VIDEOS 》 Linux Kernel dst_entry data-structure

For more details refer Linux Source:
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/images/1/1c/Network_data_flow_through_kernel.png
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/net/dst.h
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/net/core/dst.c
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/net/ipv4/ip_input.c#L396
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/skbuff.h
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/skbuff.h#L665
skb_dst() - http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/skbuff.h#L845
skb_dst_set() - http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/skbuff.h#L864

And here is the copy paste of struct dst_entry data-structure (/include/net/dst.h) from the Kernel-source version 4.13 for quick reference:

struct dst_entry {
	struct net_device       *dev;
	struct rcu_head		rcu_head;
	struct dst_entry	*child;
	struct  dst_ops	        *ops;
	unsigned long		_metrics;
	unsigned long           expires;
	struct dst_entry	*path;
	struct dst_entry	*from;
#ifdef CONFIG_XFRM
	struct xfrm_state	*xfrm;
#else
	void			*__pad1;
#endif
	int			(*input)(struct sk_buff *);
	int			(*output)(struct net *net, struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb);

	unsigned short		flags;
#define DST_HOST		0x0001
#define DST_NOXFRM		0x0002
#define DST_NOPOLICY		0x0004
#define DST_NOCOUNT		0x0008
#define DST_FAKE_RTABLE		0x0010
#define DST_XFRM_TUNNEL		0x0020
#define DST_XFRM_QUEUE		0x0040
#define DST_METADATA		0x0080

	short			error;

	/* A non-zero value of dst->obsolete forces by-hand validation
	 * of the route entry.  Positive values are set by the generic
	 * dst layer to indicate that the entry has been forcefully
	 * destroyed.
	 *
	 * Negative values are used by the implementation layer code to
	 * force invocation of the dst_ops->check() method.
	 */
	short			obsolete;
#define DST_OBSOLETE_NONE	0
#define DST_OBSOLETE_DEAD	2
#define DST_OBSOLETE_FORCE_CHK	-1
#define DST_OBSOLETE_KILL	-2
	unsigned short		header_len;	/* more space at head required */
	unsigned short		trailer_len;	/* space to reserve at tail */
	unsigned short		__pad3;

#ifdef CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_CLASSID
	__u32			tclassid;
#else
	__u32			__pad2;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_64BIT
	/*
	 * Align __refcnt to a 64 bytes alignment
	 * (L1_CACHE_SIZE would be too much)
	 */
	long			__pad_to_align_refcnt[2];
#endif
	/*
	 * __refcnt wants to be on a different cache line from
	 * input/output/ops or performance tanks badly
	 */
	atomic_t		__refcnt;	/* client references	*/
	int			__use;
	unsigned long		lastuse;
	struct lwtunnel_state   *lwtstate;
	union {
		struct dst_entry	*next;
		struct rtable __rcu	*rt_next;
		struct rt6_info		*rt6_next;
		struct dn_route __rcu	*dn_next;
	};
};

And here is the copy paste of API skb_dst() which returns the dst_entry linked to the corresponding skbuff instance (include/linux/skbuff.h) from the Kernel-source version 4.13 for quick reference:

/**
 * skb_dst - returns skb dst_entry
 * @skb: buffer
 *
 * Returns skb dst_entry, regardless of reference taken or not.
 */
static inline struct dst_entry *skb_dst(const struct sk_buff *skb)
{
	/* If refdst was not refcounted, check we still are in a 
	 * rcu_read_lock section
	 */
	WARN_ON((skb->_skb_refdst & SKB_DST_NOREF) &&
		!rcu_read_lock_held() &&
		!rcu_read_lock_bh_held());
	return (struct dst_entry *)(skb->_skb_refdst & SKB_DST_PTRMASK);
}

Here is the Network data/API flow through kernel for quick reference:
Source: https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/images/1/1c/Network_data_flow_through_kernel.png