How eBPF Tool pwru Lets Developers Trace Packets Through the Linux Kernel

A developer named Maneshwar, while building an AI code review tool, explored cilium/pwru, an open-source eBPF-powered utility for tracing packets through the Linux kernel. Unlike traditional tools such as tcpdump, which only show packets entering or leaving a system, pwru tracks what happens to a packet at every internal kernel function. The tool works by querying BTF (BPF Type Format) metadata to automatically identify all kernel functions that handle the sk_buff packet structure, rather than relying on a manually curated list. It tracks individual packets by their memory address, propagates tracking when packets are cloned, and cleans up entries when packets are freed. For edge cases where pointer identity is lost, such as in bridging scenarios, pwru offers a stack-based fingerprinting mode to re-identify the same packet under a new address.
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