Re: RFC: userspace exception fixups

[Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@linux.intel.com>]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 12:11:33PM +0200, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 09:00:08AM -0800, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> > On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 8:02 AM Jarkko Sakkinen
> > <jarkko.sakkinen@linux.intel.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 07:29:36AM -0800, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> > > > 1. The kernel needs some way to know *when* to apply this fixup.
> > > > Decoding the instruction stream and doing it to all exceptions that
> > > > hit an ENCLU instruction seems like a poor design.
> > >
> > > I'm not sure why you would ever need to do any type of fixup as the idea
> > > is to just return to AEP i.e. from chosen exceptions (EPCM, #UD) the AEP
> > > would work the same way as for exceptions that the kernel can deal with
> > > except filling the exception information to registers.
> > 
> > Sure, but how does the kernel know when to do that and when to send a
> > signal?  I don't really like decoding the instruction stream to figure
> > it out.
> 
> Hmm... why you have to decode instruction stream to find that out? Would
> just depend on exception type (#GP with EPCM, #UD). Or are you saying
> that kernel should need to SIGSEGV if there is in fact ENCLU so that
> there is no infinite trap loop? Sorry, I'm a bit lost here that where
> does this decoding requirement comes from in the first place. I
> understand how it is used in Sean's proposal...
> 
> Anyway, this option can be probably discarded without further
> consideration because apparently single stepping can cause #DB SS fault
> if AEP handler is anything else than a single instruction.
> 
> For me it seems that by ruling out options, vDSO option is what is
> left. I don't like it but at least it works...

The section relevant in the SDM is 43.2.6 but I started to think that
why in dumbed down return-to-AEP that would even be a problem? If you
are single step debugging isn't that what you want? Continue single
stepping in the AEP handler...

I still don't understand the part where the need for decoding
instruction stream comes in this dumbed down approach. There's
not RIP manipulation or anything involved at all.

With this reconsideration I would keep this as one option at least.

/Jarkko