Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753122Ab2E2GwY (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 May 2012 02:52:24 -0400 Received: from e23smtp05.au.ibm.com ([202.81.31.147]:40275 "EHLO e23smtp05.au.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752706Ab2E2GwW (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 May 2012 02:52:22 -0400 Message-ID: <4FC47219.7050506@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 14:52:09 +0800 From: Xiao Guangrong User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120430 Thunderbird/12.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Xiao Guangrong CC: Avi Kivity , Marcelo Tosatti , LKML , KVM Subject: [PATCH v6 9/9] KVM: MMU: document mmu-lock and fast page fault References: <4FC470C7.5040700@linux.vnet.ibm.com> In-Reply-To: <4FC470C7.5040700@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit x-cbid: 12052820-1396-0000-0000-0000014FC786 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 5714 Lines: 164 Document fast page fault and mmu-lock in locking.txt Signed-off-by: Xiao Guangrong --- Documentation/virtual/kvm/locking.txt | 134 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 files changed, 133 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/locking.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/locking.txt index 3b4cd3b..42ba311 100644 --- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/locking.txt +++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/locking.txt @@ -6,7 +6,133 @@ KVM Lock Overview (to be written) -2. Reference +2: Exception +------------ + +Fast page fault: + +Fast page fault is the fast path which fixes the guest page fault out of +the mmu-lock on x86. Currently, the page fault can be fast only if the +shadow page table is present and it is caused by write-protect, that means +we just need change the W bit of the spte. + +What we use to avoid all the race is the SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE bit and +SPTE_MMU_WRITEABLE bit on the spte: +- SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE means the gfn is writable on host. +- SPTE_MMU_WRITEABLE means the gfn is writable on mmu. The bit is set when + the gfn is writable on guest mmu and it is not write-protected by shadow + page write-protection. + +On fast page fault path, we will use cmpxchg to atomically set the spte W +bit if spte.SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE = 1 and spte.SPTE_WRITE_PROTECT = 1, this +is safe because whenever changing these bits can be detected by cmpxchg. + +But we need carefully check these cases: +1): The mapping from gfn to pfn +The mapping from gfn to pfn may be changed since we can only ensure the pfn +is not changed during cmpxchg. This is a ABA problem, for example, below case +will happen: + +At the beginning: +gpte = gfn1 +gfn1 is mapped to pfn1 on host +spte is the shadow page table entry corresponding with gpte and +spte = pfn1 + + VCPU 0 VCPU0 +on fast page fault path: + + old_spte = *spte; + pfn1 is swapped out: + spte = 0; + + pfn1 is re-alloced for gfn2. + + gpte is changed to point to + gfn2 by the guest: + spte = pfn1; + + if (cmpxchg(spte, old_spte, old_spte+W) + mark_page_dirty(vcpu->kvm, gfn1) + OOPS!!! + +We dirty-log for gfn1, that means gfn2 is lost in dirty-bitmap. + +For direct sp, we can easily avoid it since the spte of direct sp is fixed +to gfn. For indirect sp, before we do cmpxchg, we call gfn_to_pfn_atomic() +to pin gfn to pfn, because after gfn_to_pfn_atomic(): +- We have held the refcount of pfn that means the pfn can not be freed and + be reused for another gfn. +- The pfn is writable that means it can not be shared between different gfns + by KSM. + +Then, we can ensure the dirty bitmaps is correctly set for a gfn. + +Currently, to simplify the whole things, we disable fast page fault for +indirect shadow page. + +2): Dirty bit tracking +In the origin code, the spte can be fast updated (non-atomically) if the +spte is read-only and the Accessed bit has already been set since the +Accessed bit and Dirty bit can not be lost. + +But it is not true after fast page fault since the spte can be marked +writable between reading spte and updating spte. Like below case: + +At the beginning: +spte.W = 0 +spte.Accessed = 1 + + VCPU 0 VCPU0 +In mmu_spte_clear_track_bits(): + + old_spte = *spte; + + /* 'if' condition is satisfied. */ + if (old_spte.Accssed == 1 && + old_spte.W == 0) + spte = 0ull; + on fast page fault path: + spte.W = 1 + memory write on the spte: + spte.Dirty = 1 + + + else + old_spte = xchg(spte, 0ull) + + + if (old_spte.Accssed == 1) + kvm_set_pfn_accessed(spte.pfn); + if (old_spte.Dirty == 1) + kvm_set_pfn_dirty(spte.pfn); + OOPS!!! + +The Dirty bit is lost in this case. + +In order to avoid this kind of issue, we always treat the spte is "writable" +if it can be updated out of mmu-lock, see and spte_can_be_writable() and +spte_has_volatile_bits(). + +3): flush tlbs due to spte updated +If the spte is updated from writable to readonly, we should flush all TLBs, +otherwise rmap_write_protect will find a read-only spte, even though the +writable spte might be cached on a CPU's TLB. + +As mentioned before, the spte can be updated to writable out of mmu-lock on +fast page fault path, in order to easily audit the path, we see if TLBs need +be flushed caused by this reason in mmu_spte_update() since this is a common +function to update spte (present -> present). + +See mmu_spte_update(): + +| if (spte_can_be_writable(old_spte) && !is_writable_pte(new_spte)) +| ret = true; + +Whenever we change a spte which is writable or can be updated out of mmu-lock +to readonly, we will flush the tlb anyway. + +3. Reference ------------ Name: kvm_lock @@ -23,3 +149,9 @@ Arch: x86 Protects: - kvm_arch::{last_tsc_write,last_tsc_nsec,last_tsc_offset} - tsc offset in vmcb Comment: 'raw' because updating the tsc offsets must not be preempted. + +Name: kvm->mmu_lock +Type: spinlock_t +Arch: any +Protects: -shadow page/shadow tlb entry +Comment: it is a spinlock since it is used in mmu notifier. -- 1.7.7.6 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/