Akvorado collects network flows using IPFIX or sFlow. It stores them in a ClickHouse database. A web console allows a user to query the data and plot some graphs. A nice aspect of this console is how we can filter flows with a SQL-like language:

Often, web interfaces expose a query builder to build such filters. I think combining a SQL-like language with an editor supporting completion, syntax highlighting, and linting is a better approach.¹

The language parser is built with pigeon (Go) from a parsing expression grammar—or PEG. The editor component is CodeMirror (TypeScript).

Language parser#

PEG grammars are relatively recent² and are an alternative to context-free grammars. They are easier to write and they can generate better error messages. Python switched from an LL(1)-based parser to a PEG-based parser in Python 3.9.

pigeon generates a parser for Go. A grammar is a set of rules. Each rule is an identifier, with an optional user-friendly label for error messages, an expression, and an action in Go to be executed on match. You can find the complete grammar in parser.peg. Here is a simplified rule:

ConditionIPExpr "condition on IP" ←
  column:("ExporterAddress"i { return "ExporterAddress", nil }
        / "SrcAddr"i { return "SrcAddr", nil }
        / "DstAddr"i { return "DstAddr", nil }) _ 
  operator:("=" / "!=") _ 
  ip:IP {
    return fmt.Sprintf("%s %s IPv6StringToNum(%s)",
      toString(column), toString(operator), quote(ip)), nil
  }

The rule identifier is ConditionIPExpr. It case-insensitively matches ExporterAddress, SrcAddr, or DstAddr. For each of them, it returns the the column name with the proper case. That’s what is stored in the column variable. Then, it matches one of the possible operators. As there is no code block, it stores the matched string directly in the operator variable. Then, it tries to match the IP rule, which is defined elsewhere in the grammar. If it succeeds, it stores the result of the match in the ip variable and executes the final action. The action turns the column, operator, and IP into a proper expression for ClickHouse. For example, if we have ExporterAddress = 203.0.113.15, we get ExporterAddress = IPv6StringToNum('203.0.113.15').

The IP rule uses a rudimentary regular expression but checks if the matched address is correct in the action block, thanks to netip.ParseAddr():

IP "IP address" ← [0-9A-Fa-f:.]+ {
  ip, err := netip.ParseAddr(string(c.text))
  if err != nil {
    return "", errors.New("expecting an IP address")
  }
  return ip.String(), nil
}

Our parser safely turns the filter into a WHERE clause accepted by ClickHouse:³

WHERE InIfBoundary = 'external' 
AND ExporterRegion = 'france' 
AND InIfConnectivity = 'transit' 
AND SrcAS = 15169 
AND DstAddr BETWEEN toIPv6('2a01:e0f:ffff::') 
                AND toIPv6('2a01:e0f:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff')

Integration in CodeMirror#

CodeMirror is a versatile code editor that can be easily integrated into JavaScript projects. In Akvorado, the Vue.js component, InputFilter, uses CodeMirror as its foundation and leverages features such as syntax highlighting, linting, and completion. The source code for these capabilities can be found in the codemirror/lang-filter/ directory.

Syntax highlighting#

The PEG grammar for Go cannot be utilized directly⁴ and the requirements for parsers for editors are distinct: they should be error-tolerant and operate incrementally, as code is typically updated character by character. CodeMirror offers a solution through its own parser generator, Lezer.

We don’t need this additional parser to fully understand the filter language. Only the basic structure is needed: column names, comparison and logic operators, quoted and unquoted values. The grammar is therefore quite short and does not need to be updated often:

@top Filter {
  expression
}

expression {
 Not expression |
 "(" expression ")" |
 "(" expression ")" And expression |
 "(" expression ")" Or expression |
 comparisonExpression And expression |
 comparisonExpression Or expression |
 comparisonExpression
}
comparisonExpression {
 Column Operator Value
}

Value {
  String | Literal | ValueLParen ListOfValues ValueRParen
}
ListOfValues {
  ListOfValues ValueComma (String | Literal) |
  String | Literal
}

// […]
@tokens {
  // […]
  Column { std.asciiLetter (std.asciiLetter|std.digit)* }
  Operator { $[a-zA-Z!=><]+ }

  String {
    '"' (![\\\n"] | "\\" _)* '"'? |
    "'" (![\\\n'] | "\\" _)* "'"?
  }
  Literal { (std.digit | std.asciiLetter | $[.:/])+ }
  // […]
}

The expression SrcAS = 12322 AND (DstAS = 1299 OR SrcAS = 29447) is parsed to:

Filter(Column, Operator, Value(Literal),
  And, Column, Operator, Value(Literal),
  Or, Column, Operator, Value(Literal))

The last step is to teach CodeMirror how to map each token to a highlighting tag:

export const FilterLanguage = LRLanguage.define({
  parser: parser.configure({
    props: [
      styleTags({
        Column: t.propertyName,
        String: t.string,
        Literal: t.literal,
        LineComment: t.lineComment,
        BlockComment: t.blockComment,
        Or: t.logicOperator,
        And: t.logicOperator,
        Not: t.logicOperator,
        Operator: t.compareOperator,
        "( )": t.paren,
      }),
    ],
  }),
});

Linting#

We offload linting to the original parser in Go. The /api/v0/console/filter/validate endpoint accepts a filter and returns a JSON structure with the errors that were found:

{
  "message": "at line 1, position 12: string literal not terminated",
  "errors": [{
    "line":    1,
    "column":  12,
    "offset":  11,
    "message": "string literal not terminated",
  }]
}

The linter source for CodeMirror queries the API and turns each error into a diagnostic.

Completion#

The completion system takes a hybrid approach. It splits the work between the frontend and the backend to offer useful suggestions for completing filters.

The frontend uses the parser built with Lezer to determine the context of the completion: do we complete a column name, an operator, or a value? It also extracts the column name if we are completing something else. It forwards the result to the backend through the /api/v0/console/filter/complete endpoint. Walking the syntax tree was not as easy as I thought, but unit tests helped a lot.

The backend uses the parser generated by pigeon to complete a column name or a comparison operator. For values, the completions are either static or extracted from the ClickHouse database. A user can complete an AS number from an organization name thanks to the following snippet:

results := []struct {
  Label  string `ch:"label"`
  Detail string `ch:"detail"`
}{}
columnName := "DstAS"
sqlQuery := fmt.Sprintf(`
 SELECT concat('AS', toString(%s)) AS label, dictGet('asns', 'name', %s) AS detail
 FROM flows
 WHERE TimeReceived > date_sub(minute, 1, now())
 AND detail != ''
 AND positionCaseInsensitive(detail, $1) >= 1
 GROUP BY label, detail
 ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
 LIMIT 20
`, columnName, columnName)
if err := conn.Select(ctx, &results, sqlQuery, input.Prefix); err != nil {
  c.r.Err(err).Msg("unable to query database")
  break
}
for _, result := range results {
  completions = append(completions, filterCompletion{
    Label:  result.Label,
    Detail: result.Detail,
    Quoted: false,
  })
}

In my opinion, the completion system is a major factor in making the field editor an efficient way to select flows. While a query builder may have been more beginner-friendly, the completion system’s ease of use and functionality make it more enjoyable to use once you become familiar.