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* [uml-devel] [RFC] PATCH 0/4 - Time virtualization
@ 2006-04-13 17:19 ` Jeff Dike
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 28+ messages in thread
From: Jeff Dike @ 2006-04-13 17:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-kernel, user-mode-linux-devel

This set of patches implements 
	time virtualization by creating a time namespace
	an interface to it through unshare
	a ptrace extension to allow UML to take advantage of this
	UML support

The guts of the namespace is just an offset from the system time.  Within
the container, gettimeofday adds this offset to the system time.  settimeofday
changes the offset without touching the system time.  As such, within a 
namespace, settimeofday is unprivileged.

The interface to it is through unshare(CLONE_TIME).  This creates the new
namespace, initialized with a zero offset from the system time.

The advantage of this for UML is that it can create a time namespace for itself
and subsequently let its process' gettimeofday run on the host, without
being intercepted and run inside UML.  As such, it should basically run at
native speed.

In order to allow this, we need selective system call interception.  The
third patch implements PTRACE_SYSCALL_MASK, which specifies, through a 
bitmask, which system calls are intercepted and which aren't.

Finally, the UML support is straightforward.  It calls unshare(CLONE_TIME)
to create the new namespace, sets gettimeofday to run without being 
intercepted, and makes settimeofday call the host's settimeofday instead
of maintaining the time offset itself.

As expected, a gettimeofday loop runs basically at native speed.  The two
quick tests I did had it running inside UML at 98.8 and 99.2 % of native.

BUG - as I was writing this, I realized that refcounting of the time_ns
structures is wrong - they need to be incremented at process creation and
decremented at process exit.

				Jeff



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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 28+ messages in thread
* RE: [uml-devel] Re: [RFC] PATCH 0/4 - Time virtualization
@ 2006-04-14 15:39 Brock, Anthony - NET
  2006-04-14 15:33 ` Jeff Dike
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 28+ messages in thread
From: Brock, Anthony - NET @ 2006-04-14 15:39 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Jeff Dike; +Cc: user-mode-linux-devel

I'm assuming that this pulls "UTC" from the host and allows the guest to
have an offset "UTC" ... is this essentially correct?

Tony


> -----Original Message-----
> From: user-mode-linux-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net 
> [mailto:user-mode-linux-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net] On 
> Behalf Of Jeff Dike
> Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 6:53 PM
> To: john stultz
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; 
> user-mode-linux-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [uml-devel] Re: [RFC] PATCH 0/4 - Time virtualization
> 
> On Thu, Apr 13, 2006 at 05:31:27PM -0700, john stultz wrote:
> > Looks interesting. I've never quite understood the need for 
> different
> > time domains, it only allows you to run one domain with the 
> incorrect
> > time, but I'm sure there is some use case that is desired.
> 
> There are a few possible answers -
> 
> If when this virtualization stuff is done, no one has done 
> anything with
> time, someone is going to moan.
> 
> Once in a while, you want to fiddle your system clock to make 
> sure that
> a cron job or something does what it's supposed to.
> 
> There was some extra infrastructure that UML needed in order 
> to start using
> this stuff, so I chose a fairly simple virtualization case to 
> accompany it.
> 
> > I'm not psyched about possible namespace vs nanosecond confusion w/
> > terms like "time_ns", but that's pretty minor.
> 
> Yeah, names can be changed.
> 
> > Also I hope you're not wanting to deal w/ NTP adjustments between
> > domains that have the incorrect time? That would be very ugly.
> 
> No, the domain stores an offset from the system time, so it 
> automatically
> gets the system's NTP adjustments.
> 
> 				Jeff
> 
> 
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> 


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 28+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2006-04-28 20:19 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 28+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2006-04-13 17:19 [uml-devel] [RFC] PATCH 0/4 - Time virtualization Jeff Dike
2006-04-13 17:19 ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-14  0:31 ` [uml-devel] " john stultz
2006-04-14  0:31   ` john stultz
2006-04-14  1:53   ` [uml-devel] " Jeff Dike
2006-04-14  1:53     ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-14 16:24     ` john stultz
2006-04-14 16:24       ` john stultz
2006-04-19  8:25 ` Eric W. Biederman
2006-04-19  8:25   ` Eric W. Biederman
2006-04-26 18:01   ` [uml-devel] " Jeff Dike
2006-04-26 18:01     ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 11:33     ` [uml-devel] " Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 11:33       ` Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 11:48       ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 11:48         ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 12:14         ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 12:14           ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 13:54         ` Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 13:54           ` Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 15:15           ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 15:15             ` Jeff Dike
2006-04-28 20:10             ` Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 20:10               ` Blaisorblade
2006-04-28 16:18           ` Eric W. Biederman
2006-04-28 16:18             ` Eric W. Biederman
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2006-04-14 15:39 Brock, Anthony - NET
2006-04-14 15:33 ` Jeff Dike

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