eBPF Essentials

Unlock the power of eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter), the revolutionary Linux kernel technology. This powerful, sandboxed virtual machine allows you to dynamically extend and customize the kernel without modifying source code or loading dangerous kernel modules. Dive into the world of low-level systems programming, From cloud native environments to traditional Linux systems, eBPF is redefining networking, security, and observability with its unmatched performance and efficiency. Master the technology that’s at the heart of modern tools like Cilium, Falco, and Tetragon.

Authored by a team of seasoned eBPF experts and Linux kernel engineers, this book distills years of hands-on experience and deep technical knowledge. We've contributed to the eBPF ecosystem and have firsthand knowledge of the challenges and solutions in building production-grade eBPF applications. This is not a theoretical overview; it is a practical, code-driven guide designed to make you proficient in a technology that is shaping the future of systems engineering.

eBPF Essentials is the definitive guide for anyone who wants to harness the full potential of eBPF. This comprehensive book starts with the core concepts of the eBPF virtual machine and the verifier, then provides a practical path to building sophisticated eBPF programs. You'll master the CO-RE (Compile Once – Run Everywhere) model, a game-changing approach that ensures your eBPF code is portable and robust. We'll guide you through the modern eBPF development workflow using the official libbpf library and its bindings for popular languages like Go and Rust. The book culminates in detailed, real-world case studies for tracing, monitoring, performance tuning, and network analysis on Linux.

What's Inside:

• The eBPF Fundamentals: In-depth look at the eBPF architecture, programs, maps, and helpers.

• Modern eBPF Development: A step-by-step tutorial on the CO-RE workflow with libbpf and its tools like bpftool.

• User-Space Programming: Practical guides and code examples for building eBPF loaders and applications in C, Go, and Rust.

• Observability with eBPF: Learn how to create powerful tools for application performance monitoring (APM), system tracing, and profiling without the overhead of traditional methods.

• eBPF for Networking: Discover how to use eBPF for high-performance network analysis, packet filtering, and building custom service mesh components.

• Security Applications: Understand how eBPF enables cutting-edge runtime security, intrusion detection, and system call monitoring.

• The Future of eBPF: A look at the ongoing innovation, including its expansion to other operating systems like Windows.

This book is for developers, systems engineers, SREs, DevOps engineers, and security professionals who want to move beyond traditional methods and gain deep, low-overhead insights into their Linux systems. Whether you're a student curious about kernel internals or a professional managing a Kubernetes cluster, this guide will equip you with the skills to design, build, and deploy your own eBPF tools. Basic knowledge of C and the Linux command line is recommended.

The future of systems engineering is here. Learn to write code that gives you a complete, real-time picture of your system with minimal performance impact. With our practical, project-based approach, you'll be building your first eBPF tool in a matter of hours, not weeks.