Go api (govpp)

If you are writing a Control plane in GO that interfaces with VPP, GoVPP is the library that will allow you to connect to VPP, and program it through its binary API socket.

Components involved

The API client connecting to VPP consists of several elements :

First, everything stems from the api definition living in the VPP repository. The message definitions live in *.api files that you will find instances of in most VPP plugins.
The repository contains an api generator make json-api-files that converts those .api files into .json files to be consumed by language specific bindings.
The program ingesting these .json files is called binapi-generator and lives inside GoVPP. It contains the logic converting them to .ba.go files with the appropriate struct definitions matching all the api messages defined in the .api files.
GoVPP’s repo also contains the logic for attaching to VPP’s binary API socket, and wrappers for sending and receiving messages over it.

Getting started

Generating the API bindings from the VPP source

First create your project directory (watch out for path as it is important for go modules) :

mkdir -p $HOME/myproject

Run the bindings generation at the root of the repo :

cd <vpp_repo_dir>/vpp
make ARGS="--output-dir=$HOME/myproject/vppbinapi --import-prefix=mygit.com/myproject/vppbinapi" go-api-files

Note

The two options are similar but specify two different things. The output-dir option sets the directory where the generated bindings will be stored. The import prefix sets the go package name to be used in the generated bindings, this will be the string to be used in your import ( "" ) in go. Both can or can not match depending on your go.mod.

This should prompt you with the name of the directory were the generated go api bindings live. (e.g. Go API bindings were generated to myproject/vppbinapi)

Generating the API bindings from the VPP package

You should find its corresponding api.json files present on your system, typically in /usr/share/vpp/api/

# First install the binary API generator
#   It will be installed to $GOPATH/bin/binapi-generator
#   or $HOME/go/bin/binapi-generator
go install git.fd.io/govpp.git/cmd/binapi-generator@latest

# Run the binapi-generator
$GOPATH/bin/binapi-generator \
  --input-dir=/usr/share/vpp/api/ \
  --output-dir=$HOME/myproject/vppbinapi \
  --import-prefix=mygit.com/myproject/vppbinapi

This should output the go bindings to $HOME/myproject/vppbinapi

Launch VPP

mkdir -p /tmp/vpp
cat << EOF > /tmp/startup.conf
unix {nodaemon cli-listen /tmp/vpp/api.sock}
plugins {
    path /vpp/build-root/install-vpp_debug-native/vpp/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vpp_plugins
    plugin dpdk_plugin.so { disable }
}
EOF

# If VPP was built from source:
<vpp_repo_dir>/build-root/install-vpp_debug-native/vpp/bin/vpp -c /tmp/startup.conf

# If VPP was installed from package:
vpp -c /tmp/startup.conf

Connecting to VPP

Once you have your go bindings in $HOME/myproject/vppbinapi, you can start building an agent leveraging them. A typical agent would look like this

Back to your project directory, add govpp as a dependency

cd "$HOME/myproject"
go mod init mygit.com/myproject
go get git.fd.io/govpp.git@latest

Create main.go in $HOME/myproject like below :

package main

import (
    "os"
    "fmt"

    "git.fd.io/govpp.git"
    "git.fd.io/govpp.git/api"

    "mygit.com/myproject/vppbinapi/af_packet"
    interfaces "mygit.com/myproject/vppbinapi/interface"
    "mygit.com/myproject/vppbinapi/interface_types"
)

func CreateHostInterface (ch api.Channel, ifName string) (uint32, error) {
    response := &af_packet.AfPacketCreateReply{}
    request := &af_packet.AfPacketCreate{HostIfName: ifName}
    err := ch.SendRequest(request).ReceiveReply(response)
    if err != nil {
        return 0, err
    } else if response.Retval != 0 {
        return 0, fmt.Errorf("AfPacketCreate failed: req %+v reply %+v", request, response)
    }
    return uint32(response.SwIfIndex), nil
}

func InterfaceAdminUp(ch api.Channel, swIfIndex uint32) error {
    request := &interfaces.SwInterfaceSetFlags{
        SwIfIndex: interface_types.InterfaceIndex(swIfIndex),
        Flags:     interface_types.IF_STATUS_API_FLAG_ADMIN_UP,
    }
    response := &interfaces.SwInterfaceSetFlagsReply{}
    err := ch.SendRequest(request).ReceiveReply(response)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }
    return nil
}

func main() {
    // Connect to VPP
    conn, err := govpp.Connect("/tmp/vpp/api.sock")
    defer conn.Disconnect()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Could not connect: %s\n", err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }

    // Open channel
    ch, err := conn.NewAPIChannel()
    defer ch.Close()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Could not open API channel: %s\n", err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }

    swIfIndex, err := CreateHostInterface(ch, "eth0")
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Could not create host interface: %s\n", err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }
    err = InterfaceAdminUp(ch, swIfIndex)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Could not set interface up: %s\n", err)
        os.Exit(1)
    }

    fmt.Printf("Created host interface & set it up, id=%d\n", swIfIndex)
}

Finally build and launch application. This will connect to VPP on its API socket /tmp/vpp/api.sock, create an AF_PACKET interface on eth0 and set it up

cd "$HOME/myproject"
go build
./myproject