Re: [PATCH -v2] Monitor command: pfa2hva, translate guest physical address to host virtual address

[Huang Ying <ying.huang@intel.com>]

On Thu, 2010-11-11 at 00:49 +0800, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> On 11/10/2010 02:34 AM, Avi Kivity wrote:
> >> Why the gpa ->  hva mapping is not
> >> consistent for RAM if -mempath is not used?
> >
> > Video RAM in the range a0000-bffff and PCI mapped RAM can change gpas 
> > (while remaining in the same hva).
> >
> > Even for ordinary RAM, which doesn't normally change gpa/hva, I'm not 
> > sure we want to guarantee that it won't.
> 
> We can't universally either.  Memory hot remove potentially breaks the 
> mapping and some non-x86 architectures (like ARM) can alias RAM via a 
> guest triggered mechanism.

Thanks for clarification. Now I think we have two options.

1) Clearly mark gpa2hva (pfa2hva now, should renamed to gpa2hva) as a
testing only interface, and should be used only on restricted
environment (normal memory, without hot-remove, maybe only on x86).

2) Find some way to lock the gpa -> hva mapping during operating. Such
as gpa2hva_begin and gpa2hva_end and lock the mapping in between.

I think 2) may be possible. But if there are no other users, why do that
for a test case? So I think 1) may be the better option.

Best Regards,
Huang Ying