Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 23.128.96.18 as permitted sender) client-ip=23.128.96.18;
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <158823509800.2094061.9683997333958344535.stgit@dwillia2-desk3.amr.corp.intel.com>
 <CAHk-=wh6d59KAG_6t+NrCLBz-i0OUSJrqurric=m0ZG850Ddkw@mail.gmail.com>
 <CALCETrVP5k25yCfknEPJm=XX0or4o2b2mnzmevnVHGNLNOXJ2g@mail.gmail.com>
 <CAHk-=widQfxhWMUN3bGxM_zg3az0fRKYvFoP8bEhqsCtaEDVAA@mail.gmail.com>
 <CALCETrVq11YVqGZH7J6A=tkHB1AZUWXnKwAfPUQ-m9qXjWfZtg@mail.gmail.com> <20200430192258.GA24749@agluck-desk2.amr.corp.intel.com>
In-Reply-To: <20200430192258.GA24749@agluck-desk2.amr.corp.intel.com>
From:   Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Date:   Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:51:38 -0700
Message-ID: <CAPcyv4g8rA2TRvoFHqEjs5Xn74gdZx8uF0PXFYCjTcx56yA=Jw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] Replace and improve "mcsafe" with copy_safe()
To:     "Luck, Tony" <tony.luck@intel.com>
Cc:     Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
        stable <stable@vger.kernel.org>,
        "the arch/x86 maintainers" <x86@kernel.org>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>,
        Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>,
        Erwin Tsaur <erwin.tsaur@intel.com>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>,
        Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>,
        linux-nvdimm <linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
Precedence: bulk

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 12:23 PM Luck, Tony <tony.luck@intel.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 11:42:20AM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> > I suppose there could be a consistent naming like this:
> >
> > copy_from_user()
> > copy_to_user()
> >
> > copy_from_unchecked_kernel_address() [what probe_kernel_read() is]
> > copy_to_unchecked_kernel_address() [what probe_kernel_write() is]
> >
> > copy_from_fallible() [from a kernel address that can fail to a kernel
> > address that can't fail]
> > copy_to_fallible() [the opposite, but hopefully identical to memcpy() on x86]
> >
> > copy_from_fallible_to_user()
> > copy_from_user_to_fallible()
> >
> > These names are fairly verbose and could probably be improved.
>
> How about
>
>         try_copy_catch(void *dst, void *src, size_t count, int *fault)
>
> returns number of bytes not-copied (like copy_to_user etc).
>
> if return is not zero, "fault" tells you what type of fault
> cause the early stop (#PF, #MC).

I do like try_copy_catch() for the case when neither of the buffers
are __user (like in the pmem driver) and _copy_to_iter_fallible()
(plus all the helpers it implies) for the other cases.

copy_to_user_fallible
copy_fallible_to_page
copy_pipe_to_iter_fallible

...because the mmu-fault handling is an aspect of "_user" and fallible
implies other source fault reasons. It does leave a gap if an
architecture has a concept of a fallible write, but that seems like
something that will be handled asynchronously and not subject to this
interface.