How to use netlink socket to communicate with a kernel module?

After reading kernel source I finally managed to make netlink sockets work for me. Below is an example of Netlink socket basics i.e opening a netlink socket, reading and writing to it and closing it.

Kernel Module

#include <linux/module.h>
#include <net/sock.h> 
#include <linux/netlink.h>
#include <linux/skbuff.h> 
#define NETLINK_USER 31

struct sock *nl_sk = NULL;

static void hello_nl_recv_msg(struct sk_buff *skb)
{

    struct nlmsghdr *nlh;
    int pid;
    struct sk_buff *skb_out;
    int msg_size;
    char *msg = "Hello from kernel";
    int res;

    printk(KERN_INFO "Entering: %s\n", __FUNCTION__);

    msg_size = strlen(msg);

    nlh = (struct nlmsghdr *)skb->data;
    printk(KERN_INFO "Netlink received msg payload:%s\n", (char *)nlmsg_data(nlh));
    pid = nlh->nlmsg_pid; /*pid of sending process */

    skb_out = nlmsg_new(msg_size, 0);
    if (!skb_out) {
        printk(KERN_ERR "Failed to allocate new skb\n");
        return;
    }

    nlh = nlmsg_put(skb_out, 0, 0, NLMSG_DONE, msg_size, 0);
    NETLINK_CB(skb_out).dst_group = 0; /* not in mcast group */
    strncpy(nlmsg_data(nlh), msg, msg_size);

    res = nlmsg_unicast(nl_sk, skb_out, pid);
    if (res < 0)
        printk(KERN_INFO "Error while sending bak to user\n");
}

static int __init hello_init(void)
{

    printk("Entering: %s\n", __FUNCTION__);
    //nl_sk = netlink_kernel_create(&init_net, NETLINK_USER, 0, hello_nl_recv_msg, NULL, THIS_MODULE);
    struct netlink_kernel_cfg cfg = {
        .input = hello_nl_recv_msg,
    };

    nl_sk = netlink_kernel_create(&init_net, NETLINK_USER, &cfg);
    if (!nl_sk) {
        printk(KERN_ALERT "Error creating socket.\n");
        return -10;
    }

    return 0;
}

static void __exit hello_exit(void)
{

    printk(KERN_INFO "exiting hello module\n");
    netlink_kernel_release(nl_sk);
}

module_init(hello_init); module_exit(hello_exit);

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

User Program

#include <linux/netlink.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define NETLINK_USER 31

#define MAX_PAYLOAD 1024 /* maximum payload size*/
struct sockaddr_nl src_addr, dest_addr;
struct nlmsghdr *nlh = NULL;
struct iovec iov;
int sock_fd;
struct msghdr msg;

int main()
{
    sock_fd = socket(PF_NETLINK, SOCK_RAW, NETLINK_USER);
    if (sock_fd < 0)
        return -1;

    memset(&src_addr, 0, sizeof(src_addr));
    src_addr.nl_family = AF_NETLINK;
    src_addr.nl_pid = getpid(); /* self pid */

    bind(sock_fd, (struct sockaddr *)&src_addr, sizeof(src_addr));

    memset(&dest_addr, 0, sizeof(dest_addr));
    dest_addr.nl_family = AF_NETLINK;
    dest_addr.nl_pid = 0; /* For Linux Kernel */
    dest_addr.nl_groups = 0; /* unicast */

    nlh = (struct nlmsghdr *)malloc(NLMSG_SPACE(MAX_PAYLOAD));
    memset(nlh, 0, NLMSG_SPACE(MAX_PAYLOAD));
    nlh->nlmsg_len = NLMSG_SPACE(MAX_PAYLOAD);
    nlh->nlmsg_pid = getpid();
    nlh->nlmsg_flags = 0;

    strcpy(NLMSG_DATA(nlh), "Hello");

    iov.iov_base = (void *)nlh;
    iov.iov_len = nlh->nlmsg_len;
    msg.msg_name = (void *)&dest_addr;
    msg.msg_namelen = sizeof(dest_addr);
    msg.msg_iov = &iov;
    msg.msg_iovlen = 1;

    printf("Sending message to kernel\n");
    sendmsg(sock_fd, &msg, 0);
    printf("Waiting for message from kernel\n");

    /* Read message from kernel */
    recvmsg(sock_fd, &msg, 0);
    printf("Received message payload: %s\n", NLMSG_DATA(nlh));
    close(sock_fd);
}

Related thread about the magic constant NETLINK_USER 31: Can I have more than 32 netlink sockets in kernelspace?

Just in case anybody doesn't know how to compile, google "how to compile and load kernel module"

refer to http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/compiling-linux-kernel-module.html

Grab kernel source code to which you'll compile module against http://kernel.org

Or simply update your headers if you are running intended kernel

# apt-get install kernel-headers-$(uname -r)

Create a makefile, for example

obj-m = hello.o
KVERSION = $(shell uname -r)
all:
        make -C /lib/modules/$(KVERSION)/build M=$(PWD) modules
clean:
        make -C /lib/modules/$(KVERSION)/build M=$(PWD) clean

Make and you'll get bunch of files. *.ko is the one you'll load into your kernel, run

# insmod hello.ko

if you us lsmod to check all loaded modules, you'll find yours, most likely you will see:

hello       12575  0 

In our case, compile and run user code:

gcc hello.c -o hello.o
./hello.o

If everything is OK, you'll get following message using binW's code:

Sending message to kernel
Waiting for message from kernel
 Received message payload: Hello from kernel

Finally, remove the module using:

# rmmod hello