[RFC PATCH bpf-next] bpftool: avoid sign extension in unsigned enum JSON dumps

From: Hungyu Lin

Date: Fri Oct 30 2026 - 05:09:40 EST


The BTF enum value is stored in a signed 32-bit field even when the
enum is unsigned. Passing it directly to jsonw_uint_field(), which
takes a uint64_t, sign-extends values with bit 31 set. For example,
0xffffffffU is printed as 18446744073709551615 instead of 4294967295
by bpftool -j btf dump.

Cast the value to __u32 before widening it, matching the conversion
already used for plain-text output.

Fixes: c93cc69004df ("bpftool: add ability to dump BTF types")
Signed-off-by: Hungyu Lin <dennylin0707@xxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/bpf/bpftool/btf.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/btf.c b/tools/bpf/bpftool/btf.c
index abd661db91e6..385521e6b028 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/btf.c
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/btf.c
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ static int dump_btf_type(const struct btf *btf, __u32 id,
if (btf_kflag(t))
jsonw_int_field(w, "val", v->val);
else
- jsonw_uint_field(w, "val", v->val);
+ jsonw_uint_field(w, "val", (__u32)v->val);
jsonw_end_object(w);
} else {
if (btf_kflag(t))

base-commit: 7101b10cf281f629ac58c99697ca6f6d082b99a7
--
2.43.0