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Comment by pratio | Hacker News Reader

For those who're unaware.

ebpf: extended berkeley packet filter

Unfortunately, even the website https://ebpf.io/what-is-ebpf doesn't mention this. Interestingly, I was unable to find the words packet filter used together as well or firewall. I might be wrong.

I know that if you know what it is you'd know but trying to explain that to my partner here just glancing at my screen wasn't easy.

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The ebpf site doesn’t mention that because expanding the abbreviation is not helpful for understanding ebpf. The name is representative the past of ebpf, not its present use or future.

That’s not an excuse to not explain wtf the name means. It’s literally one of the first questions that always comes up when I explain ebpf to people.

Does literally everything that uses it need to expand the acronym? Even if it confuses people or gives them the false impression of what it actually does? "This product uses eBPF, or extended Berkeley Packet Filter. But forget all of that because it has no relation with Berkeley, and it doesn't filter packets."

In a sense eBPF as just some letters being a name is a better name than "extended Berkeley Packet Filter", just like DPRK is a better name than "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", since 75% of the words in the expanded acronym aren't even relevant or true.

Try reading the thread before you reply. It’s a complaint about the ebpf site itself not explaining what ebpf is. It has nothing to do with things that use ebpf.

> https://ebpf.io/what-is-ebpf

I really like eBPF, and I even know what the acronym stands for, but I'm still completely incapable of reading it as anything other than "e band pass filter"

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