summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/virtual
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorKen Hofsass <hofsass@google.com>2018-02-01 01:03:36 +0100
committerRadim Krčmář <rkrcmar@redhat.com>2018-03-06 18:40:43 +0100
commit01643c51bfcf2460b530854046f62ce1b29713ab (patch)
treee7cb32f011945beac52d9bb3c373b57c41a52b6f /Documentation/virtual
parentKVM: x86: add SYNC_REGS_SIZE_BYTES #define. (diff)
downloadlinux-01643c51bfcf2460b530854046f62ce1b29713ab.tar.xz
linux-01643c51bfcf2460b530854046f62ce1b29713ab.zip
KVM: x86: KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS
This commit implements an enhanced x86 version of S390 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS functionality. KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS "allow[s] userspace to access certain guest registers without having to call SET/GET_*REGS”. This reduces ioctl overhead which is particularly important when userspace is making synchronous guest state modifications (e.g. when emulating and/or intercepting instructions). Originally implemented upstream for the S390, the x86 differences follow: - userspace can select the register sets to be synchronized with kvm_run using bit-flags in the kvm_valid_registers and kvm_dirty_registers fields. - vcpu_events is available in addition to the regs and sregs register sets. Signed-off-by: Ken Hofsass <hofsass@google.com> Reviewed-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> [Removed wrapper around check for reserved kvm_valid_regs. - Radim] Signed-off-by: Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/virtual')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt40
1 files changed, 40 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
index 55867a2a460c..98de5061307d 100644
--- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
@@ -4110,6 +4110,46 @@ Once this is done the KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_* and KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_* registers can be
accessed, and the Config5.MSAEn bit is accessible via the KVM API and also from
the guest.
+6.74 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS
+Architectures: s390, x86
+Target: s390: always enabled, x86: vcpu
+Parameters: none
+Returns: x86: KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns a bit-array indicating which register
+sets are supported (bitfields defined in arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm.h).
+
+As described above in the kvm_sync_regs struct info in section 5 (kvm_run):
+KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS "allow[s] userspace to access certain guest registers
+without having to call SET/GET_*REGS". This reduces overhead by eliminating
+repeated ioctl calls for setting and/or getting register values. This is
+particularly important when userspace is making synchronous guest state
+modifications, e.g. when emulating and/or intercepting instructions in
+userspace.
+
+For s390 specifics, please refer to the source code.
+
+For x86:
+- the register sets to be copied out to kvm_run are selectable
+ by userspace (rather that all sets being copied out for every exit).
+- vcpu_events are available in addition to regs and sregs.
+
+For x86, the 'kvm_valid_regs' field of struct kvm_run is overloaded to
+function as an input bit-array field set by userspace to indicate the
+specific register sets to be copied out on the next exit.
+
+To indicate when userspace has modified values that should be copied into
+the vCPU, the all architecture bitarray field, 'kvm_dirty_regs' must be set.
+This is done using the same bitflags as for the 'kvm_valid_regs' field.
+If the dirty bit is not set, then the register set values will not be copied
+into the vCPU even if they've been modified.
+
+Unused bitfields in the bitarrays must be set to zero.
+
+struct kvm_sync_regs {
+ struct kvm_regs regs;
+ struct kvm_sregs sregs;
+ struct kvm_vcpu_events events;
+};
+
7. Capabilities that can be enabled on VMs
------------------------------------------