Meet the Developers - Linux Kernel Team (David Vernet)

For today’s interview, we have David Vernet, a core systems engineer on the Kernel team at Meta. He works on the BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) and the Linux kernel scheduler. This series highlights Meta Software Engineers who contribute to the Linux kernel. The Meta Linux Kernel team works with the broader Linux community to add new features to the kernel and makes sure that the kernel works well in Meta production data centers. Engineers on the team work with peers in the industry to make the kernel better for Meta's workloads and to make Linux better for everyone.

Tell us about yourself.

I'm a systems engineer who's spent a good chunk of his career in the kernel space, and some time in the user-space as well working on a microkernel. Right now, I'm focusing most of my time on BPF and the Linux kernel scheduler.

I started my career as a web developer after getting a degree in math. After going to grad school, I realized that I was happiest when hacking on low-level systems and figuring out how computers work.

As a kernel developer at Meta, what does your typical day look like?

I'm not a maintainer of any subsystems in the kernel, so my typical day is filled with almost exclusively coding and engineering. That being said, participating in the upstream Linux kernel community is one of the coolest parts of being on the kernel team, so I still spend some time reading over upstream discussions. A typical day goes something like this:

1. Read over some of the discussions taking place on various upstream lists, such as BPF and mm. I usually spend about 30-60 minutes or so per day on this, though it depends on the day.

2. Hack on the project that I'm working on. Lately, that's adding a user-space ringbuffer map type to BPF.

3. Work on drafting an article for lwn.net.

What have you been excited about or incredibly proud of lately?

I recently submitted a patch-set to enable a new map type in BPF. This allows user-space to publish messages to BPF programs in the kernel over the ringbuffer. This map type is exciting because it sets the stage to enable frameworks for user-space to drive logic in BPF programs in a performant way.

Is there something especially exciting about being a kernel developer at a company like Meta?

The Meta kernel team has a strong upstream-first culture. Bug fixes that we find in our Meta kernel, and features that we'd like to add, are almost always first submitted to the upstream kernel, and then they are backported to our internal kernel.

Do you have a favorite part of the kernel dev life cycle?

I enjoy architecting and designing APIs. Kernel code can never crash and needs to be able to run forever. I find it gratifying to architect systems in the kernel that make it easy to reason about correctness and robustness and provide intuitive APIs that make it easy for other parts of the kernel to use your code.

I also enjoy iterating with the upstream community. It's great that your patches have a whole community of people looking at them to help you find bugs in your code and suggest improvements that you may never have considered on your own. A lot of people find this process to be cumbersome, but I find that it's a small price to pay for what you get out of it.

Tell us a bit about the topic you presented at the Linux Plumbers Conference this year.

We presented the live patch feature in the Linux kernel, describing how we have utilized it at Meta and how our hyper-scale has shown some unique challenges with the feature.

What are some of the misconceptions about kernel or open source software development that you have encountered in your career?

The biggest misconception is that it's an exclusive, invite-only club to contribute to the Linux kernel. You certainly must understand operating systems to be an effective contributor and be ready to receive constructive criticism when there is scope for improvement in your code. Still, the community always welcomes people who come in with an open mind and want to contribute.

What resources are helpful in getting started in kernel development?

There is a lot of information out there that people have written on how to get integrated into the Linux kernel community. I wrote a blog post on how to get plugged into Linux kernel upstream mailing list discussions, and another on how to submit your first patch. There is also a video on writing and submitting your first Linux kernel patch from Greg Kroah-Hartman.

In terms of resources to learn about the kernel itself, there are many resources and books, such as:

• Linux Weekly News
• Linux Kernel Programming (parts 1 and 2)
• Linux Kernel in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference
• Our public blog posts

Where can people find you and follow your work?

I have a blog where I talk about my experiences as a systems engineer: https://www.bytelab.codes/. I publish articles that range from topics that are totally newcomer friendly to more advanced topics that discuss kernel code in more detail. Feel free to check it out and let me know if there's anything you'd like me to discuss.

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Image acknowledgment: Larry Ewing (lewing@isc.tamu.edu) and The GIMP for the original design of Tux the penguin.