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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+============
+Timestamping
+============
+
+
+1. Control Interfaces
+=====================
+
+The interfaces for receiving network packages timestamps are:
+
+SO_TIMESTAMP
+ Generates a timestamp for each incoming packet in (not necessarily
+ monotonic) system time. Reports the timestamp via recvmsg() in a
+ control message in usec resolution.
+ SO_TIMESTAMP is defined as SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW or SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD
+ based on the architecture type and time_t representation of libc.
+ Control message format is in struct __kernel_old_timeval for
+ SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD and in struct __kernel_sock_timeval for
+ SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW options respectively.
+
+SO_TIMESTAMPNS
+ Same timestamping mechanism as SO_TIMESTAMP, but reports the
+ timestamp as struct timespec in nsec resolution.
+ SO_TIMESTAMPNS is defined as SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW or SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD
+ based on the architecture type and time_t representation of libc.
+ Control message format is in struct timespec for SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD
+ and in struct __kernel_timespec for SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW options
+ respectively.
+
+IP_MULTICAST_LOOP + SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]
+ Only for multicast:approximate transmit timestamp obtained by
+ reading the looped packet receive timestamp.
+
+SO_TIMESTAMPING
+ Generates timestamps on reception, transmission or both. Supports
+ multiple timestamp sources, including hardware. Supports generating
+ timestamps for stream sockets.
+
+
+1.1 SO_TIMESTAMP (also SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW)
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This socket option enables timestamping of datagrams on the reception
+path. Because the destination socket, if any, is not known early in
+the network stack, the feature has to be enabled for all packets. The
+same is true for all early receive timestamp options.
+
+For interface details, see `man 7 socket`.
+
+Always use SO_TIMESTAMP_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
+struct __kernel_sock_timeval format.
+
+SO_TIMESTAMP_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
+on 32 bit machines.
+
+1.2 SO_TIMESTAMPNS (also SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW):
+
+This option is identical to SO_TIMESTAMP except for the returned data type.
+Its struct timespec allows for higher resolution (ns) timestamps than the
+timeval of SO_TIMESTAMP (ms).
+
+Always use SO_TIMESTAMPNS_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
+struct __kernel_timespec format.
+
+SO_TIMESTAMPNS_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
+on 32 bit machines.
+
+1.3 SO_TIMESTAMPING (also SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD and SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW)
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Supports multiple types of timestamp requests. As a result, this
+socket option takes a bitmap of flags, not a boolean. In::
+
+ err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, &val, sizeof(val));
+
+val is an integer with any of the following bits set. Setting other
+bit returns EINVAL and does not change the current state.
+
+The socket option configures timestamp generation for individual
+sk_buffs (1.3.1), timestamp reporting to the socket's error
+queue (1.3.2) and options (1.3.3). Timestamp generation can also
+be enabled for individual sendmsg calls using cmsg (1.3.4).
+
+
+1.3.1 Timestamp Generation
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Some bits are requests to the stack to try to generate timestamps. Any
+combination of them is valid. Changes to these bits apply to newly
+created packets, not to packets already in the stack. As a result, it
+is possible to selectively request timestamps for a subset of packets
+(e.g., for sampling) by embedding an send() call within two setsockopt
+calls, one to enable timestamp generation and one to disable it.
+Timestamps may also be generated for reasons other than being
+requested by a particular socket, such as when receive timestamping is
+enabled system wide, as explained earlier.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE:
+ Request rx timestamps generated by the network adapter.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE:
+ Request rx timestamps when data enters the kernel. These timestamps
+ are generated just after a device driver hands a packet to the
+ kernel receive stack.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE:
+ Request tx timestamps generated by the network adapter. This flag
+ can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE:
+ Request tx timestamps when data leaves the kernel. These timestamps
+ are generated in the device driver as close as possible, but always
+ prior to, passing the packet to the network interface. Hence, they
+ require driver support and may not be available for all devices.
+ This flag can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SCHED:
+ Request tx timestamps prior to entering the packet scheduler. Kernel
+ transmit latency is, if long, often dominated by queuing delay. The
+ difference between this timestamp and one taken at
+ SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE will expose this latency independent
+ of protocol processing. The latency incurred in protocol
+ processing, if any, can be computed by subtracting a userspace
+ timestamp taken immediately before send() from this timestamp. On
+ machines with virtual devices where a transmitted packet travels
+ through multiple devices and, hence, multiple packet schedulers,
+ a timestamp is generated at each layer. This allows for fine
+ grained measurement of queuing delay. This flag can be enabled
+ via both socket options and control messages.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK:
+ Request tx timestamps when all data in the send buffer has been
+ acknowledged. This only makes sense for reliable protocols. It is
+ currently only implemented for TCP. For that protocol, it may
+ over-report measurement, because the timestamp is generated when all
+ data up to and including the buffer at send() was acknowledged: the
+ cumulative acknowledgment. The mechanism ignores SACK and FACK.
+ This flag can be enabled via both socket options and control messages.
+
+
+1.3.2 Timestamp Reporting
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The other three bits control which timestamps will be reported in a
+generated control message. Changes to the bits take immediate
+effect at the timestamp reporting locations in the stack. Timestamps
+are only reported for packets that also have the relevant timestamp
+generation request set.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE:
+ Report any software timestamps when available.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE:
+ This option is deprecated and ignored.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE:
+ Report hardware timestamps as generated by
+ SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE when available.
+
+
+1.3.3 Timestamp Options
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The interface supports the options
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID:
+ Generate a unique identifier along with each packet. A process can
+ have multiple concurrent timestamping requests outstanding. Packets
+ can be reordered in the transmit path, for instance in the packet
+ scheduler. In that case timestamps will be queued onto the error
+ queue out of order from the original send() calls. It is not always
+ possible to uniquely match timestamps to the original send() calls
+ based on timestamp order or payload inspection alone, then.
+
+ This option associates each packet at send() with a unique
+ identifier and returns that along with the timestamp. The identifier
+ is derived from a per-socket u32 counter (that wraps). For datagram
+ sockets, the counter increments with each sent packet. For stream
+ sockets, it increments with every byte.
+
+ The counter starts at zero. It is initialized the first time that
+ the socket option is enabled. It is reset each time the option is
+ enabled after having been disabled. Resetting the counter does not
+ change the identifiers of existing packets in the system.
+
+ This option is implemented only for transmit timestamps. There, the
+ timestamp is always looped along with a struct sock_extended_err.
+ The option modifies field ee_data to pass an id that is unique
+ among all possibly concurrently outstanding timestamp requests for
+ that socket.
+
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG:
+ Support recv() cmsg for all timestamped packets. Control messages
+ are already supported unconditionally on all packets with receive
+ timestamps and on IPv6 packets with transmit timestamp. This option
+ extends them to IPv4 packets with transmit timestamp. One use case
+ is to correlate packets with their egress device, by enabling socket
+ option IP_PKTINFO simultaneously.
+
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY:
+ Applies to transmit timestamps only. Makes the kernel return the
+ timestamp as a cmsg alongside an empty packet, as opposed to
+ alongside the original packet. This reduces the amount of memory
+ charged to the socket's receive budget (SO_RCVBUF) and delivers
+ the timestamp even if sysctl net.core.tstamp_allow_data is 0.
+ This option disables SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_STATS:
+ Optional stats that are obtained along with the transmit timestamps.
+ It must be used together with SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY. When the
+ transmit timestamp is available, the stats are available in a
+ separate control message of type SCM_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_STATS, as a
+ list of TLVs (struct nlattr) of types. These stats allow the
+ application to associate various transport layer stats with
+ the transmit timestamps, such as how long a certain block of
+ data was limited by peer's receiver window.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_PKTINFO:
+ Enable the SCM_TIMESTAMPING_PKTINFO control message for incoming
+ packets with hardware timestamps. The message contains struct
+ scm_ts_pktinfo, which supplies the index of the real interface which
+ received the packet and its length at layer 2. A valid (non-zero)
+ interface index will be returned only if CONFIG_NET_RX_BUSY_POLL is
+ enabled and the driver is using NAPI. The struct contains also two
+ other fields, but they are reserved and undefined.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TX_SWHW:
+ Request both hardware and software timestamps for outgoing packets
+ when SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
+ are enabled at the same time. If both timestamps are generated,
+ two separate messages will be looped to the socket's error queue,
+ each containing just one timestamp.
+
+New applications are encouraged to pass SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID to
+disambiguate timestamps and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY to operate
+regardless of the setting of sysctl net.core.tstamp_allow_data.
+
+An exception is when a process needs additional cmsg data, for
+instance SOL_IP/IP_PKTINFO to detect the egress network interface.
+Then pass option SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_CMSG. This option depends on
+having access to the contents of the original packet, so cannot be
+combined with SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY.
+
+
+1.3.4. Enabling timestamps via control messages
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+In addition to socket options, timestamp generation can be requested
+per write via cmsg, only for SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* (see Section 1.3.1).
+Using this feature, applications can sample timestamps per sendmsg()
+without paying the overhead of enabling and disabling timestamps via
+setsockopt::
+
+ struct msghdr *msg;
+ ...
+ cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(msg);
+ cmsg->cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET;
+ cmsg->cmsg_type = SO_TIMESTAMPING;
+ cmsg->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(__u32));
+ *((__u32 *) CMSG_DATA(cmsg)) = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SCHED |
+ SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE |
+ SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK;
+ err = sendmsg(fd, msg, 0);
+
+The SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* flags set via cmsg will override
+the SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_* flags set via setsockopt.
+
+Moreover, applications must still enable timestamp reporting via
+setsockopt to receive timestamps::
+
+ __u32 val = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE |
+ SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID /* or any other flag */;
+ err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, &val, sizeof(val));
+
+
+1.4 Bytestream Timestamps
+-------------------------
+
+The SO_TIMESTAMPING interface supports timestamping of bytes in a
+bytestream. Each request is interpreted as a request for when the
+entire contents of the buffer has passed a timestamping point. That
+is, for streams option SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE will record
+when all bytes have reached the device driver, regardless of how
+many packets the data has been converted into.
+
+In general, bytestreams have no natural delimiters and therefore
+correlating a timestamp with data is non-trivial. A range of bytes
+may be split across segments, any segments may be merged (possibly
+coalescing sections of previously segmented buffers associated with
+independent send() calls). Segments can be reordered and the same
+byte range can coexist in multiple segments for protocols that
+implement retransmissions.
+
+It is essential that all timestamps implement the same semantics,
+regardless of these possible transformations, as otherwise they are
+incomparable. Handling "rare" corner cases differently from the
+simple case (a 1:1 mapping from buffer to skb) is insufficient
+because performance debugging often needs to focus on such outliers.
+
+In practice, timestamps can be correlated with segments of a
+bytestream consistently, if both semantics of the timestamp and the
+timing of measurement are chosen correctly. This challenge is no
+different from deciding on a strategy for IP fragmentation. There, the
+definition is that only the first fragment is timestamped. For
+bytestreams, we chose that a timestamp is generated only when all
+bytes have passed a point. SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK as defined is easy to
+implement and reason about. An implementation that has to take into
+account SACK would be more complex due to possible transmission holes
+and out of order arrival.
+
+On the host, TCP can also break the simple 1:1 mapping from buffer to
+skbuff as a result of Nagle, cork, autocork, segmentation and GSO. The
+implementation ensures correctness in all cases by tracking the
+individual last byte passed to send(), even if it is no longer the
+last byte after an skbuff extend or merge operation. It stores the
+relevant sequence number in skb_shinfo(skb)->tskey. Because an skbuff
+has only one such field, only one timestamp can be generated.
+
+In rare cases, a timestamp request can be missed if two requests are
+collapsed onto the same skb. A process can detect this situation by
+enabling SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_ID and comparing the byte offset at
+send time with the value returned for each timestamp. It can prevent
+the situation by always flushing the TCP stack in between requests,
+for instance by enabling TCP_NODELAY and disabling TCP_CORK and
+autocork.
+
+These precautions ensure that the timestamp is generated only when all
+bytes have passed a timestamp point, assuming that the network stack
+itself does not reorder the segments. The stack indeed tries to avoid
+reordering. The one exception is under administrator control: it is
+possible to construct a packet scheduler configuration that delays
+segments from the same stream differently. Such a setup would be
+unusual.
+
+
+2 Data Interfaces
+==================
+
+Timestamps are read using the ancillary data feature of recvmsg().
+See `man 3 cmsg` for details of this interface. The socket manual
+page (`man 7 socket`) describes how timestamps generated with
+SO_TIMESTAMP and SO_TIMESTAMPNS records can be retrieved.
+
+
+2.1 SCM_TIMESTAMPING records
+----------------------------
+
+These timestamps are returned in a control message with cmsg_level
+SOL_SOCKET, cmsg_type SCM_TIMESTAMPING, and payload of type
+
+For SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD::
+
+ struct scm_timestamping {
+ struct timespec ts[3];
+ };
+
+For SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW::
+
+ struct scm_timestamping64 {
+ struct __kernel_timespec ts[3];
+
+Always use SO_TIMESTAMPING_NEW timestamp to always get timestamp in
+struct scm_timestamping64 format.
+
+SO_TIMESTAMPING_OLD returns incorrect timestamps after the year 2038
+on 32 bit machines.
+
+The structure can return up to three timestamps. This is a legacy
+feature. At least one field is non-zero at any time. Most timestamps
+are passed in ts[0]. Hardware timestamps are passed in ts[2].
+
+ts[1] used to hold hardware timestamps converted to system time.
+Instead, expose the hardware clock device on the NIC directly as
+a HW PTP clock source, to allow time conversion in userspace and
+optionally synchronize system time with a userspace PTP stack such
+as linuxptp. For the PTP clock API, see Documentation/driver-api/ptp.rst.
+
+Note that if the SO_TIMESTAMP or SO_TIMESTAMPNS option is enabled
+together with SO_TIMESTAMPING using SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE, a false
+software timestamp will be generated in the recvmsg() call and passed
+in ts[0] when a real software timestamp is missing. This happens also
+on hardware transmit timestamps.
+
+2.1.1 Transmit timestamps with MSG_ERRQUEUE
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+For transmit timestamps the outgoing packet is looped back to the
+socket's error queue with the send timestamp(s) attached. A process
+receives the timestamps by calling recvmsg() with flag MSG_ERRQUEUE
+set and with a msg_control buffer sufficiently large to receive the
+relevant metadata structures. The recvmsg call returns the original
+outgoing data packet with two ancillary messages attached.
+
+A message of cm_level SOL_IP(V6) and cm_type IP(V6)_RECVERR
+embeds a struct sock_extended_err. This defines the error type. For
+timestamps, the ee_errno field is ENOMSG. The other ancillary message
+will have cm_level SOL_SOCKET and cm_type SCM_TIMESTAMPING. This
+embeds the struct scm_timestamping.
+
+
+2.1.1.2 Timestamp types
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The semantics of the three struct timespec are defined by field
+ee_info in the extended error structure. It contains a value of
+type SCM_TSTAMP_* to define the actual timestamp passed in
+scm_timestamping.
+
+The SCM_TSTAMP_* types are 1:1 matches to the SOF_TIMESTAMPING_*
+control fields discussed previously, with one exception. For legacy
+reasons, SCM_TSTAMP_SND is equal to zero and can be set for both
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE and SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE. It
+is the first if ts[2] is non-zero, the second otherwise, in which
+case the timestamp is stored in ts[0].
+
+
+2.1.1.3 Fragmentation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Fragmentation of outgoing datagrams is rare, but is possible, e.g., by
+explicitly disabling PMTU discovery. If an outgoing packet is fragmented,
+then only the first fragment is timestamped and returned to the sending
+socket.
+
+
+2.1.1.4 Packet Payload
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The calling application is often not interested in receiving the whole
+packet payload that it passed to the stack originally: the socket
+error queue mechanism is just a method to piggyback the timestamp on.
+In this case, the application can choose to read datagrams with a
+smaller buffer, possibly even of length 0. The payload is truncated
+accordingly. Until the process calls recvmsg() on the error queue,
+however, the full packet is queued, taking up budget from SO_RCVBUF.
+
+
+2.1.1.5 Blocking Read
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Reading from the error queue is always a non-blocking operation. To
+block waiting on a timestamp, use poll or select. poll() will return
+POLLERR in pollfd.revents if any data is ready on the error queue.
+There is no need to pass this flag in pollfd.events. This flag is
+ignored on request. See also `man 2 poll`.
+
+
+2.1.2 Receive timestamps
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+On reception, there is no reason to read from the socket error queue.
+The SCM_TIMESTAMPING ancillary data is sent along with the packet data
+on a normal recvmsg(). Since this is not a socket error, it is not
+accompanied by a message SOL_IP(V6)/IP(V6)_RECVERROR. In this case,
+the meaning of the three fields in struct scm_timestamping is
+implicitly defined. ts[0] holds a software timestamp if set, ts[1]
+is again deprecated and ts[2] holds a hardware timestamp if set.
+
+
+3. Hardware Timestamping configuration: SIOCSHWTSTAMP and SIOCGHWTSTAMP
+=======================================================================
+
+Hardware time stamping must also be initialized for each device driver
+that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is defined in
+include/uapi/linux/net_tstamp.h as::
+
+ struct hwtstamp_config {
+ int flags; /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
+ int tx_type; /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
+ int rx_filter; /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
+ };
+
+Desired behavior is passed into the kernel and to a specific device by
+calling ioctl(SIOCSHWTSTAMP) with a pointer to a struct ifreq whose
+ifr_data points to a struct hwtstamp_config. The tx_type and
+rx_filter are hints to the driver what it is expected to do. If
+the requested fine-grained filtering for incoming packets is not
+supported, the driver may time stamp more than just the requested types
+of packets.
+
+Drivers are free to use a more permissive configuration than the requested
+configuration. It is expected that drivers should only implement directly the
+most generic mode that can be supported. For example if the hardware can
+support HWTSTAMP_FILTER_V2_EVENT, then it should generally always upscale
+HWTSTAMP_FILTER_V2_L2_SYNC_MESSAGE, and so forth, as HWTSTAMP_FILTER_V2_EVENT
+is more generic (and more useful to applications).
+
+A driver which supports hardware time stamping shall update the struct
+with the actual, possibly more permissive configuration. If the
+requested packets cannot be time stamped, then nothing should be
+changed and ERANGE shall be returned (in contrast to EINVAL, which
+indicates that SIOCSHWTSTAMP is not supported at all).
+
+Only a processes with admin rights may change the configuration. User
+space is responsible to ensure that multiple processes don't interfere
+with each other and that the settings are reset.
+
+Any process can read the actual configuration by passing this
+structure to ioctl(SIOCGHWTSTAMP) in the same way. However, this has
+not been implemented in all drivers.
+
+::
+
+ /* possible values for hwtstamp_config->tx_type */
+ enum {
+ /*
+ * no outgoing packet will need hardware time stamping;
+ * should a packet arrive which asks for it, no hardware
+ * time stamping will be done
+ */
+ HWTSTAMP_TX_OFF,
+
+ /*
+ * enables hardware time stamping for outgoing packets;
+ * the sender of the packet decides which are to be
+ * time stamped by setting SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
+ * before sending the packet
+ */
+ HWTSTAMP_TX_ON,
+ };
+
+ /* possible values for hwtstamp_config->rx_filter */
+ enum {
+ /* time stamp no incoming packet at all */
+ HWTSTAMP_FILTER_NONE,
+
+ /* time stamp any incoming packet */
+ HWTSTAMP_FILTER_ALL,
+
+ /* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
+ HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
+
+ /* PTP v1, UDP, any kind of event packet */
+ HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V1_L4_EVENT,
+
+ /* for the complete list of values, please check
+ * the include file include/uapi/linux/net_tstamp.h
+ */
+ };
+
+3.1 Hardware Timestamping Implementation: Device Drivers
+--------------------------------------------------------
+
+A driver which supports hardware time stamping must support the
+SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl and update the supplied struct hwtstamp_config with
+the actual values as described in the section on SIOCSHWTSTAMP. It
+should also support SIOCGHWTSTAMP.
+
+Time stamps for received packets must be stored in the skb. To get a pointer
+to the shared time stamp structure of the skb call skb_hwtstamps(). Then
+set the time stamps in the structure::
+
+ struct skb_shared_hwtstamps {
+ /* hardware time stamp transformed into duration
+ * since arbitrary point in time
+ */
+ ktime_t hwtstamp;
+ };
+
+Time stamps for outgoing packets are to be generated as follows:
+
+- In hard_start_xmit(), check if (skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP)
+ is set no-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected to do hardware time
+ stamping.
+- If this is possible for the skb and requested, then declare
+ that the driver is doing the time stamping by setting the flag
+ SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags , e.g. with::
+
+ skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
+
+ You might want to keep a pointer to the associated skb for the next step
+ and not free the skb. A driver not supporting hardware time stamping doesn't
+ do that. A driver must never touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store
+ software generated time stamps by the network subsystem.
+- Driver should call skb_tx_timestamp() as close to passing sk_buff to hardware
+ as possible. skb_tx_timestamp() provides a software time stamp if requested
+ and hardware timestamping is not possible (SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS not set).
+- As soon as the driver has sent the packet and/or obtained a
+ hardware time stamp for it, it passes the time stamp back by
+ calling skb_hwtstamp_tx() with the original skb, the raw
+ hardware time stamp. skb_hwtstamp_tx() clones the original skb and
+ adds the timestamps, therefore the original skb has to be freed now.
+ If obtaining the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver
+ should not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
+ this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline than other
+ software time stamping and therefore could lead to unexpected deltas
+ between time stamps.
+
+3.2 Special considerations for stacked PTP Hardware Clocks
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+There are situations when there may be more than one PHC (PTP Hardware Clock)
+in the data path of a packet. The kernel has no explicit mechanism to allow the
+user to select which PHC to use for timestamping Ethernet frames. Instead, the
+assumption is that the outermost PHC is always the most preferable, and that
+kernel drivers collaborate towards achieving that goal. Currently there are 3
+cases of stacked PHCs, detailed below:
+
+3.2.1 DSA (Distributed Switch Architecture) switches
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These are Ethernet switches which have one of their ports connected to an
+(otherwise completely unaware) host Ethernet interface, and perform the role of
+a port multiplier with optional forwarding acceleration features. Each DSA
+switch port is visible to the user as a standalone (virtual) network interface,
+and its network I/O is performed, under the hood, indirectly through the host
+interface (redirecting to the host port on TX, and intercepting frames on RX).
+
+When a DSA switch is attached to a host port, PTP synchronization has to
+suffer, since the switch's variable queuing delay introduces a path delay
+jitter between the host port and its PTP partner. For this reason, some DSA
+switches include a timestamping clock of their own, and have the ability to
+perform network timestamping on their own MAC, such that path delays only
+measure wire and PHY propagation latencies. Timestamping DSA switches are
+supported in Linux and expose the same ABI as any other network interface (save
+for the fact that the DSA interfaces are in fact virtual in terms of network
+I/O, they do have their own PHC). It is typical, but not mandatory, for all
+interfaces of a DSA switch to share the same PHC.
+
+By design, PTP timestamping with a DSA switch does not need any special
+handling in the driver for the host port it is attached to. However, when the
+host port also supports PTP timestamping, DSA will take care of intercepting
+the ``.ndo_do_ioctl`` calls towards the host port, and block attempts to enable
+hardware timestamping on it. This is because the SO_TIMESTAMPING API does not
+allow the delivery of multiple hardware timestamps for the same packet, so
+anybody else except for the DSA switch port must be prevented from doing so.
+
+In code, DSA provides for most of the infrastructure for timestamping already,
+in generic code: a BPF classifier (``ptp_classify_raw``) is used to identify
+PTP event messages (any other packets, including PTP general messages, are not
+timestamped), and provides two hooks to drivers:
+
+- ``.port_txtstamp()``: The driver is passed a clone of the timestampable skb
+ to be transmitted, before actually transmitting it. Typically, a switch will
+ have a PTP TX timestamp register (or sometimes a FIFO) where the timestamp
+ becomes available. There may be an IRQ that is raised upon this timestamp's
+ availability, or the driver might have to poll after invoking
+ ``dev_queue_xmit()`` towards the host interface. Either way, in the
+ ``.port_txtstamp()`` method, the driver only needs to save the clone for
+ later use (when the timestamp becomes available). Each skb is annotated with
+ a pointer to its clone, in ``DSA_SKB_CB(skb)->clone``, to ease the driver's
+ job of keeping track of which clone belongs to which skb.
+
+- ``.port_rxtstamp()``: The original (and only) timestampable skb is provided
+ to the driver, for it to annotate it with a timestamp, if that is immediately
+ available, or defer to later. On reception, timestamps might either be
+ available in-band (through metadata in the DSA header, or attached in other
+ ways to the packet), or out-of-band (through another RX timestamping FIFO).
+ Deferral on RX is typically necessary when retrieving the timestamp needs a
+ sleepable context. In that case, it is the responsibility of the DSA driver
+ to call ``netif_rx_ni()`` on the freshly timestamped skb.
+
+3.2.2 Ethernet PHYs
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These are devices that typically fulfill a Layer 1 role in the network stack,
+hence they do not have a representation in terms of a network interface as DSA
+switches do. However, PHYs may be able to detect and timestamp PTP packets, for
+performance reasons: timestamps taken as close as possible to the wire have the
+potential to yield a more stable and precise synchronization.
+
+A PHY driver that supports PTP timestamping must create a ``struct
+mii_timestamper`` and add a pointer to it in ``phydev->mii_ts``. The presence
+of this pointer will be checked by the networking stack.
+
+Since PHYs do not have network interface representations, the timestamping and
+ethtool ioctl operations for them need to be mediated by their respective MAC
+driver. Therefore, as opposed to DSA switches, modifications need to be done
+to each individual MAC driver for PHY timestamping support. This entails:
+
+- Checking, in ``.ndo_do_ioctl``, whether ``phy_has_hwtstamp(netdev->phydev)``
+ is true or not. If it is, then the MAC driver should not process this request
+ but instead pass it on to the PHY using ``phy_mii_ioctl()``.
+
+- On RX, special intervention may or may not be needed, depending on the
+ function used to deliver skb's up the network stack. In the case of plain
+ ``netif_rx()`` and similar, MAC drivers must check whether
+ ``skb_defer_rx_timestamp(skb)`` is necessary or not - and if it is, don't
+ call ``netif_rx()`` at all. If ``CONFIG_NETWORK_PHY_TIMESTAMPING`` is
+ enabled, and ``skb->dev->phydev->mii_ts`` exists, its ``.rxtstamp()`` hook
+ will be called now, to determine, using logic very similar to DSA, whether
+ deferral for RX timestamping is necessary. Again like DSA, it becomes the
+ responsibility of the PHY driver to send the packet up the stack when the
+ timestamp is available.
+
+ For other skb receive functions, such as ``napi_gro_receive`` and
+ ``netif_receive_skb``, the stack automatically checks whether
+ ``skb_defer_rx_timestamp()`` is necessary, so this check is not needed inside
+ the driver.
+
+- On TX, again, special intervention might or might not be needed. The
+ function that calls the ``mii_ts->txtstamp()`` hook is named
+ ``skb_clone_tx_timestamp()``. This function can either be called directly
+ (case in which explicit MAC driver support is indeed needed), but the
+ function also piggybacks from the ``skb_tx_timestamp()`` call, which many MAC
+ drivers already perform for software timestamping purposes. Therefore, if a
+ MAC supports software timestamping, it does not need to do anything further
+ at this stage.
+
+3.2.3 MII bus snooping devices
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These perform the same role as timestamping Ethernet PHYs, save for the fact
+that they are discrete devices and can therefore be used in conjunction with
+any PHY even if it doesn't support timestamping. In Linux, they are
+discoverable and attachable to a ``struct phy_device`` through Device Tree, and
+for the rest, they use the same mii_ts infrastructure as those. See
+Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ptp/timestamper.txt for more details.
+
+3.2.4 Other caveats for MAC drivers
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Stacked PHCs, especially DSA (but not only) - since that doesn't require any
+modification to MAC drivers, so it is more difficult to ensure correctness of
+all possible code paths - is that they uncover bugs which were impossible to
+trigger before the existence of stacked PTP clocks. One example has to do with
+this line of code, already presented earlier::
+
+ skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
+
+Any TX timestamping logic, be it a plain MAC driver, a DSA switch driver, a PHY
+driver or a MII bus snooping device driver, should set this flag.
+But a MAC driver that is unaware of PHC stacking might get tripped up by
+somebody other than itself setting this flag, and deliver a duplicate
+timestamp.
+For example, a typical driver design for TX timestamping might be to split the
+transmission part into 2 portions:
+
+1. "TX": checks whether PTP timestamping has been previously enabled through
+ the ``.ndo_do_ioctl`` ("``priv->hwtstamp_tx_enabled == true``") and the
+ current skb requires a TX timestamp ("``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags &
+ SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP``"). If this is true, it sets the
+ "``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``" flag. Note: as
+ described above, in the case of a stacked PHC system, this condition should
+ never trigger, as this MAC is certainly not the outermost PHC. But this is
+ not where the typical issue is. Transmission proceeds with this packet.
+
+2. "TX confirmation": Transmission has finished. The driver checks whether it
+ is necessary to collect any TX timestamp for it. Here is where the typical
+ issues are: the MAC driver takes a shortcut and only checks whether
+ "``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``" was set. With a stacked
+ PHC system, this is incorrect because this MAC driver is not the only entity
+ in the TX data path who could have enabled SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in the first
+ place.
+
+The correct solution for this problem is for MAC drivers to have a compound
+check in their "TX confirmation" portion, not only for
+"``skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS``", but also for
+"``priv->hwtstamp_tx_enabled == true``". Because the rest of the system ensures
+that PTP timestamping is not enabled for anything other than the outermost PHC,
+this enhanced check will avoid delivering a duplicated TX timestamp to user
+space.