crates/irtt-server/AGENTS.md

@@ -114,8 +114,10 @@ down. Nothing it does is visible on the wire.
 
 A reply must leave from the address its request was sent to, or a client reading
 from a connected socket discards it. An explicit-address listener satisfies that
-by construction and keeps the plain `recv_from`/`send_to` path — do not route it
-through ancillary machinery merely because the helper exists.
+by construction and asks for no destination metadata — do not give it any merely
+because the helper exists. It keeps the plain `recv_from`/`send_to` path
+everywhere except Linux, where it receives through `recvmsg` for the unrelated
+reason below and still sends with plain `send_to`.
 
 A wildcard listener does not, so it recovers each request's local destination
 and sends that reply from it. The supported targets are Linux, macOS and
@@ -161,6 +163,39 @@ address fails invisibly, as loss.
 - A send failure is per-packet loss, exactly as an ordinary `send_to` failure
   is. It never terminates the listener and never rolls back core state.
 
+## Kernel receive timestamps
+
+A Linux listener asks the kernel for a software receive timestamp
+(`SO_TIMESTAMPNS`) on every datagram and reports it as transport metadata. It is
+the mirror image of destination metadata, and the contrast is the point.
+
+- **Optional, not required.** Enabling it is best-effort and must never fail
+  construction: a listener without it answers every request exactly as it
+  otherwise would. Destination metadata failing a wildcard bind is correct;
+  timestamp setup failing anything is not.
+- **Its absence is never packet loss.** No timestamp, a timestamp truncated away
+  on an explicit listener, or one that describes no representable instant, all
+  mean the datagram is served with `kernel_rx_timestamp: None`. Only the
+  destination rules a datagram out, and only for the listener that needs one.
+- **Nothing consumes it yet.** It stops at the runtime boundary. Do not thread it
+  into `ServerCore`, add a timestamp argument or variant to `handle_datagram`,
+  stash it in a "next receive" side channel, or wrap the core's clock. How a
+  kernel-observed arrival time should enter the core is an open design question,
+  to be settled deliberately and not as a side effect of some other change.
+- **Do not map wall to monotonic.** It is a realtime reading with no monotonic
+  counterpart, and `ClockSample` is a paired userspace instant. Synthesizing the
+  missing half would invent precision the kernel never reported.
+- **Do not judge plausibility here.** Conversion is structural only. Whether a
+  representable reading is close enough to the server's own sample to measure
+  against belongs with whoever measures.
+- Linux only, and receive only. No macOS, FreeBSD or Windows implementation, and
+  no transmit timestamping, without a reason and agreement.
+- Control-buffer capacity is derived from the cmsg payload types and asserted at
+  compile time. Adding a control message means extending that derivation — an
+  undersized buffer sets `MSG_CTRUNC`, which is silent packet loss for a wildcard
+  listener. Never parse cmsgs positionally or stop at the first match: the kernel
+  orders them as it likes, and each kind is collected independently.
+
 ## Rejection is silence
 
 Malformed, unauthenticated, unsupported and policy-refused input is discarded

crates/irtt-server/src/runtime.rs

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use thiserror::Error;
 use tokio::{net::UdpSocket, time::MissedTickBehavior};
 
 use crate::{
-    socket_io,
+    socket_io::{self, ReceivedDatagram},
     socket_options::{marks_with_ipv4_option, set_reply_traffic_class},
     ServerConfig, ServerCore, ServerError,
 };
@@ -122,6 +122,13 @@ impl Server {
                 .map_err(|source| ServerRuntimeError::SourceSelectionSetup { addr, source })?;
         }
 
+        // Kernel receive timestamps, for every listener and strictly after the
+        // mandatory setup above so a refusal here can neither hide nor stand in
+        // for a wildcard listener's failure to secure its reply sources. This
+        // one is allowed to fail: it buys accuracy, not correctness, and a
+        // server that cannot have it is still a correct server.
+        let _ = socket_io::try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(&socket);
+
         Ok(Self {
             socket,
             core: ServerCore::new(config),
@@ -218,7 +225,17 @@ impl Server {
                         Err(source) if source.kind() == io::ErrorKind::Interrupted => continue,
                         Err(source) => return Err(ServerRuntimeError::Receive { source }),
                     };
-                    let (len, peer) = (received.len, received.peer);
+                    let ReceivedDatagram {
+                        len,
+                        peer,
+                        reply_source,
+                        // Observed by the transport and deliberately unused.
+                        // The core samples its own receive instant, and this
+                        // is where a kernel-observed arrival time stops until a
+                        // follow-up change decides how it should enter the core
+                        // — feeding it in here would change protocol timing.
+                        kernel_rx_timestamp: _kernel_rx_timestamp,
+                    } = received;
                     if let Some(reply) = self.core.handle_datagram(peer, &self.recv_buffer[..len])? {
                         if !self.prepare_reply_traffic_class(reply.traffic_class()) {
                             continue;
@@ -227,7 +244,7 @@ impl Server {
                             &self.socket,
                             reply.bytes(),
                             peer,
-                            received.reply_source,
+                            reply_source,
                         );
                         tokio::pin!(send);
                         let sent = loop {

crates/irtt-server/src/socket_io.rs

@@ -16,8 +16,29 @@
 //! have one reachable through a safe API. Everything here goes through `nix`'s
 //! safe `recvmsg`/`sendmsg` wrappers; the crate forbids unsafe code, so there is
 //! no raw syscall, no `CMSG_*` walking and no hand-written ABI layer.
+//!
+//! # Kernel receive timestamps
+//!
+//! A Linux listener additionally asks the kernel for a software receive
+//! timestamp (`SO_TIMESTAMPNS`) on every datagram, wildcard or not, and reports
+//! it on [`ReceivedDatagram::kernel_rx_timestamp`]. It says when the kernel
+//! received the datagram, before the socket queue, Tokio readiness and
+//! scheduling that separate that moment from the one the server would otherwise
+//! observe.
+//!
+//! It is the exact opposite of destination metadata in how much it matters.
+//! Enabling it is best-effort and never keeps a listener from starting; a
+//! datagram that arrives without one, or with one describing no representable
+//! instant, is served normally with no timestamp. Nothing about which datagrams
+//! reach [`ServerCore`](crate::ServerCore) depends on it.
+//!
+//! **Nothing consumes it yet.** It is captured here so a follow-up change can
+//! decide how a kernel-observed arrival time enters the protocol core; today
+//! the core still samples its own receive instant and no protocol timing is
+//! affected. It is a software wall-clock reading only — not a NIC hardware
+//! timestamp, not monotonic, and not a transmit timestamp.
 
-use std::{io, net::SocketAddr};
+use std::{io, net::SocketAddr, time::SystemTime};
 
 use tokio::net::UdpSocket;
 
@@ -59,19 +80,32 @@ pub(crate) enum ReplySource {
     },
 }
 
-/// One received datagram and what answering it requires.
+/// One received datagram, what answering it requires, and what the kernel
+/// observed about its arrival.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
 pub(crate) struct ReceivedDatagram {
     pub(crate) len: usize,
     pub(crate) peer: SocketAddr,
     pub(crate) reply_source: ReplySource,
+    /// When the kernel received this datagram, where it said so.
+    ///
+    /// Optional accuracy metadata, absent on every target but Linux, on a
+    /// Linux listener whose kernel refused the option, and on any datagram
+    /// whose timestamp did not arrive or did not describe a representable
+    /// instant. A wall-clock reading with no monotonic counterpart: none is
+    /// synthesized, because there is no sound mapping from one to the other.
+    ///
+    /// Captured for a follow-up measurement change and consumed by nothing
+    /// today — see the module documentation.
+    pub(crate) kernel_rx_timestamp: Option<SystemTime>,
 }
 
 /// Asks the kernel to report each datagram's local destination address.
 ///
 /// Called once, at construction, and only for a wildcard listener: an
-/// explicit-address listener needs no ancillary metadata, and adding it would
-/// widen the platform surface of the common path for nothing.
+/// explicit-address listener already replies from the one address it is bound
+/// to, and asking for a destination it cannot use would widen the platform
+/// surface of the common path for nothing.
 #[cfg(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "macos", target_os = "freebsd"))]
 pub(crate) fn configure_destination_metadata(socket: &UdpSocket, is_ipv4: bool) -> io::Result<()> {
     ancillary::configure_destination_metadata(socket, is_ipv4)
@@ -85,6 +119,27 @@ pub(crate) fn configure_destination_metadata(
     Err(unsupported())
 }
 
+/// Asks the kernel to report when it received each datagram, and reports
+/// whether it agreed.
+///
+/// Called once, at construction, for every listener on a target that has this:
+/// unlike destination metadata it costs an explicit listener nothing to have,
+/// and both kinds of listener are equally worth timing accurately.
+///
+/// Deliberately not fallible. A listener without kernel timestamps serves every
+/// request exactly as it otherwise would, so a refusal here is not a reason to
+/// fail construction, and the returned flag exists to be asserted in tests
+/// rather than acted on. The datagrams simply carry no timestamp.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+pub(crate) fn try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(socket: &UdpSocket) -> bool {
+    ancillary::try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(socket)
+}
+
+#[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
+pub(crate) fn try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(_socket: &UdpSocket) -> bool {
+    false
+}
+
 /// Receives one datagram, reporting where its reply must come from.
 ///
 /// `select_reply_source` is the listener's own wildcard-ness, decided once at
@@ -97,7 +152,7 @@ pub(crate) fn configure_destination_metadata(
 /// impossible. `Ok(None)` covers:
 ///
 /// - payload truncation reported by an ancillary receive (`MSG_TRUNC`);
-/// - ancillary metadata truncation (`MSG_CTRUNC`);
+/// - ancillary metadata truncation (`MSG_CTRUNC`) on a wildcard listener;
 /// - a wildcard listener's missing or unusable local destination;
 /// - a datagram filling `buffer` exactly, which is conservatively treated as
 ///   potentially truncated.
@@ -105,8 +160,13 @@ pub(crate) fn configure_destination_metadata(
 /// That last rule exists because `recv_from` reports no truncation flag, so an
 /// exactly-full result cannot be told apart from a larger datagram cut down to
 /// the supplied capacity. It is expressed against `buffer.len()`, so the policy
-/// follows whatever receive capacity the caller supplies, and it applies to both
-/// receive paths alike.
+/// follows whatever receive capacity the caller supplies, and it applies to
+/// every receive path alike.
+///
+/// A missing or unusable *kernel receive timestamp* is on none of those lists.
+/// It costs precision, not correctness, so the datagram is accepted without one
+/// — including on an explicit listener whose control data was truncated, where
+/// the timestamp is all that can have been lost.
 ///
 /// Cancel-safe: nothing is consumed until a datagram is fully received.
 pub(crate) async fn receive(
@@ -118,17 +178,42 @@ pub(crate) async fn receive(
     let received = if select_reply_source {
         receive_with_destination(socket, buffer).await?
     } else {
-        let (len, peer) = socket.recv_from(buffer).await?;
-        Some(ReceivedDatagram {
-            len,
-            peer,
-            reply_source: ReplySource::Bound,
-        })
+        receive_bound(socket, buffer).await?
     };
 
     Ok(received.filter(|datagram| datagram.len < capacity))
 }
 
+/// The explicit-address receive, which needs no ancillary data to answer
+/// correctly.
+///
+/// Linux takes it through `recvmsg` anyway, purely so an enabled
+/// `SCM_TIMESTAMPNS` can be read off the same call — `recv_from` cannot retrieve
+/// control messages. Elsewhere there is no timestamp to collect, so the plain
+/// path stays plain rather than widening the common path's platform surface for
+/// nothing.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+async fn receive_bound(
+    socket: &UdpSocket,
+    buffer: &mut [u8],
+) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
+    ancillary::receive_bound(socket, buffer).await
+}
+
+#[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
+async fn receive_bound(
+    socket: &UdpSocket,
+    buffer: &mut [u8],
+) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
+    let (len, peer) = socket.recv_from(buffer).await?;
+    Ok(Some(ReceivedDatagram {
+        len,
+        peer,
+        reply_source: ReplySource::Bound,
+        kernel_rx_timestamp: None,
+    }))
+}
+
 #[cfg(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "macos", target_os = "freebsd"))]
 async fn receive_with_destination(
     socket: &UdpSocket,
@@ -232,4 +317,128 @@ mod tests {
         let (received, _) = receive_one(4, b"irtt-rs").await;
         assert!(!matches!(received, Ok(Some(_))));
     }
+
+    /// A listener that never asked for kernel timestamps receives normally and
+    /// reports none — the field is optional in the plainest sense, and its
+    /// absence is not a defect to be worked around later.
+    #[tokio::test(flavor = "current_thread")]
+    async fn a_datagram_with_no_kernel_timestamp_is_served_all_the_same() {
+        let (received, _) = receive_one(16, b"irtt").await;
+        let received = received.unwrap().expect("an untimestamped datagram serves");
+        assert_eq!(received.reply_source, ReplySource::Bound);
+        assert_eq!(received.kernel_rx_timestamp, None);
+    }
+
+    /// Linux-only coverage of the two receive paths, which is where the
+    /// timestamp actually comes from.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    mod linux {
+        use std::net::SocketAddr;
+
+        use super::*;
+
+        /// Sends `payload` from loopback to `listener` and receives it once.
+        async fn exchange(
+            listener: &UdpSocket,
+            select_reply_source: bool,
+        ) -> (Option<ReceivedDatagram>, Vec<u8>) {
+            let payload = b"irtt";
+            let destination =
+                SocketAddr::from((Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST, listener.local_addr().unwrap().port()));
+            let sender = UdpSocket::bind((Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST, 0)).await.unwrap();
+            sender.send_to(payload, destination).await.unwrap();
+
+            let mut buffer = vec![0; 64];
+            let received = receive(listener, &mut buffer, select_reply_source)
+                .await
+                .unwrap();
+            (received, buffer)
+        }
+
+        /// Reports the timestamp, or says why it is skipping the assertion
+        /// rather than inventing one. Loopback under a normal kernel supplies
+        /// it; a container or emulator that does not must not fail the run.
+        fn timestamp_or_skip(received: &ReceivedDatagram, what: &str) {
+            match received.kernel_rx_timestamp {
+                Some(timestamp) => assert!(
+                    timestamp.duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH).is_ok(),
+                    "a kernel receive timestamp is a wall-clock instant"
+                ),
+                None => eprintln!(
+                    "skipping {what} kernel timestamp assertion: \
+                     kernel did not provide SCM_TIMESTAMPNS"
+                ),
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// The explicit-address listener's new `recvmsg` path: it must keep
+        /// reporting exactly what `recv_from` did, and additionally see the
+        /// timestamp `recv_from` had no way to retrieve.
+        #[tokio::test(flavor = "current_thread")]
+        async fn an_explicit_listener_receives_a_datagram_and_its_kernel_timestamp() {
+            let listener = UdpSocket::bind((Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST, 0)).await.unwrap();
+            assert!(
+                try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(&listener),
+                "Linux loopback accepts SO_TIMESTAMPNS"
+            );
+
+            let (received, buffer) = exchange(&listener, false).await;
+            let received = received.expect("an explicit listener serves a short datagram");
+
+            assert_eq!(received.len, 4);
+            assert_eq!(&buffer[..received.len], b"irtt");
+            assert_eq!(received.peer.ip(), Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST);
+            assert_eq!(received.reply_source, ReplySource::Bound);
+            timestamp_or_skip(&received, "explicit");
+        }
+
+        /// The regression this whole change risks: asking for a second control
+        /// message must not crowd out the first. A wildcard listener with both
+        /// enabled has to recover its destination *and* its timestamp from one
+        /// datagram, with no `MSG_CTRUNC` drop and no dependence on the order
+        /// the kernel returns them in.
+        #[tokio::test(flavor = "current_thread")]
+        async fn a_wildcard_listener_recovers_its_destination_and_timestamp_together() {
+            let listener = UdpSocket::bind((Ipv4Addr::UNSPECIFIED, 0)).await.unwrap();
+            configure_destination_metadata(&listener, true).unwrap();
+            assert!(try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(&listener));
+
+            let (received, buffer) = exchange(&listener, true).await;
+            let received = received.expect(
+                "a wildcard listener asking for two control messages still serves the datagram",
+            );
+
+            assert_eq!(received.len, 4);
+            assert_eq!(&buffer[..received.len], b"irtt");
+            assert_eq!(received.peer.ip(), Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST);
+            assert_eq!(
+                received.reply_source,
+                ReplySource::V4 {
+                    address: Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST
+                },
+                "the required destination survives the added timestamp request"
+            );
+            timestamp_or_skip(&received, "wildcard");
+        }
+
+        /// The timestamp is not a precondition for either listener: a wildcard
+        /// one that never enabled it still recovers the destination its reply
+        /// depends on and serves the request.
+        #[tokio::test(flavor = "current_thread")]
+        async fn a_wildcard_listener_without_timestamps_still_recovers_its_destination() {
+            let listener = UdpSocket::bind((Ipv4Addr::UNSPECIFIED, 0)).await.unwrap();
+            configure_destination_metadata(&listener, true).unwrap();
+
+            let (received, _) = exchange(&listener, true).await;
+            let received = received.expect("no timestamp requested, and none needed");
+
+            assert_eq!(
+                received.reply_source,
+                ReplySource::V4 {
+                    address: Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST
+                }
+            );
+            assert_eq!(received.kernel_rx_timestamp, None);
+        }
+    }
 }

crates/irtt-server/src/socket_io/ancillary.rs

@@ -1,7 +1,21 @@
-//! Destination-address ancillary data on Linux, macOS and FreeBSD.
+//! Ancillary receive data on Linux, macOS and FreeBSD.
 //!
-//! Three platforms, two mechanisms per address family, all reached through
-//! `nix`'s safe wrappers:
+//! Two independent kinds of metadata travel with a received datagram here, and
+//! they are not equally important:
+//!
+//! - the request's **local destination address**, which a wildcard listener
+//!   must have to answer from the endpoint the client contacted. Losing it
+//!   makes the request unanswerable, so the datagram is dropped.
+//! - the kernel's **software receive timestamp**, an accuracy enhancement that
+//!   Linux listeners request opportunistically. Losing it costs nothing but
+//!   precision, so the datagram is served with no timestamp.
+//!
+//! Both are collected from one `recvmsg`, and neither is looked for at a fixed
+//! position: the kernel may return them in either order, so the whole usable
+//! control sequence is walked and each kind recorded where it appears.
+//!
+//! Three platforms, two destination mechanisms per address family, all reached
+//! through `nix`'s safe wrappers:
 //!
 //! | | receive | send |
 //! |---|---|---|
@@ -17,6 +31,11 @@
 //! receive of which only two mean anything on send. Each direction is built
 //! explicitly for that reason.
 //!
+//! On Linux the kernel receive timestamp arrives as `SCM_TIMESTAMPNS`, enabled
+//! by `SO_TIMESTAMPNS`. It is a software timestamp taken by the kernel's
+//! realtime clock as the datagram is received — not a NIC hardware timestamp,
+//! not a monotonic reading, and nothing to do with transmission.
+//!
 //! Both directions run nonblocking through Tokio readiness, following the same
 //! `readable()`/`try_io` shape the client's ancillary receive path uses. One
 //! socket, one task, no blocking call and no spawned thread.
@@ -25,23 +44,63 @@ use std::{
     io::{self, IoSlice, IoSliceMut},
     net::{Ipv4Addr, Ipv6Addr, SocketAddr, SocketAddrV6},
     os::fd::AsRawFd,
+    time::SystemTime,
 };
 
 use nix::{
     libc,
     sys::socket::{
-        recvmsg, sendmsg, setsockopt, sockopt, ControlMessage, ControlMessageOwned, MsgFlags,
-        RecvMsg, SockaddrStorage,
+        cmsg_space, recvmsg, sendmsg, setsockopt, sockopt, ControlMessage, ControlMessageOwned,
+        MsgFlags, RecvMsg, SockaddrStorage,
     },
 };
 use tokio::{io::Interest, net::UdpSocket};
 
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+use std::time::{Duration, UNIX_EPOCH};
+
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+use nix::sys::time::TimeSpec;
+
 use super::{ReceivedDatagram, ReplySource};
 
-/// Room for the destination control message. The largest of them is an
-/// `in6_pktinfo`, and this leaves headroom for a second message the kernel may
-/// add, so `MSG_CTRUNC` reflects a real problem rather than a tight buffer.
-const CONTROL_LEN: usize = 128;
+/// Room for the IPv4 destination control message, whose payload is the
+/// platform's own: Linux reports an `in_pktinfo`, the BSDs a bare `in_addr`.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+const DESTINATION_V4_LEN: usize = cmsg_space::<libc::in_pktinfo>();
+#[cfg(any(target_os = "macos", target_os = "freebsd"))]
+const DESTINATION_V4_LEN: usize = cmsg_space::<libc::in_addr>();
+
+/// Room for the IPv6 destination control message, which is an `in6_pktinfo`
+/// everywhere here.
+const DESTINATION_V6_LEN: usize = cmsg_space::<libc::in6_pktinfo>();
+
+/// Room for the kernel receive timestamp, which only Linux is asked for.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+const TIMESTAMP_LEN: usize = cmsg_space::<libc::timespec>();
+#[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
+const TIMESTAMP_LEN: usize = 0;
+
+/// Capacity for every control message this server asks the kernel for, derived
+/// from the payload types themselves rather than from a round number believed
+/// to be large enough.
+///
+/// Both address families are counted although one socket only ever receives
+/// one of them: a few bytes of headroom is cheaper than a per-family buffer
+/// type, and a dual-stack listener's family is a runtime fact. Undersizing this
+/// would not fail loudly — it would set `MSG_CTRUNC` and turn valid wildcard
+/// requests into silent drops — so the sum is stated in full and proved by a
+/// receive test rather than by inspection.
+const CONTROL_LEN: usize = DESTINATION_V4_LEN + DESTINATION_V6_LEN + TIMESTAMP_LEN;
+
+/// Whichever family a socket turns out to be, its destination message and the
+/// timestamp must fit together. Checked at compile time on every target this
+/// module builds for, so a future control message that outgrows the buffer
+/// fails the build rather than the wildcard listeners that depend on it.
+const _: () = {
+    assert!(CONTROL_LEN >= DESTINATION_V4_LEN + TIMESTAMP_LEN);
+    assert!(CONTROL_LEN >= DESTINATION_V6_LEN + TIMESTAMP_LEN);
+};
 
 pub(super) fn configure_destination_metadata(socket: &UdpSocket, is_ipv4: bool) -> io::Result<()> {
     if is_ipv4 {
@@ -63,20 +122,59 @@ fn configure_ipv4_destination(socket: &UdpSocket) -> io::Result<()> {
     setsockopt(socket, sockopt::Ipv4RecvDstAddr, &true).map_err(io::Error::from)
 }
 
+/// Asks the kernel for a software receive timestamp on each datagram, and
+/// reports whether it agreed.
+///
+/// Deliberately infallible for the caller. Unlike destination metadata, this is
+/// an accuracy enhancement and not a correctness requirement: a listener that
+/// does not get it answers every request exactly as it otherwise would, just
+/// without the kernel's view of when each one arrived.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+pub(super) fn try_configure_kernel_rx_timestamp(socket: &UdpSocket) -> bool {
+    setsockopt(socket, sockopt::ReceiveTimestampns, &true).is_ok()
+}
+
 pub(super) async fn receive_with_destination(
     socket: &UdpSocket,
     buffer: &mut [u8],
+) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
+    receive_ancillary(socket, buffer, true).await
+}
+
+/// The Linux explicit-address receive: no destination metadata is needed or
+/// asked for, and the datagram is taken through `recvmsg` only so an enabled
+/// `SCM_TIMESTAMPNS` can be read off it.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+pub(super) async fn receive_bound(
+    socket: &UdpSocket,
+    buffer: &mut [u8],
+) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
+    receive_ancillary(socket, buffer, false).await
+}
+
+/// `require_destination` is the listener's own wildcard-ness. It decides both
+/// what this receive must recover and how severe a truncated control buffer is.
+async fn receive_ancillary(
+    socket: &UdpSocket,
+    buffer: &mut [u8],
+    require_destination: bool,
 ) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
     loop {
         socket.readable().await?;
-        match socket.try_io(Interest::READABLE, || receive_once(socket, buffer)) {
+        match socket.try_io(Interest::READABLE, || {
+            receive_once(socket, buffer, require_destination)
+        }) {
             Err(error) if error.kind() == io::ErrorKind::WouldBlock => continue,
             result => return result,
         }
     }
 }
 
-fn receive_once(socket: &UdpSocket, buffer: &mut [u8]) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
+fn receive_once(
+    socket: &UdpSocket,
+    buffer: &mut [u8],
+    require_destination: bool,
+) -> io::Result<Option<ReceivedDatagram>> {
     let mut control = ControlBuffer::new();
     let mut iov = [IoSliceMut::new(buffer)];
     let message = recvmsg::<SockaddrStorage>(
@@ -86,7 +184,7 @@ fn receive_once(socket: &UdpSocket, buffer: &mut [u8]) -> io::Result<Option<Rece
         MsgFlags::MSG_DONTWAIT,
     )?;
 
-    Ok(received_datagram(&message))
+    Ok(received_datagram(&message, require_destination))
 }
 
 /// Turns one received message into a datagram the runtime may serve, or `None`
@@ -97,21 +195,57 @@ fn receive_once(socket: &UdpSocket, buffer: &mut [u8]) -> io::Result<Option<Rece
 /// no destination arrived with the datagram, that promise cannot be kept for
 /// this request — so it is dropped here, before the core sees it and before any
 /// session's receive, rate or lifetime state could move.
-fn received_datagram(message: &RecvMsg<'_, '_, SockaddrStorage>) -> Option<ReceivedDatagram> {
-    if message
-        .flags
-        .intersects(MsgFlags::MSG_TRUNC | MsgFlags::MSG_CTRUNC)
-    {
+///
+/// A kernel receive timestamp is never part of that judgement. Absent,
+/// truncated away or structurally unrepresentable, it simply does not appear on
+/// the datagram.
+fn received_datagram(
+    message: &RecvMsg<'_, '_, SockaddrStorage>,
+    require_destination: bool,
+) -> Option<ReceivedDatagram> {
+    if is_unusable(message.flags, require_destination) {
         return None;
     }
 
+    let metadata = receive_metadata(message);
     Some(ReceivedDatagram {
         len: message.bytes,
         peer: peer_endpoint(message.address.as_ref()?)?,
-        reply_source: reply_source(message)?,
+        reply_source: resolved_reply_source(metadata.reply_source, require_destination)?,
+        kernel_rx_timestamp: metadata.kernel_rx_timestamp,
     })
 }
 
+/// Whether the kernel's own report of this receive rules the datagram out.
+///
+/// A truncated payload always does: what arrived is not what was sent. A
+/// truncated *control* buffer only does where the destination was required,
+/// because then the metadata that may have been cut is the metadata the reply
+/// cannot be built without. For a listener that asked only for a timestamp,
+/// the same flag means at worst that the timestamp was lost — a reason to serve
+/// the request without one, not to discard a client's packet.
+fn is_unusable(flags: MsgFlags, require_destination: bool) -> bool {
+    flags.contains(MsgFlags::MSG_TRUNC)
+        || (require_destination && flags.contains(MsgFlags::MSG_CTRUNC))
+}
+
+/// Where this datagram's reply must leave from, given what the control data
+/// yielded.
+///
+/// An explicit-address listener has nothing to recover: it sends from the one
+/// address it is bound to. A wildcard listener has everything to recover, and a
+/// request whose destination did not arrive is one it cannot answer.
+fn resolved_reply_source(
+    recovered: Option<ReplySource>,
+    require_destination: bool,
+) -> Option<ReplySource> {
+    if require_destination {
+        recovered
+    } else {
+        Some(ReplySource::Bound)
+    }
+}
+
 /// The request's full source endpoint, keeping the IPv6 zone the core compares
 /// endpoints by.
 fn peer_endpoint(address: &SockaddrStorage) -> Option<SocketAddr> {
@@ -123,34 +257,84 @@ fn peer_endpoint(address: &SockaddrStorage) -> Option<SocketAddr> {
         .map(|peer| SocketAddr::from(*peer))
 }
 
-fn reply_source(message: &RecvMsg<'_, '_, SockaddrStorage>) -> Option<ReplySource> {
-    for control_message in message.cmsgs().ok()? {
+/// What one receive's control data carried, kind by kind.
+///
+/// Independent fields rather than an early return, because the kernel is free
+/// to order control messages as it likes: stopping at the destination would
+/// discard a timestamp that followed it, and stopping at the timestamp would
+/// discard the destination a wildcard reply depends on.
+#[derive(Default)]
+struct ReceiveMetadata {
+    reply_source: Option<ReplySource>,
+    /// Only Linux is ever asked for one, so on the BSDs this stays absent and
+    /// the datagram simply carries no kernel view of its arrival.
+    kernel_rx_timestamp: Option<SystemTime>,
+}
+
+fn receive_metadata(message: &RecvMsg<'_, '_, SockaddrStorage>) -> ReceiveMetadata {
+    let mut metadata = ReceiveMetadata::default();
+    // `cmsgs` refuses to walk a control buffer the kernel had to truncate
+    // (`MSG_CTRUNC`), because what is there cannot be trusted to be complete
+    // messages. Whether that is fatal was already decided by `is_unusable`;
+    // here it just means no metadata was recovered.
+    let Ok(control_messages) = message.cmsgs() else {
+        return metadata;
+    };
+
+    for control_message in control_messages {
         match control_message {
             // Linux reports the header destination in `ipi_addr`; `ipi_spec_dst`
             // is the route's local address, which is the same for the unicast
             // traffic a server sees and is not what the client addressed.
             #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
             ControlMessageOwned::Ipv4PacketInfo(info) => {
-                return ipv4_reply_source(ipv4_addr(info.ipi_addr));
+                metadata.reply_source = ipv4_reply_source(ipv4_addr(info.ipi_addr));
             }
             #[cfg(any(target_os = "macos", target_os = "freebsd"))]
             ControlMessageOwned::Ipv4RecvDstAddr(address) => {
-                return ipv4_reply_source(ipv4_addr(address));
+                metadata.reply_source = ipv4_reply_source(ipv4_addr(address));
             }
             ControlMessageOwned::Ipv6PacketInfo(info) => {
-                let address = Ipv6Addr::from(info.ipi6_addr.s6_addr);
-                if address.is_unspecified() {
-                    return None;
-                }
-                return Some(ReplySource::V6 {
-                    address,
-                    interface_index: info.ipi6_ifindex,
-                });
+                metadata.reply_source = ipv6_reply_source(info);
+            }
+            #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+            ControlMessageOwned::ScmTimestampns(timestamp) => {
+                metadata.kernel_rx_timestamp = system_time_from_timespec(timestamp);
             }
             _ => {}
         }
     }
-    None
+    metadata
+}
+
+/// An unspecified destination is no destination: nothing can be sent from `::`,
+/// so the datagram is dropped rather than answered from a source the kernel
+/// would pick instead.
+fn ipv6_reply_source(info: libc::in6_pktinfo) -> Option<ReplySource> {
+    let address = Ipv6Addr::from(info.ipi6_addr.s6_addr);
+    (!address.is_unspecified()).then_some(ReplySource::V6 {
+        address,
+        interface_index: info.ipi6_ifindex,
+    })
+}
+
+/// A kernel `SCM_TIMESTAMPNS` reading as a wall-clock instant, or `None` where
+/// it is not one.
+///
+/// Purely structural: a negative or out-of-range `timespec`, or one past what
+/// `SystemTime` can represent, describes no instant and is reported as absent
+/// metadata. Whether a representable reading is *plausible* — close enough to
+/// the server's own userspace sample to be worth measuring against — is a
+/// question for whoever eventually measures with it, and is deliberately not
+/// asked here.
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn system_time_from_timespec(timespec: TimeSpec) -> Option<SystemTime> {
+    let seconds = u64::try_from(timespec.tv_sec()).ok()?;
+    let nanos = u32::try_from(timespec.tv_nsec()).ok()?;
+    if nanos >= 1_000_000_000 {
+        return None;
+    }
+    UNIX_EPOCH.checked_add(Duration::new(seconds, nanos))
 }
 
 /// An unspecified destination is no destination: nothing can be sent from
@@ -373,4 +557,113 @@ mod tests {
             );
         }
     }
+
+    /// What the two listener kinds do with the metadata they did or did not
+    /// get, which is the whole distinction this module rests on: a destination
+    /// is correctness-critical for one of them and irrelevant to the other.
+    #[test]
+    fn only_a_listener_that_needs_a_destination_is_stopped_by_a_missing_one() {
+        let recovered = ReplySource::V4 {
+            address: Ipv4Addr::LOCALHOST,
+        };
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            resolved_reply_source(Some(recovered), true),
+            Some(recovered),
+            "a wildcard listener replies from the destination it recovered"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            resolved_reply_source(None, true),
+            None,
+            "and cannot answer a request whose destination did not arrive"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            resolved_reply_source(None, false),
+            Some(ReplySource::Bound),
+            "an explicit listener never needed one"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            resolved_reply_source(Some(recovered), false),
+            Some(ReplySource::Bound),
+            "and sends from its bind even if one turned up"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Which truncation is fatal to whom. A cut payload always is; cut control
+    /// data is fatal only where it may have taken the destination with it.
+    /// Turning a lost *timestamp* into a lost packet would trade a real client
+    /// request for optional precision.
+    #[test]
+    fn control_truncation_only_condemns_a_datagram_whose_destination_it_may_have_taken() {
+        for (flags, require_destination, unusable, why) in [
+            (MsgFlags::empty(), true, false, "a clean wildcard receive"),
+            (MsgFlags::empty(), false, false, "a clean explicit receive"),
+            (
+                MsgFlags::MSG_TRUNC,
+                false,
+                true,
+                "a cut payload is not what the client sent",
+            ),
+            (
+                MsgFlags::MSG_TRUNC,
+                true,
+                true,
+                "and no less so for a wildcard listener",
+            ),
+            (
+                MsgFlags::MSG_CTRUNC,
+                true,
+                true,
+                "cut control data may have taken the destination",
+            ),
+            (
+                MsgFlags::MSG_CTRUNC,
+                false,
+                false,
+                "but for an explicit listener it can only have cost a timestamp",
+            ),
+            (
+                MsgFlags::MSG_TRUNC | MsgFlags::MSG_CTRUNC,
+                false,
+                true,
+                "the payload rule still applies",
+            ),
+        ] {
+            assert_eq!(is_unusable(flags, require_destination), unusable, "{why}");
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// A representable kernel reading becomes an instant; anything else becomes
+    /// absent metadata. Note what is *not* rejected here: a reading far from
+    /// now is structurally fine, and judging it belongs to whoever measures
+    /// with it.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    #[test]
+    fn a_kernel_timestamp_converts_only_where_it_describes_an_instant() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(1, 2))
+                .unwrap()
+                .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
+                .unwrap(),
+            Duration::new(1, 2)
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(0, 0)),
+            Some(UNIX_EPOCH),
+            "the epoch itself is representable"
+        );
+
+        assert_eq!(system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(-1, 0)), None);
+        assert_eq!(system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(0, -1)), None);
+        assert_eq!(
+            system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(0, 1_000_000_000)),
+            None
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(i64::MIN, i64::MIN)),
+            None,
+            "and the extremes convert rather than panic"
+        );
+        let _ = system_time_from_timespec(TimeSpec::new(i64::MAX, 999_999_999));
+    }
 }