Buffer Module - Architecture

View-Based Buffer Design

Buffer is a lightweight VIEW over caller-owned storage. No allocation, no freeing - just state tracking: data pointer, capacity, current length.

Core API

rte_buffer_init(buf, storage, capacity);    // Bind view to storage
rte_buffer_set_length(buf, new_length);      // Mark data as valid
rte_buffer_clear(buf);                       // Reset length to 0

Invariants

buf.data != NULL           - Pointing to valid storage
buf.capacity > 0           - Has space
buf.length <= buf.capacity - Never overfilled

Ownership Model

Caller owns backing storage:

• Must allocate before rte_buffer_init()
• Must keep valid for buffer lifetime
• Caller manages writes to buf.data

Buffer manages:

• Tracking length (valid data)
• Validating length <= capacity

O(1) All Operations

Operation	Time
init()	O(1)
set_length()	O(1)
clear()	O(1)

No copying, no allocation.

See Also

• Buffer Module - User Guide for usage patterns
• Memory Module - User Guide for storage allocation