path: root/doc/SPOE.txt

                -----------------------------------------------
                   Stream Processing Offload Engine (SPOE)
                                  Version 1.2
                          ( Last update: 2020-06-13 )
                -----------------------------------------------
                          Author : Christopher Faulet
                      Contact : cfaulet at haproxy dot com


SUMMARY
--------

  0.      Terms
  1.      Introduction
  2.      SPOE configuration
  2.1.        SPOE scope
  2.2.        "spoe-agent" section
  2.3.        "spoe-message" section
  2.4.        "spoe-group" section
  2.5.        Example
  3.      SPOP specification
  3.1.        Data types
  3.2.        Frames
  3.2.1.          Frame capabilities
  3.2.2.          Frame types overview
  3.2.3.          Workflow
  3.2.4.          Frame: HAPROXY-HELLO
  3.2.5.          Frame: AGENT-HELLO
  3.2.6.          Frame: NOTIFY
  3.2.7.          Frame: ACK
  3.2.8.          Frame: HAPROXY-DISCONNECT
  3.2.9.          Frame: AGENT-DISCONNECT
  3.3.        Events & messages
  3.4.        Actions
  3.5.        Errors & timeouts
  4.      Logging


0. Terms
---------

* SPOE : Stream Processing Offload Engine.

    A SPOE is a filter talking to servers managed by a SPOA to offload the
    stream processing. An engine is attached to a proxy. A proxy can have
    several engines. Each engine is linked to an agent and only one.

* SPOA : Stream Processing Offload Agent.

    A SPOA is a service that will receive info from a SPOE to offload the
    stream processing. An agent manages several servers. It uses a backend to
    reference all of them. By extension, these servers can also be called
    agents.

* SPOP : Stream Processing Offload Protocol, used by SPOEs to talk to SPOA
         servers.

    This protocol is used by engines to talk to agents. It is an in-house
    binary protocol described in this documentation.


1. Introduction
----------------

SPOE is a feature introduced in HAProxy 1.7. It makes possible the
communication with external components to retrieve some info. The idea started
with the problems caused by most ldap libs not working fine in event-driven
systems (often at least the connect() is blocking). So, it is hard to properly
implement Single Sign On solution (SSO) in HAProxy. The SPOE will ease this
kind of processing, or we hope so.

Now, the aim of SPOE is to allow any kind of offloading on the streams. First
releases won't do lot of things. As we will see, there are few handled events
and even less actions supported. Actually, for now, the SPOE can offload the
processing before "tcp-request content", "tcp-response content", "http-request"
and "http-response" rules. And it only supports variables definition. But, in
spite of these limited features, we can easily imagine to implement SSO
solution, ip reputation or ip geolocation services.

Some example implementations in various languages are linked to from the
HAProxy Wiki page dedicated to this mechanism:

 https://github.com/haproxy/wiki/wiki/SPOE:-Stream-Processing-Offloading-Engine

2. SPOE configuration
----------------------

Because SPOE is implemented as a filter, To use it, you must declare a "filter
spoe" line in a proxy section (frontend/backend/listen) :

  frontend my-front
      ...
      filter spoe [engine <name>] config <file>
      ...

The "config" parameter is mandatory. It specifies the SPOE configuration
file. The engine name is optional. It can be set to declare the scope to use in
the SPOE configuration. So it is possible to use the same SPOE configuration
for several engines. If no name is provided, the SPOE configuration must not
contain any scope directive.

We use a separate configuration file on purpose. By commenting SPOE filter
line, you completely disable the feature, including the parsing of sections
reserved to SPOE. This is also a way to keep the HAProxy configuration clean.

A SPOE configuration file must contains, at least, the SPOA configuration
("spoe-agent" section) and SPOE messages/groups ("spoe-message" or "spoe-group"
sections) attached to this agent.

IMPORTANT : The configuration of a SPOE filter must be located in a dedicated
file. But the backend used by a SPOA must be declared in HAProxy configuration
file.

2.1. SPOE scope
-------------------------

If you specify an engine name on the SPOE filter line, then you need to define
scope in the SPOE configuration with the same name. You can have several SPOE
scope in the same file. In each scope, you must define one and only one
"spoe-agent" section to configure the SPOA linked to your SPOE and several
"spoe-message" and "spoe-group" sections to describe, respectively, messages and
group of messages sent to servers managed by your SPOA.

A SPOE scope starts with this kind of line :

  [<name>]

where <name> is the same engine name specified on the SPOE filter line. The
scope ends when the file ends or when another scope is found.

  Example :
      [my-first-engine]
          spoe-agent my-agent
              ...
          spoe-message msg1
              ...
          spoe-message msg2
              ...
          spoe-group grp1
              ...
          spoe-group grp2
              ...

      [my-second-engine]
          ...

If no engine name is provided on the SPOE filter line, no SPOE scope must be
found in the SPOE configuration file. All the file is considered to be in the
same anonymous and implicit scope.

The engine name must be uniq for a proxy. If no engine name is provided on the
SPOE filter line, the SPOE agent name is used by default.

2.2. "spoe-agent" section
--------------------------

For each engine, you must define one and only one "spoe-agent" section. In this
section, you will declare SPOE messages and the backend you will use. You will
also set timeouts and options to customize your agent's behaviour.


spoe-agent <name>
  Create a new SPOA with the name <name>. It must have one and only one
  "spoe-agent" definition by SPOE scope.

  Arguments :
    <name>   is the name of the agent section.

  following keywords are supported :
    - groups
    - log
    - maxconnrate
    - maxerrrate
    - max-frame-size
    - max-waiting-frames
    - messages
    - [no] option async
    - [no] option dontlog-normal
    - [no] option pipelining
    - [no] option send-frag-payload
    - option continue-on-error
    - option force-set-var
    - option set-on-error
    - option set-process-time
    - option set-total-time
    - option var-prefix
    - register-var-names
    - timeout hello|idle|processing
    - use-backend


groups <grp-name> ...
  Declare the list of SPOE groups that an agent will handle.

  Arguments :
    <grp-name>   is the name of a SPOE group.

  Groups declared here must be found in the same engine scope, else an error is
  triggered during the configuration parsing. You can have many "groups" lines.

  See also: "spoe-group" section.


log global
log <address> [len <length>] [format <format>] <facility> [<level> [<minlevel>]]
no log
  Enable per-instance logging of events and traffic.

  Prefix :
    no         should be used when the logger list must be flushed.

  See the HAProxy Configuration Manual for details about this option.

maxconnrate <number>
  Set the maximum number of connections per second to <number>. The SPOE will
  stop to open new connections if the maximum is reached and will wait to
  acquire an existing one. So it is important to set "timeout hello" to a
  relatively small value.


maxerrrate <number>
  Set the maximum number of errors per second to <number>. The SPOE will stop
  its processing if the maximum is reached.


max-frame-size <number>
  Set the maximum allowed size for frames exchanged between HAProxy and SPOA.
  It must be in the range [256, tune.bufsize-4] (4 bytes are reserved for the
  frame length). By default, it is set to (tune.bufsize-4).

max-waiting-frames <number>
  Set the maximum number of frames waiting for an acknowledgement on the same
  connection. This value is only used when the pipelinied or asynchronous
  exchanges between HAProxy and SPOA are enabled. By default, it is set to 20.

messages <msg-name> ...
  Declare the list of SPOE messages that an agent will handle.

  Arguments :
    <msg-name>   is the name of a SPOE message.

  Messages declared here must be found in the same engine scope, else an error
  is triggered during the configuration parsing. You can have many "messages"
  lines.

  See also: "spoe-message" section.


option async
no option async
  Enable or disable the support of asynchronous exchanges between HAProxy and
  SPOA. By default, this option is enabled.


option continue-on-error
  Do not stop the events processing when an error occurred on a stream.

  By default, for a specific stream, when an abnormal/unexpected error occurs,
  the SPOE is disabled for all the transaction. So if you have several events
  configured, such error on an event will disabled all following. For TCP
  streams, this will disable the SPOE for the whole session. For HTTP streams,
  this will disable it for the transaction (request and response).

  When set, this option bypass this behaviour and only the current event will
  be ignored.


option dontlog-normal
no option dontlog-normal
  Enable or disable logging of normal, successful processing.

  Arguments : none

  See also: "log" and section 4 about logging.


option force-set-var
  By default, SPOE filter only register already known variables (mainly from
  parsing of the configuration), and process-wide variables (those of scope
  "proc") cannot be created. If you want that haproxy trusts the agent and
  registers all variables (ex: can be useful for LUA workload), activate this
  option.

  Caution : this option opens to a variety of attacks such as a rogue SPOA that
  asks to register too many variables.


option pipelining
no option pipelining
  Enable or disable the support of pipelined exchanges between HAProxy and
  SPOA. By default, this option is enabled.


option send-frag-payload
no option send-frag-payload
  Enable or disable the sending of fragmented payload to SPOA. By default, this
  option is enabled.


option set-on-error <var name>
  Define the variable to set when an error occurred during an event processing.

  Arguments :

    <var name>   is the variable name, without the scope. The name may only
                 contain characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9', '.' and '_'.

  This variable will only be set when an error occurred in the scope of the
  transaction. As for all other variables define by the SPOE, it will be
  prefixed. So, if your variable name is "error" and your prefix is
  "my_spoe_pfx", the variable will be "txn.my_spoe_pfx.error".

  When set, the variable is an integer representing the error reason. For values
  under 256, it represents an error coming from the engine. Below 256, it
  reports a SPOP error. In this case, to retrieve the right SPOP status code,
  you must remove 256 to this value. Here are possible values:

    * 1       a timeout occurred during the event processing.

    * 2       an error was triggered during the resources allocation.

    * 3       the frame payload exceeds the frame size and it cannot be
              fragmented.

    * 4       the fragmentation of a payload is aborted.

    * 5       The frame processing has been interrupted by HAProxy.

    * 255     an unknown error occurred during the event processing.

    * 256+N   a SPOP error occurred during the event processing (see section
              "Errors & timeouts").

  Note that if "option continue-on-error" is set, the variable is not
  automatically removed between events processing.

  See also: "option continue-on-error", "option var-prefix".


option set-process-time <var name>
  Define the variable to set to report the processing time of the last event or
  group.

  Arguments :

    <var name>   is the variable name, without the scope. The name may only
                 contain characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9', '.' and '_'.

  This variable will be set in the scope of the transaction. As for all other
  variables define by the SPOE, it will be prefixed. So, if your variable name
  is "process_time" and your prefix is "my_spoe_pfx", the variable will be
  "txn.my_spoe_pfx.process_time".

  When set, the variable is an integer representing the delay to process the
  event or the group, in milliseconds. From the stream point of view, it is the
  latency added by the SPOE processing for the last handled event or group.

  If several events or groups are processed for the same stream, this value
  will be overrideen.

  See also: "option set-total-time".


option set-total-time <var name>
  Define the variable to set to report the total processing time SPOE for a
  stream.

  Arguments :

    <var name>   is the variable name, without the scope. The name may only
                 contain characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9', '.' and '_'.

  This variable will be set in the scope of the transaction. As for all other
  variables define by the SPOE, it will be prefixed. So, if your variable name
  is "total_time" and your prefix is "my_spoe_pfx", the variable will be
  "txn.my_spoe_pfx.total_time".

  When set, the variable is an integer representing the sum of processing times
  for a stream, in milliseconds. From the stream point of view, it is the
  latency added by the SPOE processing.

  If several events or groups are processed for the same stream, this value
  will be updated.

  See also: "option set-process-time".


option var-prefix <prefix>
  Define the prefix used when variables are set by an agent.

  Arguments :

    <prefix>   is the prefix used to limit the scope of variables set by an
               agent.

  To avoid conflict with other variables defined by HAProxy, all variables
  names will be prefixed. By default, the "spoe-agent" name is used. This
  option can be used to customize it.

  The prefix will be added between the variable scope and its name, separated
  by a '.'. It may only contain characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9', '.' and '_', as
  for variables name. In HAProxy configuration, you need to use this prefix as
  a part of the variables name. For example, if an agent define the variable
  "myvar" in the "txn" scope, with the prefix "my_spoe_pfx", then you should
  use "txn.my_spoe_pfx.myvar" name in your HAProxy configuration.

  By default, an agent will never set new variables at runtime: It can only set
  new value for existing ones. If you want a different behaviour, see
  force-set-var option and register-var-names directive.

register-var-names <var name> ...
  Register some variable names. By default, an agent will not be allowed to set
  new variables at runtime. This rule can be totally relaxed by setting the
  option "force-set-var". If you know all the variables you will need, this
  directive is a good way to register them without letting an agent doing what
  it want. This is only required if these variables are not referenced anywhere
  in the HAProxy configuration or the SPOE one.

  Arguments:
    <var name>   is a variable name without the scope. The name may only
                 contain characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9', '.' and '_'.

  The prefix will be automatically added during the registration. You can have
  many "register-var-names" lines.

  See also: "option force-set-var", "option var-prefix".

timeout hello <timeout>
  Set the maximum time to wait for an agent to receive the AGENT-HELLO frame.
  It is applied on the stream that handle the connection with the agent.

  Arguments :
    <timeout>   is the timeout value specified in milliseconds by default, but
                can be in any other unit if the number is suffixed by the unit,
                as explained at the top of this document.

  This timeout is an applicative timeout. It differ from "timeout connect"
  defined on backends.


timeout idle <timeout>
  Set the maximum time to wait for an agent to close an idle connection. It is
  applied on the stream that handle the connection with the agent.

  Arguments :
    <timeout>   is the timeout value specified in milliseconds by default, but
                can be in any other unit if the number is suffixed by the unit,
                as explained at the top of this document.


timeout processing <timeout>
  Set the maximum time to wait for a stream to process an event, i.e to acquire
  a stream to talk with an agent, to encode all messages, to send the NOTIFY
  frame, to receive the corresponding acknowledgement and to process all
  actions. It is applied on the stream that handle the client and the server
  sessions.

  Arguments :
    <timeout>   is the timeout value specified in milliseconds by default, but
                can be in any other unit if the number is suffixed by the unit,
                as explained at the top of this document.


use-backend <backend>
  Specify the backend to use. It must be defined.

  Arguments :
    <backend>   is the name of a valid "backend" section.


2.3. "spoe-message" section
----------------------------

To offload the stream processing, SPOE will send messages with specific
information at a specific moment in the stream life and will wait for
corresponding replies to know what to do.


spoe-message <name>
  Create a new SPOE message with the name <name>.

  Arguments :
    <name>   is the name of the SPOE message.

  Here you define a message that can be referenced in a "spoe-agent"
  section. Following keywords are supported :
    - acl
    - args
    - event

  See also: "spoe-agent" section.


acl <aclname> <criterion> [flags] [operator] <value> ...
  Declare or complete an access list.

  See section 7 about ACL usage in the HAProxy Configuration Manual.


args [name=]<sample> ...
  Define arguments passed into the SPOE message.

  Arguments :
    <sample>   is a sample expression.

  When the message is processed, if a sample expression is not available, it is
  set to NULL. Arguments are processed in their declaration order and added in
  the message in that order. It is possible to declare named arguments.

  For example:
    args frontend=fe_id src dst


event <name> [ { if | unless } <condition> ]
  Set the event that triggers sending of the message. It may optionally be
  followed by an ACL-based condition, in which case it will only be evaluated
  if the condition is true. A SPOE message can only be sent on one event. If
  several events are defined, only the last one is considered.

  ACL-based conditions are executed in the context of the stream that handle
  the client and the server connections.

  Arguments :
    <name>      is the event name.
    <condition> is a standard ACL-based condition.

  Supported events are:
    - on-client-session
    - on-server-session
    - on-frontend-tcp-request
    - on-backend-tcp-request
    - on-tcp-response
    - on-frontend-http-request
    - on-backend-http-request
    - on-http-response

  See section "Events & Messages" for more details about supported events.
  See section 7 about ACL usage in the HAProxy Configuration Manual.

2.4. "spoe-group" section
--------------------------

This section can be used to declare a group of SPOE messages. Unlike messages
referenced in a "spoe-agent" section, messages inside a group are not sent on a
specific event. The sending must be triggered by TCP or HTTP rules, from the
HAProxy configuration.


spoe-group <name>
  Create a new SPOE group with the name <name>.

  Arguments :
    <name>   is the name of the SPOE group.

  Here you define a group of SPOE messages that can be referenced in a
  "spoe-agent" section. Following keywords are supported :
     - messages

  See also: "spoe-agent" and "spoe-message" sections.


messages <msg-name> ...
  Declare the list of SPOE messages belonging to the group.

  Arguments :
    <msg-name>   is the name of a SPOE message.

  Messages declared here must be found in the same engine scope, else an error
  is triggered during the configuration parsing. Furthermore, a message belongs
  at most to a group. You can have many "messages" lines.

  See also: "spoe-message" section.


2.5. Example
-------------

Here is a simple but complete example that sends client-ip address to a ip
reputation service. This service can set the variable "ip_score" which is an
integer between 0 and 100, indicating its reputation (100 means totally safe
and 0 a blacklisted IP with no doubt).

  ###
  ### HAProxy configuration
    frontend www
        mode http
        bind *:80

        filter spoe engine ip-reputation config spoe-ip-reputation.conf

        # Reject connection if the IP reputation is under 20
        tcp-request content reject if  { var(sess.iprep.ip_score) -m int lt 20 }

        default_backend http-servers

    backend http-servers
        mode http
        server http A.B.C.D:80

    backend iprep-servers
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin

        timeout connect 5s # greater than hello timeout
        timeout server  3m # greater than idle timeout

        server iprep1 A1.B1.C1.D1:12345
        server iprep2 A2.B2.C2.D2:12345

  ####
  ### spoe-ip-reputation.conf
    [ip-reputation]

    spoe-agent iprep-agent
        messages get-ip-reputation

        option var-prefix iprep

        timeout hello      2s
        timeout idle       2m
        timeout processing 10ms

        use-backend iprep-servers

    spoe-message get-ip-reputation
        args ip=src
        event on-client-session if ! { src -f /etc/haproxy/whitelist.lst }


3. SPOP specification
----------------------

3.1. Data types
----------------

Here is the bytewise representation of typed data:

    TYPED-DATA    : <TYPE:4 bits><FLAGS:4 bits><DATA>

Supported types and their representation are:

    TYPE                       |  ID | DESCRIPTION
  -----------------------------+-----+----------------------------------
     NULL                      |  0  |  NULL   : <0>
     Boolean                   |  1  |  BOOL   : <1+FLAG>
     32bits signed integer     |  2  |  INT32  : <2><VALUE:varint>
     32bits unsigned integer   |  3  |  UINT32 : <3><VALUE:varint>
     64bits signed integer     |  4  |  INT64  : <4><VALUE:varint>
     32bits unsigned integer   |  5  |  UNIT64 : <5><VALUE:varint>
     IPV4                      |  6  |  IPV4   : <6><STRUCT IN_ADDR:4 bytes>
     IPV6                      |  7  |  IPV6   : <7><STRUCT IN_ADDR6:16 bytes>
     String                    |  8  |  STRING : <8><LENGTH:varint><BYTES>
     Binary                    |  9  |  BINARY : <9><LENGTH:varint><BYTES>
    10 -> 15  unused/reserved  |  -  |  -
  -----------------------------+-----+----------------------------------

Variable-length integer (varint) are encoded using Peers encoding:


       0  <= X < 240        : 1 byte  (7.875 bits)  [ XXXX XXXX ]
      240 <= X < 2288       : 2 bytes (11 bits)     [ 1111 XXXX ] [ 0XXX XXXX ]
     2288 <= X < 264432     : 3 bytes (18 bits)     [ 1111 XXXX ] [ 1XXX XXXX ]   [ 0XXX XXXX ]
   264432 <= X < 33818864   : 4 bytes (25 bits)     [ 1111 XXXX ] [ 1XXX XXXX ]*2 [ 0XXX XXXX ]
 33818864 <= X < 4328786160 : 5 bytes (32 bits)     [ 1111 XXXX ] [ 1XXX XXXX ]*3 [ 0XXX XXXX ]
 ...

For booleans, the value (true or false) is the first bit in the FLAGS
bitfield. if this bit is set to 0, then the boolean is evaluated as false,
otherwise, the boolean is evaluated as true.

3.2. Frames
------------

Exchange between HAProxy and agents are made using FRAME packets. All frames
must be prefixed with their size encoded on 4 bytes in network byte order:

    <FRAME-LENGTH:4 bytes> <FRAME>

A frame always starts with its type, on one byte, followed by metadata
containing flags, on 4 bytes and a two variable-length integer representing the
stream identifier and the frame identifier inside the stream:

    FRAME       : <FRAME-TYPE:1 byte> <METADATA> <FRAME-PAYLOAD>
    METADATA    : <FLAGS:4 bytes> <STREAM-ID:varint> <FRAME-ID:varint>

Then comes the frame payload. Depending on the frame type, the payload can be
of three types: a simple key/value list, a list of messages or a list of
actions.

    FRAME-PAYLOAD    : <LIST-OF-MESSAGES> | <LIST-OF-ACTIONS> | <KV-LIST>

    LIST-OF-MESSAGES : [ <MESSAGE-NAME> <NB-ARGS:1 byte> <KV-LIST> ... ]
    MESSAGE-NAME     : <STRING>

    LIST-OF-ACTIONS  : [ <ACTION-TYPE:1 byte> <NB-ARGS:1 byte> <ACTION-ARGS> ... ]
    ACTION-ARGS      : [ <TYPED-DATA>... ]

    KV-LIST          : [ <KV-NAME> <KV-VALUE> ... ]
    KV-NAME          : <STRING>
    KV-VALUE         : <TYPED-DATA>

    FLAGS :

    Flags are a 32 bits field. They are encoded on 4 bytes in network byte
    order, where the bit 0 is the LSB.

              0   1      2-31
            +---+---+----------+
            |   | A |          |
            | F | B |          |
            | I | O | RESERVED |
            | N | R |          |
            |   | T |          |
            +---+---+----------+

    FIN: Indicates that this is the final payload fragment. The first fragment
         may also be the final fragment.

    ABORT: Indicates that the processing of the current frame must be
           cancelled. This bit should be set on frames with a fragmented
           payload. It can be ignore for frames with an unfragemnted
           payload. When it is set, the FIN bit must also be set.


Frames cannot exceed a maximum size negotiated between HAProxy and agents
during the HELLO handshake. Most of time, payload will be small enough to send
it in one frame. But when supported by the peer, it will be possible to
fragment huge payload on many frames. This ability is announced during the
HELLO handshake and it can be asynmetric (supported by agents but not by
HAProxy or the opposite). The following rules apply to fragmentation:

  * An unfragemnted payload consists of a single frame with the FIN bit set.

  * A fragemented payload consists of several frames with the FIN bit clear and
    terminated by a single frame with the FIN bit set. All these frames must
    share the same STREAM-ID and FRAME-ID. The first frame must set the right
    FRAME-TYPE (e.g, NOTIFY). The following frames must have an unset type (0).

Beside the support of fragmented payload by a peer, some payload must not be
fragmented. See below for details.

IMPORTANT : The maximum size supported by peers for a frame must be greater
than or equal to 256 bytes.

3.2.1. Frame capabilities
--------------------------

Here are the list of official capabilities that HAProxy and agents can support:

  * fragmentation: This is the ability for a peer to support fragmented
                   payload in received frames. This is an asymmectical
                   capability, it only concerns the peer that announces
                   it. This is the responsibility to the other peer to use it
                   or not.

  * pipelining: This is the ability for a peer to decouple NOTIFY and ACK
                frames. This is a symmectical capability. To be used, it must
                be supported by HAProxy and agents. Unlike HTTP pipelining, the
                ACK frames can be send in any order, but always on the same TCP
                connection used for the corresponding NOTIFY frame.

  * async: This ability is similar to the pipelining, but here any TCP
           connection established between HAProxy and the agent can be used to
           send ACK frames. if an agent accepts connections from multiple
           HAProxy, it can use the "engine-id" value to group TCP
           connections. See details about HAPROXY-HELLO frame.

Unsupported or unknown capabilities are silently ignored, when possible.

NOTE: HAProxy does not support the fragmentation for now. This means it is not
      able to handle fragmented frames. However, if an agent announces the
      fragmentation support, HAProxy may choose to send fragemented frames.

3.2.2. Frame types overview
----------------------------

Here are types of frame supported by SPOE. Frames sent by HAProxy come first,
then frames sent by agents :

    TYPE                       |  ID | DESCRIPTION
  -----------------------------+-----+-------------------------------------
     UNSET                     |  0  | Used for all frames but the first when a
                               |     | payload is fragmented.
  -----------------------------+-----+-------------------------------------
     HAPROXY-HELLO             |  1  |  Sent by HAProxy when it opens a
                               |     |  connection on an agent.
                               |     |
     HAPROXY-DISCONNECT        |  2  |  Sent by HAProxy when it want to close
                               |     |  the connection or in reply to an
                               |     |  AGENT-DISCONNECT frame
                               |     |
     NOTIFY                    |  3  |  Sent by HAProxy to pass information
                               |     |  to an agent
  -----------------------------+-----+-------------------------------------
     AGENT-HELLO               | 101 |  Reply to a HAPROXY-HELLO frame, when
                               |     |  the connection is established
                               |     |
     AGENT-DISCONNECT          | 102 |  Sent by an agent just before closing
                               |     |  the connection
                               |     |
     ACK                       | 103 |  Sent to acknowledge a NOTIFY frame
  -----------------------------+-----+-------------------------------------

Unknown frames may be silently skipped.

3.2.3. Workflow
----------------

  * Successful HELLO handshake:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |       HAPROXY-HELLO         |
       |    (healthcheck: false)     |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |        AGENT-HELLO          |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Successful HELLO healthcheck:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |       HAPROXY-HELLO         |
       |    (healthcheck: true)      |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |   AGENT-HELLO + close()     |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |


  * Error encountered by agent during the HELLO handshake:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |       HAPROXY-HELLO         |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |     DISCONNECT + close()    |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Error encountered by HAProxy during the HELLO handshake:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |       HAPROXY-HELLO         |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |        AGENT-HELLO          |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |
       |         DISCONNECT          |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |     DISCONNECT + close()    |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Notify / Ack exchange (unfragmented payload):

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |          NOTIFY             |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |           ACK               |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Notify / Ack exchange (fragmented payload):

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |      NOTIFY (frag 1)        |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |       UNSET (frag 2)        |
       | --------------------------> |
       |            ...              |
       |       UNSET (frag N)        |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |           ACK               |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Aborted fragmentation of a NOTIFY frame:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |            ...              |
       |       UNSET (frag X)        |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |         ACK/ABORT           |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |
       |       UNSET (frag X+1)      |
       | -----------X                |
       |                             |
       |                             |

  * Connection closed by haproxy:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |         DISCONNECT          |
       | --------------------------> |
       |                             |
       |     DISCONNECT + close()    |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

  * Connection closed by agent:

    HAPROXY                       AGENT SRV
       |     DISCONNECT + close()    |
       | <-------------------------- |
       |                             |

3.2.4. Frame: HAPROXY-HELLO
----------------------------

This frame is the first one exchanged between HAProxy and an agent, when the
connection is established. The payload of this frame is a KV-LIST. It cannot be
fragmented. STREAM-ID and FRAME-ID are must be set 0.

Following items are mandatory in the KV-LIST:

  * "supported-versions"    <STRING>

    Last SPOP major versions supported by HAProxy. It is a comma-separated list
    of versions, following the format "Major.Minor". Spaces must be ignored, if
    any. When a major version is announced by HAProxy, it means it also support
    all previous minor versions.

    Example: "2.0, 1.5" means HAProxy supports SPOP 2.0 and 1.0 to 1.5

  * "max-frame-size"    <UINT32>

    This is the maximum size allowed for a frame. The HAPROXY-HELLO frame must
    be lower or equal to this value.

  * "capabilities"    <STRING>

    This a comma-separated list of capabilities supported by HAProxy. Spaces
    must be ignored, if any.

Following optional items can be added in the KV-LIST:

  * "healthcheck"    <BOOLEAN>

    If this item is set to TRUE, then the HAPROXY-HELLO frame is sent during a
    SPOE health check. When set to FALSE, this item can be ignored.

  * "engine-id"    <STRING>

    This is a uniq string that identify a SPOE engine.

To finish the HELLO handshake, the agent must return an AGENT-HELLO frame with
its supported SPOP version, the lower value between its maximum size allowed
for a frame and the HAProxy one and capabilities it supports. If an error
occurs or if an incompatibility is detected with the agent configuration, an
AGENT-DISCONNECT frame must be returned.

3.2.5. Frame: AGENT-HELLO
--------------------------

This frame is sent in reply to a HAPROXY-HELLO frame to finish a HELLO
handshake. As for HAPROXY-HELLO frame, STREAM-ID and FRAME-ID are also set
0. The payload of this frame is a KV-LIST and it cannot be fragmented.

Following items are mandatory in the KV-LIST:

  * "version"    <STRING>

    This is the SPOP version the agent supports. It must follow the format
    "Major.Minor" and it must be lower or equal than one of major versions
    announced by HAProxy.

  * "max-frame-size"    <UINT32>

    This is the maximum size allowed for a frame. It must be lower or equal to
    the value in the HAPROXY-HELLO frame. This value will be used for all
    subsequent frames.

  * "capabilities"    <STRING>

    This a comma-separated list of capabilities supported by agent. Spaces must
    be ignored, if any.

At this time, if everything is ok for HAProxy (supported version and valid
max-frame-size value), the HELLO handshake is successfully completed. Else,
HAProxy sends a HAPROXY-DISCONNECT frame with the corresponding error.

If "healthcheck" item was set to TRUE in the HAPROXY-HELLO frame, the agent can
safely close the connection without DISCONNECT frame. In all cases, HAProxy
will close the connection at the end of the health check.

3.2.6. Frame: NOTIFY
---------------------

Information are sent to the agents inside NOTIFY frames. These frames are
attached to a stream, so STREAM-ID and FRAME-ID must be set. The payload of
NOTIFY frames is a LIST-OF-MESSAGES and, if supported by agents, it can be
fragmented.

NOTIFY frames must be acknowledge by agents sending an ACK frame, repeating
right STREAM-ID and FRAME-ID.

3.2.7. Frame: ACK
------------------

ACK frames must be sent by agents to reply to NOTIFY frames. STREAM-ID and
FRAME-ID found in a NOTIFY frame must be reuse in the corresponding ACK
frame. The payload of ACK frames is a LIST-OF-ACTIONS and, if supported by
HAProxy, it can be fragmented.

3.2.8. Frame: HAPROXY-DISCONNECT
---------------------------------

If an error occurs, at anytime, from the HAProxy side, a HAPROXY-DISCONNECT
frame is sent with information describing the error. HAProxy will wait an
AGENT-DISCONNECT frame in reply. All other frames will be ignored. The agent
must then close the socket.

The payload of this frame is a KV-LIST. It cannot be fragmented. STREAM-ID and
FRAME-ID are must be set 0.

Following items are mandatory in the KV-LIST:

  * "status-code"    <UINT32>

    This is the code corresponding to the error.

  * "message"    <STRING>

    This is a textual message describing the error.

For more information about known errors, see section "Errors & timeouts"

3.2.9. Frame: AGENT-DISCONNECT
-------------------------------

If an error occurs, at anytime, from the agent size, a AGENT-DISCONNECT frame
is sent, with information describing the error. such frame is also sent in reply
to a HAPROXY-DISCONNECT. The agent must close the socket just after sending
this frame.

The payload of this frame is a KV-LIST. It cannot be fragmented. STREAM-ID and
FRAME-ID are must be set 0.

Following items are mandatory in the KV-LIST:

  * "status-code"    <UINT32>

    This is the code corresponding to the error.

  * "message"    <STRING>

    This is a textual message describing the error.

For more information about known errors, see section "Errors & timeouts"

3.3. Events & Messages
-----------------------

Information about streams are sent in NOTIFY frames. You can specify which kind
of information to send by defining "spoe-message" sections in your SPOE
configuration file. for each "spoe-message" there will be a message in a NOTIFY
frame when the right event is triggered.

A NOTIFY frame is sent for an specific event when there is at least one
"spoe-message" attached to this event. All messages for an event will be added
in the same NOTIFY frame.

Here is the list of supported events:

  * on-client-session         is triggered when a new client session is created.
                              This event is only available for SPOE filters
                              declared in a frontend or a listen section.

  * on-frontend-tcp-request   is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "tcp-request content" rules on the frontend side.
                              This event is only available for SPOE filters
                              declared in a frontend or a listen section.

  * on-backend-tcp-request    is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "tcp-request content" rules on the backend side.
                              This event is skipped for SPOE filters declared
                              in a listen section.

  * on-frontend-http-request  is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "http-request" rules on the frontend side. This
                              event is only available for SPOE filters declared
                              in a frontend or a listen section.

  * on-backend-http-request   is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "http-request" rules on the backend side. This
                              event is skipped for SPOE filters declared in a
                              listen section.

  * on-server-session         is triggered when the session with the server is
                              established.

  * on-tcp-response           is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "tcp-response content" rules.

  * on-http-response          is triggered just before the evaluation of
                              "http-response" rules.


The stream processing will loop on these events, when triggered, waiting the
agent reply.

3.4. Actions
-------------

An agent must acknowledge each NOTIFY frame by sending the corresponding ACK
frame. Actions can be added in these frames to dynamically take action on the
processing of a stream.

Here is the list of supported actions:

  * set-var    set the value for an existing variable. 3 arguments must be
               attached to this action: the variable scope (proc, sess, txn,
               req or res), the variable name (a string) and its value.

    ACTION-SET-VAR  : <SET-VAR:1 byte><NB-ARGS:1 byte><VAR-SCOPE:1 byte><VAR-NAME><VAR-VALUE>

    SET-VAR     : <1>
    NB-ARGS     : <3>
    VAR-SCOPE   : <PROCESS> | <SESSION> | <TRANSACTION> | <REQUEST> | <RESPONSE>
    VAR-NAME    : <STRING>
    VAR-VALUE   : <TYPED-DATA>

    PROCESS     : <0>
    SESSION     : <1>
    TRANSACTION : <2>
    REQUEST     : <3>
    RESPONSE    : <4>

  * unset-var    unset the value for an existing variable. 2 arguments must be
                 attached to this action: the variable scope (proc, sess, txn,
                 req or res) and the variable name (a string).

    ACTION-UNSET-VAR  : <UNSET-VAR:1 byte><NB-ARGS:1 byte><VAR-SCOPE:1 byte><VAR-NAME>

    UNSET-VAR   : <2>
    NB-ARGS     : <2>
    VAR-SCOPE   : <PROCESS> | <SESSION> | <TRANSACTION> | <REQUEST> | <RESPONSE>
    VAR-NAME    : <STRING>

    PROCESS     : <0>
    SESSION     : <1>
    TRANSACTION : <2>
    REQUEST     : <3>
    RESPONSE    : <4>


NOTE: Name of the variables will be automatically prefixed by HAProxy to avoid
      name clashes with other variables used in HAProxy. Moreover, unknown
      variable will be silently ignored.

3.5. Errors & timeouts
----------------------

Here is the list of all known errors:

    STATUS CODE   |  DESCRIPTION
  ----------------+--------------------------------------------------------
     0            | normal (no error occurred)
     1            | I/O error
     2            | A timeout occurred
     3            | frame is too big
     4            | invalid frame received
     5            | version value not found
     6            | max-frame-size value not found
     7            | capabilities value not found
     8            | unsupported version
     9            | max-frame-size too big or too small
     10           | payload fragmentation is not supported
     11           | invalid interlaced frames
     12           | frame-id not found (it does not match any referenced frame)
     13           | resource allocation error
     99           | an unknown error occurrde
  ----------------+--------------------------------------------------------

An agent can define its own errors using a not yet assigned status code.

IMPORTANT NOTE: By default, for a specific stream, when an abnormal/unexpected
                error occurs, the SPOE is disabled for all the transaction. So
                if you have several events configured, such error on an event
                will disabled all following. For TCP streams, this will
                disable the SPOE for the whole session. For HTTP streams, this
                will disable it for the transaction (request and response).
                See 'option continue-on-error' to bypass this limitation.

To avoid a stream to wait undefinetly, you must carefully choose the
acknowledgement timeout. In most of cases, it will be quiet low. But it depends
on the responsivness of your service.

You must also choose idle timeout carefully. Because connection with your
service depends on the backend configuration used by the SPOA, it is important
to use a lower value for idle timeout than the server timeout. Else the
connection will be closed by HAProxy. The same is true for hello timeout. You
should choose a lower value than the connect timeout.

4. Logging
-----------

Activity of an SPOE is logged using HAProxy's logger. The messages are logged
in the context of the streams that handle the client and the server
connections. A message is emitted for each event or group handled by an
SPOE. Depending on the status code, the log level will be different. In the
normal case, when no error occurred, the message is logged with the level
LOG_NOTICE. Otherwise, the message is logged with the level LOG_WARNING.

The messages are logged using the agent's logger, if defined, and use the
following format:

    SPOE: [AGENT] <TYPE:NAME> sid=STREAM-ID st=STATUS-CODE reqT/qT/wT/resT/pT \
    <idles>/<applets> <nb_sending>/<nb_waiting> <nb_error>/<nb_processed>

      AGENT              is the agent name
      TYPE               is EVENT of GROUP
      NAME               is the event or the group name
      STREAM-ID          is an integer, the unique id of the stream
      STATUS_CODE        is the processing's status code
      reqT/qT/wT/resT/pT are the following time events:

        * reqT : the encoding time. It includes ACLs processing, if any. For
                 fragmented frames, it is the sum of all fragments.
        * qT   : the delay before the request gets out the sending queue. For
                 fragmented frames, it is the sum of all fragments.
        * wT   : the delay before the response is received. No fragmentation
                 supported here.
        * resT : the delay to process the response. No fragmentation supported
                 here.
        * pT   : the delay to process the event or the group. From the stream
                 point of view, it is the latency added by the SPOE processing.
                 It is more or less the sum of values above.

      <idle>             is the numbers of idle SPOE applets
      <applets>          is the numbers of SPOE applets
      <nb_sending>       is the numbers of streams waiting to send data
      <nb_waiting>       is the numbers of streams waiting for a ack
      <nb_error>         is the numbers of processing errors
      <nb_processed>     is the numbers of events/groups processed


For all these time events, -1 means the processing was interrupted before the
end. So -1 for the queue time means the request was never dequeued. For
fragmented frames it is harder to know when the interruption happened.

/*
 * Local variables:
 *  fill-column: 79
 * End:
 */