Re: [PATCH 2/2] KVM: make guest mode entry to be rcu quiescent state

[Gleb Natapov <gleb@redhat.com>]

On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 10:13:17AM -0300, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> Hi Gleb,
> 
> Thats a neat idea.
> 
> On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 12:52:03PM +0300, Gleb Natapov wrote:
> > KVM does not hold any references to rcu protected data when it switches
> > CPU into a guest mode. In fact switching to a guest mode is very similar
> > to exiting to userspase from rcu point of view. In addition CPU may stay
> > in a guest mode for quite a long time (up to one time slice). Lets treat
> > guest mode as quiescent state, just like we do with user-mode execution.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Gleb Natapov <gleb@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  include/linux/kvm_host.h |    1 +
> >  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/include/linux/kvm_host.h b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
> > index 0bc3d37..a347bce 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/kvm_host.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
> > @@ -593,6 +593,7 @@ static inline void kvm_guest_enter(void)
> >  {
> >  	account_system_vtime(current);
> >  	current->flags |= PF_VCPU;
> > +	rcu_note_context_switch(smp_processor_id());
> >  }
> >  
> >  static inline void kvm_guest_exit(void)
> > -- 
> > 1.7.2.3
> 
> Please have it in x86's vcpu_enter_guest, then its more explicit
> (uncertain about the context of kvm_guest_enter call in other arches).
> 
I checked all of them and kvm_guest_enter() is always called with local
irq disabled. Paul confirmed that rcu_note_context_switch() can be
called in such context.

--
			Gleb.