Cc'ing Paul with full quote for review, as he's the one who will probably take care of using this from Podman. By the way, I didn't finish reviewing this yet, but, so far, it looks simpler than I thought! I still need to find a moment to use my little hammer on it, and find out if it's perhaps a bit too simple. :) On Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:55:58 +0800 Yumei Huang wrote:

This patch introduces a mode where we only forward loopback connections and traffic between two namespaces (via the loopback interface, 'lo'), without a tap device.

With this, podman can support forwarding ::1 in custom networks when using rootlesskit for forwarding ports.

In --no-tap mode, --host-lo-to-ns-lo, --no-icmp and --no-ra is automatically enabled. Options requiring a tap device (--ns-ifname, --ns-mac-addr, --config-net, --outbound-if4/6) are rejected.

Link: https://bugs.passt.top/show_bug.cgi?id=149 Signed-off-by: Yumei Huang --- conf.c | 56 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------- fwd.c | 3 +++ passt.1 | 5 +++++ passt.h | 2 ++ pasta.c | 3 +++ tap.c | 11 +++++++---- 6 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/conf.c b/conf.c index 84ae12b..353d0a5 100644 --- a/conf.c +++ b/conf.c @@ -1049,7 +1049,8 @@ pasta_opts: " --no-copy-addrs DEPRECATED:\n" " Don't copy all addresses to namespace\n" " --ns-mac-addr ADDR Set MAC address on tap interface\n" - " --no-splice Disable inbound socket splicing\n"); + " --no-splice Disable inbound socket splicing\n" + " --no-tap Don't create tap device\n");

passt_exit(status); } @@ -1451,6 +1452,7 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) {"no-ndp", no_argument, &c->no_ndp, 1 }, {"no-ra", no_argument, &c->no_ra, 1 }, {"no-splice", no_argument, &c->no_splice, 1 }, + {"no-tap", no_argument, &c->no_tap, 1 }, {"freebind", no_argument, &c->freebind, 1 }, {"no-map-gw", no_argument, &no_map_gw, 1 }, {"ipv4-only", no_argument, NULL, '4' }, @@ -1947,8 +1949,11 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) } } while (name != -1);

- if (c->mode != MODE_PASTA) + if (c->mode != MODE_PASTA) { c->no_splice = 1; + if (c->no_tap) + die("--no-tap is for pasta mode only"); + }

if (c->mode == MODE_PASTA && !c->pasta_conf_ns) { if (copy_routes_opt) @@ -1957,6 +1962,25 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) die("--no-copy-addrs needs --config-net"); }

+ if (c->mode == MODE_PASTA && c->no_tap) { + if (c->no_splice) + die("--no-tap is incompatible with --no-splice"); + if (*c->ip4.ifname_out || *c->ip6.ifname_out) + die("--no-tap is incompatible with --outbound-if4/6"); + if (*c->pasta_ifn) + die("--no-tap is incompatible with --ns-ifname"); + if (*c->guest_mac) + die("--no-tap is incompatible with --ns-mac-addr"); + if (c->pasta_conf_ns) + die("--no-tap is incompatible with --config-net"); + + c->host_lo_to_ns_lo = 1; + c->no_icmp = 1; + c->no_ra = 1; + c->no_dns = 1; + c->no_dns_search = 1; + } + if (!ifi4 && *c->ip4.ifname_out) ifi4 = if_nametoindex(c->ip4.ifname_out);

@@ -1980,9 +2004,9 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) log_conf_parsed = true; /* Stop printing everything */

nl_sock_init(c, false); - if (!v6_only) + if (!v6_only && !c->no_tap) c->ifi4 = conf_ip4(ifi4, &c->ip4); - if (!v4_only) + if (!v4_only && !c->no_tap) c->ifi6 = conf_ip6(ifi6, &c->ip6);

if (c->ifi4 && c->mtu < IPV4_MIN_MTU) { @@ -1998,30 +2022,32 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) (*c->ip6.ifname_out && !c->ifi6)) die("External interface not usable");

- if (!c->ifi4 && !c->ifi6 && !*c->pasta_ifn) { + if (!c->ifi4 && !c->ifi6 && !*c->pasta_ifn && !c->no_tap) { strncpy(c->pasta_ifn, pasta_default_ifn, sizeof(c->pasta_ifn) - 1); }

if (!c->ifi4 && !v6_only) { - info("IPv4: no external interface as template, use local mode"); - - conf_ip4_local(&c->ip4); + if (!c->no_tap) { + info("IPv4: no external interface as template, use local mode"); + conf_ip4_local(&c->ip4); + } c->ifi4 = -1; }

if (!c->ifi6 && !v4_only) { - info("IPv6: no external interface as template, use local mode"); - - conf_ip6_local(&c->ip6); + if (!c->no_tap) { + info("IPv6: no external interface as template, use local mode"); + conf_ip6_local(&c->ip6); + } c->ifi6 = -1; }

- if (c->ifi4 && !no_map_gw && + if (c->ifi4 > 0 && !no_map_gw && IN4_IS_ADDR_UNSPECIFIED(&c->ip4.map_host_loopback)) c->ip4.map_host_loopback = c->ip4.guest_gw;

- if (c->ifi6 && !no_map_gw && + if (c->ifi6 > 0 && !no_map_gw && IN6_IS_ADDR_UNSPECIFIED(&c->ip6.map_host_loopback)) c->ip6.map_host_loopback = c->ip6.guest_gw;

@@ -2116,10 +2142,10 @@ void conf(struct ctx *c, int argc, char **argv) conf_ports(c, name, optarg, &c->udp.fwd_out); } while (name != -1);

- if (!c->ifi4) + if (c->ifi4 <= 0) c->no_dhcp = 1;

- if (!c->ifi6) { + if (c->ifi6 <= 0) { c->no_ndp = 1; c->no_dhcpv6 = 1; } else if (IN6_IS_ADDR_UNSPECIFIED(&c->ip6.addr)) { diff --git a/fwd.c b/fwd.c index 44a0e10..2f4a89a 100644 --- a/fwd.c +++ b/fwd.c @@ -780,6 +780,9 @@ uint8_t fwd_nat_from_host(const struct ctx *c, uint8_t proto, return PIF_SPLICE; }

+ if (c->no_tap) + return PIF_NONE; + if (!nat_inbound(c, &ini->eaddr, &tgt->oaddr)) { if (inany_v4(&ini->eaddr)) { if (IN4_IS_ADDR_UNSPECIFIED(&c->ip4.our_tap_addr)) diff --git a/passt.1 b/passt.1 index db0d662..2d643f7 100644 --- a/passt.1 +++ b/passt.1 @@ -755,6 +755,11 @@ Default is to let the tap driver build a pseudorandom hardware address. Disable the bypass path for inbound, local traffic. See the section \fBHandling of local traffic in pasta\fR in the \fBNOTES\fR for more details.

+.TP +.BR \-\-no-tap +Do not create a tap device in the namespace. In this mode, only local loopback +traffic between namespaces is forwarded using splice. + .SH EXAMPLES

.SS \fBpasta diff --git a/passt.h b/passt.h index 79d01dd..0c1ec4c 100644 --- a/passt.h +++ b/passt.h @@ -200,6 +200,7 @@ struct ip6_ctx { * @no_ndp: Disable NDP handler altogether * @no_ra: Disable router advertisements * @no_splice: Disable socket splicing for inbound traffic + * @no_tap: Do not create tap device * @host_lo_to_ns_lo: Map host loopback addresses to ns loopback addresses * @freebind: Allow binding of non-local addresses for forwarding * @low_wmem: Low probed net.core.wmem_max @@ -277,6 +278,7 @@ struct ctx { int no_ndp; int no_ra; int no_splice; + int no_tap; int host_lo_to_ns_lo; int freebind;

diff --git a/pasta.c b/pasta.c index 0ddd6b0..3510ec5 100644 --- a/pasta.c +++ b/pasta.c @@ -316,6 +316,9 @@ void pasta_ns_conf(struct ctx *c) die("Couldn't bring up loopback interface in namespace: %s", strerror_(-rc));

+ if (c->no_tap) + return; + /* Get or set MAC in target namespace */ if (MAC_IS_ZERO(c->guest_mac)) nl_link_get_mac(nl_sock_ns, c->pasta_ifi, c->guest_mac); diff --git a/tap.c b/tap.c index 9d1344b..9b4eedc 100644 --- a/tap.c +++ b/tap.c @@ -1491,13 +1491,16 @@ static int tap_ns_tun(void *arg) */ static void tap_sock_tun_init(struct ctx *c) { - NS_CALL(tap_ns_tun, c); - if (c->fd_tap == -1) - die("Failed to set up tap device in namespace"); + if (!c->no_tap) { + NS_CALL(tap_ns_tun, c); + if (c->fd_tap == -1) + die("Failed to set up tap device in namespace"); + }

pasta_ns_conf(c);

- tap_start_connection(c); + if (!c->no_tap) + tap_start_connection(c); }

/**

-- Stefano