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authorJakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>2026-05-26 09:01:48 -0700
committerJakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>2026-05-28 14:37:47 -0700
commitf94874c38886b4e1adbd3233a313f320966d30ff (patch)
treeb81cd8655478a71a9b684c54e30a09ceb9b236e1 /Documentation
parentf7d7d7e2a53c320503823748e8a28ddd9b01ef70 (diff)
downloadlinux-next-history-f94874c38886b4e1adbd3233a313f320966d30ff.tar.gz
docs: net: fix minor issues with checksum offloads
Update the checksum offload documentation to match current code: - SCTP CRC32c offload requires NETIF_F_SCTP_CRC, not ordinary IP checksum offload - NETIF_F_IP_CSUM and NETIF_F_IPV6_CSUM are restricted legacy features; new devices should use NETIF_F_HW_CSUM - GRE LCO is handled by the shared gre_build_header() helper used by both IPv4 and IPv6 GRE - VXLAN_F_REMCSUM_TX is a VXLAN configuration flag, not a field of struct vxlan_rdst Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260526160151.2793354-8-kuba@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.rst36
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 19 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.rst b/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.rst
index 69b23cf6879e7..907aed9f3a3b8 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.rst
@@ -45,9 +45,11 @@ encapsulation is used, the packet may have multiple checksum fields in
different header layers, and the rest will have to be handled by another
mechanism such as LCO or RCO.
-CRC32c can also be offloaded using this interface, by means of filling
-skb->csum_start and skb->csum_offset as described above, and setting
-skb->csum_not_inet: see skbuff.h comment (section 'D') for more details.
+SCTP CRC32c can also be offloaded using this interface, by means of filling
+skb->csum_start and skb->csum_offset as described above, setting
+skb->csum_not_inet, and advertising NETIF_F_SCTP_CRC. Drivers must not treat
+ordinary IP checksum offload as SCTP CRC32c support. See the skbuff.h comment
+(section 'D') for more details.
No offloading of the IP header checksum is performed; it is always done in
software. This is OK because when we build the IP header, we obviously have it
@@ -59,14 +61,12 @@ recomputed for each resulting segment. See the skbuff.h comment (section 'E')
for more details.
A driver declares its offload capabilities in netdev->hw_features; see
-Documentation/networking/netdev-features.rst for more. Note that a device
-which only advertises NETIF_F_IP[V6]_CSUM must still obey the csum_start and
-csum_offset given in the SKB; if it tries to deduce these itself in hardware
-(as some NICs do) the driver should check that the values in the SKB match
-those which the hardware will deduce, and if not, fall back to checksumming in
-software instead (with skb_csum_hwoffload_help() or one of the
-skb_checksum_help() / skb_crc32c_csum_help functions, as mentioned in
-include/linux/skbuff.h).
+Documentation/networking/netdev-features.rst for more. NETIF_F_IP_CSUM and
+NETIF_F_IPV6_CSUM are restricted legacy features and are being deprecated in
+favor of NETIF_F_HW_CSUM. New devices should use NETIF_F_HW_CSUM to advertise
+generic checksum offload. The skb_csum_hwoffload_help() helper can resolve
+CHECKSUM_PARTIAL according to the device's advertised checksum capabilities,
+falling back to software when needed.
The stack should, for the most part, assume that checksum offload is supported
by the underlying device. The only place that should check is
@@ -108,11 +108,9 @@ LCO is performed by the stack when constructing an outer UDP header for an
encapsulation such as VXLAN or GENEVE, in udp_set_csum(). Similarly for the
IPv6 equivalents, in udp6_set_csum().
-It is also performed when constructing an IPv4 GRE header, in
-net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:build_header(). It is *not* currently performed when
-constructing an IPv6 GRE header; the GRE checksum is computed over the whole
-packet in net/ipv6/ip6_gre.c:ip6gre_xmit2(), but it should be possible to use
-LCO here as IPv6 GRE still uses an IP-style checksum.
+It is also performed when constructing GRE headers with the shared
+gre_build_header() helper in include/net/gre.h, which is used by both IPv4 and
+IPv6 GRE.
All of the LCO implementations use a helper function lco_csum(), in
include/linux/skbuff.h.
@@ -138,6 +136,6 @@ RCO is detailed in the following Internet-Drafts:
* https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-herbert-vxlan-rco-00
In Linux, RCO is implemented individually in each encapsulation protocol, and
-most tunnel types have flags controlling its use. For instance, VXLAN has the
-flag VXLAN_F_REMCSUM_TX (per struct vxlan_rdst) to indicate that RCO should be
-used when transmitting to a given remote destination.
+most tunnel types have flags controlling its use. For instance, VXLAN has the
+configuration flag VXLAN_F_REMCSUM_TX to indicate that RCO should be used when
+transmitting.