doc/netlink: Document the sub-message format for netlink-raw

Document the spec format used by netlink-raw families like rt and tc.

Reviewed-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Donald Hunter <donald.hunter@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20231215093720.18774-4-donald.hunter@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>

Documentation/userspace-api/netlink/netlink-raw.rst

@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ Specification
 The netlink-raw schema extends the :doc:`genetlink-legacy <genetlink-legacy>`
 schema with properties that are needed to specify the protocol numbers and
 multicast IDs used by raw netlink families. See :ref:`classic_netlink` for more
-information.
+information. The raw netlink families also make use of type-specific
+sub-messages.
 
 Globals
 -------
@@ -56,3 +57,96 @@ group registration.
       -
         name: rtnlgrp-mctp-ifaddr
         value: 34
+
+Sub-messages
+------------
+
+Several raw netlink families such as
+:doc:`rt_link<../../networking/netlink_spec/rt_link>` and
+:doc:`tc<../../networking/netlink_spec/tc>` use attribute nesting as an
+abstraction to carry module specific information.
+
+Conceptually it looks as follows::
+
+    [OUTER NEST OR MESSAGE LEVEL]
+      [GENERIC ATTR 1]
+      [GENERIC ATTR 2]
+      [GENERIC ATTR 3]
+      [GENERIC ATTR - wrapper]
+        [MODULE SPECIFIC ATTR 1]
+        [MODULE SPECIFIC ATTR 2]
+
+The ``GENERIC ATTRs`` at the outer level are defined in the core (or rt_link or
+core TC), while specific drivers, TC classifiers, qdiscs etc. can carry their
+own information wrapped in the ``GENERIC ATTR - wrapper``. Even though the
+example above shows attributes nesting inside the wrapper, the modules generally
+have full freedom to define the format of the nest. In practice the payload of
+the wrapper attr has very similar characteristics to a netlink message. It may
+contain a fixed header / structure, netlink attributes, or both. Because of
+those shared characteristics we refer to the payload of the wrapper attribute as
+a sub-message.
+
+A sub-message attribute uses the value of another attribute as a selector key to
+choose the right sub-message format. For example if the following attribute has
+already been decoded:
+
+.. code-block:: json
+
+  { "kind": "gre" }
+
+and we encounter the following attribute spec:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+  -
+    name: data
+    type: sub-message
+    sub-message: linkinfo-data-msg
+    selector: kind
+
+Then we look for a sub-message definition called ``linkinfo-data-msg`` and use
+the value of the ``kind`` attribute i.e. ``gre`` as the key to choose the
+correct format for the sub-message:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+  sub-messages:
+    name: linkinfo-data-msg
+    formats:
+      -
+        value: bridge
+        attribute-set: linkinfo-bridge-attrs
+      -
+        value: gre
+        attribute-set: linkinfo-gre-attrs
+      -
+        value: geneve
+        attribute-set: linkinfo-geneve-attrs
+
+This would decode the attribute value as a sub-message with the attribute-set
+called ``linkinfo-gre-attrs`` as the attribute space.
+
+A sub-message can have an optional ``fixed-header`` followed by zero or more
+attributes from an ``attribute-set``. For example the following
+``tc-options-msg`` sub-message defines message formats that use a mixture of
+``fixed-header``, ``attribute-set`` or both together:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+  sub-messages:
+    -
+      name: tc-options-msg
+      formats:
+        -
+          value: bfifo
+          fixed-header: tc-fifo-qopt
+        -
+          value: cake
+          attribute-set: tc-cake-attrs
+        -
+          value: netem
+          fixed-header: tc-netem-qopt
+          attribute-set: tc-netem-attrs
+
+Note that a selector attribute must appear in a netlink message before any
+sub-message attributes that depend on it.