sk_buff vs mbuff

[syug...@gmail.com]

Hi,

Can someone please tell me what are significant differences between
mbuff and sk_buff ? I did a google but couldn't find anything
convincing.

Thanks,
syuga

[Philip Paeps]

syug...@gmail.com <syug...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can someone please tell me what are significant differences between mbuff
> and sk_buff ? I did a google but couldn't find anything convincing.

They are completely different.

struct mbuf: http://fxr.watson.org/fxr/source/sys/mbuf.h#L148
struct sk_buff: http://fxr.watson.org/fxr/source/include/linux/skbuff.h?v=linux-2.6#L259

mbufs are a fairly simple and "generic" buffering mechanism which have existed
for ages (they are very thoroughly explained in Stevens vol. 2) while sk_buff
is a more recent Linuxy invention and not at all simple.

struct sk_buff has a lot of bookkeeping internally and is passed through the
stack in a list-like way. mbufs tend to be chained together and most of the
bookkeeping gets done in the first mbuf in the chain (with the M_PKTHDR flag
set).

- Philip

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