[PATCH bpf-next v1 7/7] selftests/bpf: add splice option to sockmap benchmark

From: Jiayuan Chen

Date: Wed Mar 04 2026 - 01:41:52 EST


Add --splice option to bench_sockmap that uses splice(2) instead of
read(2) in the consumer path. A global pipe is created once during
setup and reused across iterations to avoid per-call pipe creation
overhead.

When --splice is enabled, the consumer splices data from the socket
into the pipe, then reads from the pipe into the user buffer. The
socket is set to O_NONBLOCK to prevent tcp_splice_read() from
blocking indefinitely, as it only checks sock->file->f_flags for
non-blocking mode, ignoring SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK.

Also increase SO_RCVBUF to 16MB to avoid sk_psock_backlog being
throttled by the default sk_rcvbuf limit, and add --verify option
to optionally enable data correctness checking (disabled by default
for benchmark accuracy).

Benchmark results with rx-verdict-ingress mode (loopback, 8 CPUs):

read(2): ~4292 MB/s
splice(2) + zero-copy: ~4270 MB/s
splice(2) + always-copy: ~2770 MB/s

Zero-copy splice achieves near-parity with read(2), while the
always-copy fallback is ~35% slower.

Usage:
# Steer softirqs to CPU 7 to avoid contending with the producer CPU
echo 80 > /sys/class/net/lo/queues/rx-0/rps_cpus
# Raise the receive buffer ceiling so the benchmark can set 16MB rcvbuf
sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=16777216
# Run the benchmark
./bench sockmap --rx-verdict-ingress --splice -c 2 -p 1 -a -d 30

Signed-off-by: Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
---
.../selftests/bpf/benchs/bench_sockmap.c | 57 ++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 56 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/benchs/bench_sockmap.c b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/benchs/bench_sockmap.c
index cfc072aa7fff..ffcf5ad8cafa 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/benchs/bench_sockmap.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/benchs/bench_sockmap.c
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
#include <sys/sendfile.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <sched.h>
+#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <argp.h>
#include "bench.h"
#include "bench_sockmap_prog.skel.h"
@@ -46,6 +49,8 @@ enum SOCKMAP_ARG_FLAG {
ARG_CTL_RX_STRP,
ARG_CONSUMER_DELAY_TIME,
ARG_PRODUCER_DURATION,
+ ARG_CTL_SPLICE,
+ ARG_CTL_VERIFY,
};

#define TXMODE_NORMAL() \
@@ -110,6 +115,9 @@ static struct socmap_ctx {
int delay_consumer;
int prod_run_time;
int strp_size;
+ bool use_splice;
+ bool verify;
+ int pipefd[2];
} ctx = {
.prod_send = 0,
.user_read = 0,
@@ -119,6 +127,9 @@ static struct socmap_ctx {
.delay_consumer = 0,
.prod_run_time = 0,
.strp_size = 0,
+ .use_splice = false,
+ .verify = false,
+ .pipefd = {-1, -1},
};

static void bench_sockmap_prog_destroy(void)
@@ -130,6 +141,11 @@ static void bench_sockmap_prog_destroy(void)
close(ctx.fds[i]);
}

+ if (ctx.pipefd[0] >= 0)
+ close(ctx.pipefd[0]);
+ if (ctx.pipefd[1] >= 0)
+ close(ctx.pipefd[1]);
+
bench_sockmap_prog__destroy(ctx.skel);
}

@@ -320,6 +336,7 @@ static int setup_tx_sockmap(void)

static void setup(void)
{
+ int rcvbuf = 16 * 1024 * 1024;
int err;

ctx.skel = bench_sockmap_prog__open_and_load();
@@ -350,6 +367,18 @@ static void setup(void)
goto err;
}

+ if (ctx.use_splice) {
+ if (pipe(ctx.pipefd)) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "pipe error:%d\n", errno);
+ goto err;
+ }
+ }
+
+ setsockopt(ctx.c2, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &rcvbuf, sizeof(rcvbuf));
+
+ if (ctx.use_splice)
+ set_non_block(ctx.c2, true);
+
return;

err:
@@ -368,6 +397,8 @@ static void measure(struct bench_res *res)

static void verify_data(int *check_pos, char *buf, int rcv)
{
+ if (!ctx.verify)
+ return;
for (int i = 0 ; i < rcv; i++) {
if (buf[i] != snd_data[(*check_pos) % DATA_REPEAT_SIZE]) {
fprintf(stderr, "verify data fail");
@@ -388,6 +419,9 @@ static void *consumer(void *input)
char *buf = malloc(recv_buf_size);
int delay_read = ctx.delay_consumer;

+ printf("cons[%d] started, tid=%ld cpu=%d\n",
+ tid, syscall(SYS_gettid), sched_getcpu());
+
if (!buf) {
fprintf(stderr, "fail to init read buffer");
return NULL;
@@ -419,7 +453,15 @@ static void *consumer(void *input)
}
/* read real endpoint by consumer 0 */
atomic_inc(&ctx.read_calls);
- rcv = read(ctx.c2, buf, recv_buf_size);
+ if (ctx.use_splice) {
+ rcv = splice(ctx.c2, NULL, ctx.pipefd[1],
+ NULL, recv_buf_size,
+ SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK);
+ if (rcv > 0)
+ rcv = read(ctx.pipefd[0], buf, rcv);
+ } else {
+ rcv = read(ctx.c2, buf, recv_buf_size);
+ }
if (rcv < 0 && errno != EAGAIN) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s fail to read c2 %d\n", __func__, errno);
return NULL;
@@ -440,6 +482,9 @@ static void *producer(void *input)
int target;
FILE *file;

+ printf("prod started, tid=%ld cpu=%d\n",
+ syscall(SYS_gettid), sched_getcpu());
+
file = tmpfile();
if (!file) {
fprintf(stderr, "create file for sendfile");
@@ -554,6 +599,10 @@ static const struct argp_option opts[] = {
"delay consumer start"},
{ "producer-duration", ARG_PRODUCER_DURATION, "SEC", 0,
"producer duration"},
+ { "splice", ARG_CTL_SPLICE, NULL, 0,
+ "use splice instead of read for consumer"},
+ { "verify", ARG_CTL_VERIFY, NULL, 0,
+ "verify received data correctness"},
{},
};

@@ -572,6 +621,12 @@ static error_t parse_arg(int key, char *arg, struct argp_state *state)
case ARG_CTL_RX_STRP:
ctx.strp_size = strtol(arg, NULL, 10);
break;
+ case ARG_CTL_SPLICE:
+ ctx.use_splice = true;
+ break;
+ case ARG_CTL_VERIFY:
+ ctx.verify = true;
+ break;
default:
return ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN;
}
--
2.43.0