Simon Willison’s Weblog

22nd July 2024 - Link Blog

No More Blue Fridays (via) Brendan Gregg: "In the future, computers will not crash due to bad software updates, even those updates that involve kernel code. In the future, these updates will push eBPF code."

New-to-me things I picked up from this:

1. eBPF - a technology I had thought was unique to the a Linux kernel - is coming Windows!
2. A useful mental model to have for eBPF is that it provides a WebAssembly-style sandbox for kernel code.
3. eBPF doesn't stand for "extended Berkeley Packet Filter" any more - that name greatly understates its capabilities and has been retired. More on that in the eBPF FAQ.
4. From this Hacker News thread eBPF programs can be analyzed before running despite the halting problem because eBPF only allows verifiably-halting programs to run.