_lookup() function can be used instead of
     hhook_head_deregister() in situations where the caller does not have a
     cached copy of the struct hhook_head and wants to deregister a hook point
     using the appropriate hook_type and hook_id identifiers instead.

     The hhook_run_hooks() function should normally not be called directly and
     should instead be called indirectly via the HHOOKS_RUN_IF() macro.  How-
     ever, there may be circumstances where it is preferable to call the func-
     tion directly, and so it is documented here for completeness.  The hhh
     argument references the hhook point to call all registered hook functions
     for.  The ctx_data argument specifies a pointer to the contextual hook
     point data to pass into the hook functions.  The hosd argument should be
     the pointer to the appropriate object's struct osd if the subsystem pro-
     vides the ability for Khelp modules to associate per-object data.	Sub-
     systems which do not should pass NULL.

     The HHOOKS_RUN_IF() macro is the preferred way to implement hook points.
     It only calls the hhook_run_hooks() function if at least one hook func-
     tion is registered for the hook point.  By checking for registered hook
     functions, the macro minimises the cost associated with adding hook
     points to frequently used code paths by reducing to a simple if test in
     the common case where no hook functions are registered.  The arguments
     are as described for the hhook_run_hooks() function.

     The HHOOKS_RUN_IF_LOOKUP() macro performs the same function as the
     HHOOKS_RUN_IF() macro, but performs an additional step to look up the
     struct hhook_head for the specified hook_type and hook_id identifiers.
     It should not be used except in code paths which are infrequently exe-
     cuted because of the reference counting overhead associated with the look
     up.


IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

     Each struct hhook_head protects its internal list of hook functions with
     a rmlock(9).  Therefore, anytime hhook_run_hooks() is called directly or
     indirectly via the HHOOKS_RUN_IF() or HHOOKS_RUN_IF_LOOKUP() macros, a
     non-sleepable read lock will be acquired and held across the calls to all
     registered hook functions.


RETURN VALUES

     hhook_head_register() returns 0 if no errors occurred.  It returns EEXIST
     if a hook point with the same hook_type and hook_id is already regis-
     tered.  It returns EINVAL if the HHOOK_HEADISINVNET flag is not set in
     flags because the implementation does not yet support hook points in non-
     virtualised subsystems (see the BUGS section for details).  It returns
     ENOMEM if malloc(9) failed to allocate memory for the new struct
     hhook_head.

     hhook_head_deregister() and hhook_head_deregister_lookup() return 0 if no
     errors occurred.  They return ENOENT if hhh is NULL.  They return EBUSY
     if the reference count of hhh is greater than one.


EXAMPLES

     A well commented example Khelp module can be found at:
     /usr/share/examples/kld/khelp/h_example.c

     The tcp(4) implementation provides two hhook points which are called for
     packets sent/received when a connection is in the established phase.
     Search for HHOOK in the following files: sys/netinet/tcp_var.h,
     sys/netinet/tcp_input.c, sys/netinet/tcp_output.c and
     sys/netinet/tcp_subr.c.


SEE ALSO

     khelp(9)


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

     Development and testing of this software were made possible in part by
     grants from the FreeBSD Foundation and Cisco University Research Program
     Fund at Community Foundation Silicon Valley.


HISTORY

     The hhook framework first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

     The hhook framework was first released in 2010 by Lawrence Stewart whilst
     studying at Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for Advanced
     Internet Architectures, Melbourne, Australia.  More details are available
     at:

     http://caia.swin.edu.au/urp/newtcp/


AUTHORS

     The hhook framework was written by Lawrence Stewart
     <lstewart@FreeBSD.org>.

     This manual page was written by David Hayes <david.hayes@ieee.org> and
     Lawrence Stewart <lstewart@FreeBSD.org>.


BUGS

     The framework does not currently support registering hook points in sub-
     systems which have not been virtualised with VIMAGE.  Fairly minimal
     internal changes to the hhook implementation are required to address
     this.

FreeBSD 9.0		       February 15, 2011		   FreeBSD 9.0

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