Matt Layher

Software Engineer. Go, Linux, and open source software enthusiast. On and ever upward.

Open Source

vsock

Package vsock provides access to Linux VM sockets (AF_VSOCK) for communication between a hypervisor and its virtual machines. MIT Licensed.

wireguard_exporter

Command wireguard_exporter implements a Prometheus exporter for WireGuard devices. MIT Licensed.

netlink

Package netlink provides low-level access to Linux netlink sockets. MIT Licensed.

genetlink

Package genetlink implements generic netlink interactions and data types. MIT Licensed.

talks

Talks by Matt Layher. MIT Licensed.

Package raw enables reading and writing data at the device driver level for a network interface. MIT Licensed.

cryptonl

Package cryptonl provides access to the Linux kernel crypto API's netlink interface. MIT Licensed.

homelab

Configuration management for Matt Layher's machines. MIT Licensed.

quota

Package quota provides access to Linux quota netlink notifications. MIT Licensed.

mdlayher.com

Matt Layher's personal static website. MIT Licensed.

Blog Posts

Exploring byte parsing APIs in Go, December 14, 2018
- An exploration into building safe and ergonomic byte parsing APIs in Go.
Network Protocol Breakdown: NDP and Go, May 30, 2018
- An introduction to the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol, and how to utilize it from Go.
A programmer's journey with RSI, February 12, 2018
- My experiences as a professional programmer dealing with RSI and cubital tunnel syndrome, and how I manage these issues.
Accessing SMBIOS information with Go, December 19, 2017
- Accessing hardware information using the SMBIOS standard with Go.
unsafe.Pointer and system calls, December 15, 2017
- Using Go's unsafe.Pointer type to cast raw memory and work with system calls.
Cthulhu: Organizing Go Code in a Scalable Repo, October 10, 2017
- Lessons learned while working with DigitalOcean's monolithic Go code repository, cthulhu.
Network Protocol Breakdown: Ethernet and Go, June 15, 2017
- An introduction to Ethernet frames, VLAN tags, and raw sockets, and how to leverage low-level networking primitives in Go.
Linux VM sockets in Go, May 8, 2017
- Leveraging Linux VM sockets to enable bidirectional, many-to-one communication between a hypervisor and its VMs, using Go.
Linux, Netlink, and Go - Part 3: packages netlink, genetlink, and wifi, March 13, 2017
- Using netlink, generic netlink, and nl80211 to manipulate WiFi network interfaces on Linux, using Go.
Linux, Netlink, and Go - Part 2: generic netlink, February 28, 2017
- An introduction to generic netlink: an extensible netlink family. This post also describes how to leverage generic netlink in Go.
Linux, Netlink, and Go - Part 1: netlink, February 21, 2017
- An introduction to Linux's netlink subsystem, and a tutorial on how to make use of it with Go.
Contributing to the Go project, December 8, 2016
- A step-by-step explanation of how to contribute to the Go project.
Open Source at DigitalOcean: Introducing go-qemu and go-libvirt, November 21, 2016
- Controlling QEMU and libvirt programmatically using pure Go interfaces.
Go in a Monorepo, December 8, 2015
- An exploration of DigitalOcean's monolithic Go code repository.

Talks

Using unsafe.Pointer to explore Linux system calls (GoCon Canada 2019)

Using Go's unsafe.Pointer type to cast raw memory and work with system calls.
blog

Ethernet and Go (GoTO, April 2019)

An updated presentation and demo of using Ethernet frames and sockets directly in Go.
blog, slides

Exploring IPv6 at Home: Preparing for the Future of the Internet Protocol (Orchestructure, March 2019)

An overview of IPv6, and a demonstration of how to set up IPv4/6 dual-stack networks at home.
slides

Linux, Netlink, and Go in 7 minutes or less! (GopherCon 2018, lightning talk)

Manipulating the Linux kernel using Netlink with Go.
blog, slides

Implementing a Network Protocol in Go (GopherCon 2018)

Implementing the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol in Go.
blog, slides

Networking with OVS at DigitalOcean (OVS Orbit podcast)

Matt Layher and Armando Migliaccio discuss Open vSwitch networking at DigitalOcean.
audio

How to export Prometheus metrics from just about anything (KubeCon/Cloud Native Con EU 2018)

Gathering and exporting Prometheus metrics with Go from files, devices, and system calls.
slides