zeek/doc/devel/plugins.rst

.. _zkg package manager: https://docs.zeek.org/projects/package-manager/en/stable/

.. _writing-plugins:

===============
Writing Plugins
===============

Zeek provides a plugin API that enables extending
the system dynamically, without modifying the core code base. That way,
custom code remains self-contained and can be maintained, compiled,
and installed independently. Currently, plugins can add the following
functionality to Zeek:

    - Zeek scripts.

    - Builtin functions/events/types for the scripting language.

    - Protocol analyzers.

    - File analyzers.

    - Packet sources and packet dumpers.

    - Logging framework backends.

    - Input framework readers.

A plugin's functionality is available to the user just as if Zeek had
the corresponding code built-in. Indeed, internally many of Zeek's
pieces are structured as plugins as well, they are just statically
compiled into the binary rather than loaded dynamically at runtime.

.. note::

  Plugins and Zeek packages are related but separate concepts. Both extend
  Zeek's functionality without modifying Zeek's source code. A plugin achieves
  this via compiled, native code that Zeek links into its core at runtime. A Zeek
  package, on the other hand, is a modular addition to Zeek, managed via the
  `zkg package manager`_, that may or may not include a plugin. More commonly,
  packages consist of script-layer additions to Zeek's functionality.  Packages
  also feature more elaborate metadata, enabling dependencies on other packages,
  Zeek versions, etc.

Quick Start
===========

Writing a basic plugin is quite straight-forward as long as one
follows a few conventions. In the following, we create a simple example
plugin that adds a new Built-In Function (BIF) to Zeek: we'll add
``rot13(s: string) : string``, a function that rotates every letter
in a string by 13 places.

Generally, a plugin comes in the form of a directory following a
certain structure. To get started, Zeek's distribution provides a
helper script ``auxil/zeek-aux/plugin-support/init-plugin`` that creates
a skeleton plugin that can then be customized. Let's use that::

    # init-plugin ./rot13-plugin Demo Rot13

As you can see, the script takes three arguments. The first is a
directory inside which the plugin skeleton will be created.  The second
is the namespace the plugin will live in, and the third is a descriptive
name for the plugin itself relative to the namespace. Zeek uses the
combination of namespace and name to identify a plugin. The namespace
serves to avoid naming conflicts between plugins written by independent
developers; pick, e.g., the name of your organisation. The namespaces
``Bro`` (legacy) and ``Zeek`` are reserved for functionality distributed
by the Zeek Project. In
our example, the plugin will be called ``Demo::Rot13``.

The ``init-plugin`` script puts a number of files in place. The full
layout is described later. For now, all we need is
``src/rot13.bif``. It's initially empty, but we'll add our new BIF
there as follows::

    # cat src/rot13.bif
    %%{
    #include <cstring>
    #include <cctype>
    #include "zeek/util.h"
    #include "zeek/ZeekString.h"
    #include "zeek/Val.h"
    %%}

    module Demo;

    function rot13%(s: string%) : string
        %{
        char* rot13 = util::copy_string(s->CheckString());

        for ( char* p = rot13; *p; p++ )
            {
            char b = islower(*p) ? 'a' : 'A';
            char d = *p - b + 13;

            if ( d >= 13 && d <= 38 )
                *p  = d % 26 + b;
            }

        zeek::String* zs = new zeek::String(1, reinterpret_cast<byte_vec>(rot13),
                                            strlen(rot13));
        return make_intrusive<StringVal>(zs);
        %}

The syntax of this file is just like any other ``*.bif`` file; we
won't go into it here.

Now we are ready to compile our plugin.  The configure script will just
need to be able to find the location of either a Zeek installation-tree or
a Zeek source-tree.

When building a plugin against a Zeek installation-tree, simply have the
installation's associated ``zeek-config`` in your :envvar:`PATH` and the
configure script will detect it and use it to obtain all the information
it needs::

    # which zeek-config
    /usr/local/zeek/bin/zeek-config
    # cd rot13-plugin
    # ./configure && make
    [... cmake output ...]

When building a plugin against a Zeek source-tree (which itself needs
to have first been built), the configure script has to explicitly be
told its location::

    # cd rot13-plugin
    # ./configure --zeek-dist=/path/to/zeek/dist && make
    [... cmake output ...]

This builds the plugin in a subdirectory ``build/``. In fact, that
subdirectory *becomes* the plugin: when ``make`` finishes, ``build/``
has everything it needs for Zeek to recognize it as a dynamic plugin.

Let's try that. Once we point Zeek to the ``build/`` directory, it will
pull in our new plugin automatically, as we can check with the ``-N``
option::

    # export ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH=/path/to/rot13-plugin/build
    # zeek -N
    [...]
    Demo::Rot13 - <Insert description> (dynamic, version 0.1.0)
    [...]

That looks quite good, except for the dummy description that we should
replace with something nicer so that users will know what our plugin
is about.  We do this by editing the ``config.description`` line in
``src/Plugin.cc``, like this::

    [...]
    plugin::Configuration Plugin::Configure()
        {
        plugin::Configuration config;
        config.name = "Demo::Rot13";
        config.description = "Caesar cipher rotating a string's letters by 13 places.";
        config.version.major = 0;
        config.version.minor = 1;
        config.version.patch = 0;
        return config;
        }
    [...]

Now rebuild and verify that the description is visible::

    # make
    [...]
    # zeek -N | grep Rot13
    Demo::Rot13 - Caesar cipher rotating a string's letters by 13 places. (dynamic, version 0.1.0)

Zeek can also show us what exactly the plugin provides with the
more verbose option ``-NN``::

    # zeek -NN
    [...]
    Demo::Rot13 - Caesar cipher rotating a string's letters by 13 places. (dynamic, version 0.1.0)
        [Function] Demo::rot13
    [...]

There's our function. Now let's use it::

    # zeek -e 'print Demo::rot13("Hello")'
    Uryyb

It works. We next install the plugin along with Zeek itself, so that it
will find it directly without needing the ``ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH``
environment variable. If we first unset the variable, the function
will no longer be available::

    # unset ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH
    # zeek -e 'print Demo::rot13("Hello")'
    error in <command line>, line 1: unknown identifier Demo::rot13, at or near "Demo::rot13"

Once we install it, it works again::

    # make install
    # zeek -e 'print Demo::rot13("Hello")'
    Uryyb

The installed version went into
``<zeek-install-prefix>/lib/zeek/plugins/Demo_Rot13``.

One can distribute the plugin independently of Zeek for others to use.
To distribute in source form, just remove the ``build/`` directory
(``make distclean`` does that) and then tar up the whole ``rot13-plugin/``
directory. Others then follow the same process as above after
unpacking.

To distribute the plugin in binary form, the build process
conveniently creates a corresponding tarball in ``build/dist/``. In
this case, it's called ``Demo_Rot13-0.1.0.tar.gz``, with the version
number coming out of the ``VERSION`` file that ``init-plugin`` put
into place. The binary tarball has everything needed to run the
plugin, but no further source files. Optionally, one can include
further files by specifying them in the plugin's ``CMakeLists.txt``
through the ``zeek_plugin_dist_files`` macro; the skeleton does that
for ``README``, ``VERSION``, ``CHANGES``, and ``COPYING``. To use the
plugin through the binary tarball, just unpack it into
``<zeek-install-prefix>/lib/zeek/plugins/``.  Alternatively, if you unpack
it in another location, then you need to point ``ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH`` there.

Before distributing your plugin, you should edit some of the meta
files that ``init-plugin`` puts in place. Edit ``README`` and
``VERSION``, and update ``CHANGES`` when you make changes. Also put a
license file in place as ``COPYING``; if BSD is fine, you will find a
template in ``COPYING.edit-me``.

Plugin Directory Layout
=======================

A plugin's directory needs to follow a set of conventions so that Zeek
(1) recognizes it as a plugin, and (2) knows what to load.  While
``init-plugin`` takes care of most of this, the following is the full
story. We'll use ``<base>`` to represent a plugin's top-level
directory. With the skeleton, ``<base>`` corresponds to ``build/``.

``<base>/__zeek_plugin__``
    A file that marks a directory as containing a Zeek plugin. The file
    must exist, and its content must consist of a single line with the
    qualified name of the plugin (e.g., "Demo::Rot13").

``<base>/lib/<plugin-name>.<os>-<arch>.so``
    The shared library containing the plugin's compiled code. Zeek will
    load this in dynamically at run-time if OS and architecture match
    the current platform.

``scripts/``
    A directory with the plugin's custom Zeek scripts. When the plugin
    gets activated, this directory will be automatically added to
    ``ZEEKPATH``, so that any scripts/modules inside can be
    "@load"ed.

``scripts``/__load__.zeek
    A Zeek script that will be loaded when the plugin gets activated.
    When this script executes, any BIF elements that the plugin
    defines will already be available. See below for more information
    on activating plugins.

``scripts``/__preload__.zeek
    A Zeek script that will be loaded when the plugin gets activated,
    but before any BIF elements become available. See below for more
    information on activating plugins.

``lib/bif/``
    Directory with auto-generated Zeek scripts that declare the plugin's
    BIF elements. The files here are produced by ``bifcl``.

Any other files in ``<base>`` are ignored by Zeek.

By convention, a plugin should put its custom scripts into sub folders
of ``scripts/``, i.e., ``scripts/<plugin-namespace>/<plugin-name>/<script>.zeek``
to avoid conflicts. As usual, you can then put a ``__load__.zeek`` in
there as well so that, e.g., ``@load Demo/Rot13`` could load a whole
module in the form of multiple individual scripts.

Note that in addition to the paths above, the ``init-plugin`` helper
puts some more files and directories in place that help with
development and installation (e.g., ``CMakeLists.txt``, ``Makefile``,
and source code in ``src/``). However, all these do not have a special
meaning for Zeek at runtime and aren't necessary for a plugin to
function.

``init-plugin``
===============

``init-plugin`` puts a basic plugin structure in place that follows
the above layout and augments it with a CMake build and installation
system. Plugins with this structure can be used both directly out of
their source directory (after ``make`` and setting Zeek's
``ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH``), and when installed alongside Zeek (after ``make
install``).

Upon completion, ``init-plugin`` initializes a git repository and stages its
produced files for committing, but does not yet commit the files. This allows
you to tweak the new plugin as needed prior to the initial commit.

``make install`` copies over the ``lib`` and ``scripts`` directories,
as well as the ``__zeek_plugin__`` magic file and any further
distribution files specified in ``CMakeLists.txt`` (e.g., README,
VERSION). You can find a full list of files installed in
``build/MANIFEST``. Behind the scenes, ``make install`` really just
unpacks the binary tarball from ``build/dist`` into the destination
directory.

``init-plugin`` will never overwrite existing files. If its target
directory already exists, it will by default decline to do anything.
You can run it with ``-u`` instead to update an existing plugin,
however it will never overwrite any existing files; it will only put
in place files it doesn't find yet. To revert a file back to what
``init-plugin`` created originally, delete it first and then rerun
with ``-u``.

``init-plugin`` puts a ``configure`` script in place that wraps
``cmake`` with a more familiar configure-style configuration. By
default, the script provides two options for specifying paths to the
Zeek source (``--zeek-dist``) and to the plugin's installation directory
(``--install-root``). To extend ``configure`` with plugin-specific
options (such as search paths for its dependencies) don't edit the
script directly but instead extend ``configure.plugin``, which
``configure`` includes. That way you will be able to more easily
update ``configure`` in the future when the distribution version
changes. In ``configure.plugin`` you can use the predefined shell
function ``append_cache_entry`` to seed values into the CMake cache;
see the installed skeleton version and existing plugins for examples.

.. note::

  In the past ``init-plugin`` also generated a ``zkg.meta`` file, automatically
  creating a Zeek package containing a plugin. ``init-plugin`` now focuses
  purely on plugins, as its name suggests. To bootstrap new Zeek packages
  (possibly containing plugins), use the more featureful templating
  functionality provided by the ``zkg create`` command, explained `here
  <https://docs.zeek.org/projects/package-manager/en/stable/package.html>`_.

Activating a Plugin
===================

A plugin needs to be *activated* to make it available to the user.
Activating a plugin will:

    1. Load the dynamic module
    2. Make any BIF items available
    3. Add the ``scripts/`` directory to ``ZEEKPATH``
    4. Load ``scripts/__preload__.zeek``
    5. Make BIF elements available to scripts.
    6. Load ``scripts/__load__.zeek``

By default, Zeek will automatically activate all dynamic plugins found
in its search path ``ZEEK_PLUGIN_PATH``. However, in bare mode (``zeek
-b``), no dynamic plugins will be activated by default; instead the
user can selectively enable individual plugins in scriptland using the
``@load-plugin <qualified-plugin-name>`` directive (e.g.,
``@load-plugin Demo::Rot13``). Alternatively, one can activate a
plugin from the command-line by specifying its full name
(``Demo::Rot13``), or set the environment variable
``ZEEK_PLUGIN_ACTIVATE`` to a list of comma-separated names of
plugins to unconditionally activate, even in bare mode.

``zeek -N`` shows activated plugins separately from found but not yet
activated plugins. Note that plugins compiled statically into Zeek are
always activated, and hence show up as such even in bare mode.

Plugin Components
=================

It's easy for a plugin to provide custom scripts: just put them into
``scripts/``, as described above.  The CMake infrastructure will automatically
install them, as well include them into the source and binary plugin
distributions.

Any number or combination of other components can be provided by a single
plugin.  For example a plugin can provide multiple different protocol
analyzers, or both a log writer and input reader.

The best place to look for examples or templates for a specific type of plugin
component are the source code of Zeek itself since every one of its components
uses the same API as any external plugin.

Each component type also has a simple integration test, found
in the Zeek source-tree's ``testing/btest/plugins/`` directory,
that can serve useful for creating basic plugin skeletons.

Testing Plugins
===============

A plugin should come with a test suite to exercise its functionality.
The ``init-plugin`` script puts in place a basic
`BTest <https://github.com/zeek/btest>`_ setup
to start with. Initially, it comes with a single test that just checks
that Zeek loads the plugin correctly::

    # cd tests
    # btest -A
    [  0%] rot13.show-plugin ... ok
    all 1 tests successful

You can also run this via the Makefile::

    # cd ..
    # make test
    make -C tests
    make[1]: Entering directory `tests'
    all 1 tests successful
    make[1]: Leaving directory `tests'

Now let's add a custom test that ensures that our BIF works correctly::

    # cd tests
    # cat >rot13/bif-rot13.zeek

    # @TEST-EXEC: zeek %INPUT >output
    # @TEST-EXEC: btest-diff output

    event zeek_init()
        {
        print Demo::rot13("Hello");
        }

Check the output::

    # btest -d rot13/bif-rot13.zeek
    [  0%] rot13.bif-rot13 ... failed
    % 'btest-diff output' failed unexpectedly (exit code 100)
    % cat .diag
    == File ===============================
    Uryyb
    == Error ===============================
    test-diff: no baseline found.
    =======================================

    % cat .stderr

    1 of 1 test failed

Install the baseline::

    # btest -U rot13/bif-rot13.zeek
    all 1 tests successful

Run the test-suite::

    # btest
    all 2 tests successful

Debugging Plugins
=================

If your plugin isn't loading as expected, Zeek's debugging facilities
can help illuminate what's going on. To enable, recompile Zeek
with debugging support (``./configure --enable-debug``), and
afterwards rebuild your plugin as well. If you then run Zeek with ``-B
plugins``, it will produce a file :file:`debug.log` that records details
about the process for searching, loading, and activating plugins.

To generate your own debugging output from inside your plugin, you can
add a custom debug stream by using the ``PLUGIN_DBG_LOG(<plugin>,
<args>)`` macro (defined in ``DebugLogger.h``), where ``<plugin>`` is
the ``Plugin`` instance and ``<args>`` are printf-style arguments,
just as with Zeek's standard debugging macros (grep for ``DBG_LOG`` in
Zeek's ``src/`` to see examples). At runtime, you can then activate
your plugin's debugging output with ``-B plugin-<name>``, where
``<name>`` is the name of the plugin as returned by its
``Configure()`` method, yet with the namespace-separator ``::``
replaced with a simple dash. Example: If the plugin is called
``Demo::Rot13``, use ``-B plugin-Demo-Rot13``. As usual, the debugging
output will be recorded to :file:`debug.log` if Zeek's compiled in debug
mode.

.. _building-plugins-statically:

Building Plugins Statically into Zeek
=====================================

Plugins can be built statically into a Zeek binary using the
``--include-plugins`` option passed to Zeek's ``configure``. This argument
takes a semicolon-separated list of absolute paths to plugin sources. Each
path needs to contain a ``CMakeLists.txt`` file, as is commonly the case at the
toplevel of plugin source trees, and usually also in Zeek packages. Building
plugins in this manner includes them directly into the Zeek binary
and installation. They are loaded automatically by Zeek at startup
without needing to install them separately.

Building plugins into Zeek is a handy way to build them consistently with
sanitizers, as you can use Zeek's existing ``./configure --sanitizers=...``
infrastructure to apply transparently to built-in plugins.

The configure run lists built-in plugins at the end, so you can verify
successful inclusion of your plugin there. Your plugin should also
show up in the resulting build's ``zeek -NN`` output.

Headers for built-in plugins are installed into a subdirectory of
``<zeek-install-prefix>/include/zeek/builtin-plugins`` specific to
each plugin. Scripts are installed into a subdirectory of
``<zeek-install-prefix>/share/zeek/builtin-plugins`` specific to
each plugin. The scripts directory is also automatically added to
the default ``ZEEKPATH``.

Plugin Tutorials
================

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1

   plugins/connkey-plugin
   plugins/event-metadata-plugin