From: Michael Roth <michael.roth@amd.com>
To: <qemu-devel@nongnu.org>
Cc: <kvm@vger.kernel.org>, <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
<berrange@redhat.com>, <armbru@redhat.com>,
<pankaj.gupta@amd.com>, <xiaoyao.li@intel.com>,
<chao.p.peng@linux.intel.com>, <david@kernel.org>,
<ashish.kalra@amd.com>, <ackerleytng@google.com>,
<lpieralisi@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v3 19/19] hostmem: Automatically select set guest-memfd=on for in-place conversion
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2026 08:41:43 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261007134323.1606088-20-michael.roth@amd.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261007134323.1606088-1-michael.roth@amd.com>
When in-place conversion is enabled, both the shared memory and private
memory must come from the same guest_memfd instance. Thus, the
memory-backend-memfd options must in turn correspond to a guest_memfd
instance, e.g. guest-memfd=on must be specified. Since there is no
use-case for enabling in-place conversion without setting
guest-memfd=on, just set it automatically if in-place conversion is
enabled (unless guest-memfd has been explicitly set to 'off', in which
case generate an informative error message).
Also update the 'guest-memfd' documentation to note this behavior.
Signed-off-by: Michael Roth <michael.roth@amd.com>
---
backends/hostmem-memfd.c | 13 ++++++++++++-
docs/system/guest-memfd.rst | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
qapi/qom.json | 5 +++--
3 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/backends/hostmem-memfd.c b/backends/hostmem-memfd.c
index d3b17232f0..11873b4e0e 100644
--- a/backends/hostmem-memfd.c
+++ b/backends/hostmem-memfd.c
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
#include "system/kvm.h"
#include <linux/kvm.h>
#include "qapi/qapi-visit-common.h"
+#include "hw/core/boards.h"
+#include "hw/core/qdev.h"
OBJECT_DECLARE_SIMPLE_TYPE(HostMemoryBackendMemfd, MEMORY_BACKEND_MEMFD)
@@ -45,6 +47,7 @@ memfd_backend_memory_alloc(HostMemoryBackend *backend, Error **errp)
{
HostMemoryBackendMemfd *m = MEMORY_BACKEND_MEMFD(backend);
g_autofree char *name = host_memory_backend_get_name(backend);
+ MachineState *machine = MACHINE(qdev_get_machine());
int fd = cpr_find_fd(name, 0);
uint32_t ram_flags;
@@ -57,7 +60,9 @@ memfd_backend_memory_alloc(HostMemoryBackend *backend, Error **errp)
goto have_fd;
}
- if (m->guest_memfd == ON_OFF_AUTO_ON) {
+ if (m->guest_memfd == ON_OFF_AUTO_ON ||
+ (m->guest_memfd == ON_OFF_AUTO_AUTO &&
+ machine_require_guest_memfd_convert_in_place(machine))) {
/*
* NOTE: guest-memfd ignores seal=on/off because it always
* implicitly seals the FD by definition.
@@ -72,6 +77,12 @@ memfd_backend_memory_alloc(HostMemoryBackend *backend, Error **errp)
fd = kvm_create_guest_memfd(backend->size, errp);
} else {
+ if (machine_require_guest_memfd_convert_in_place(machine)) {
+ error_setg(errp, "the current machine requires in-place conversion,"
+ " which is not compatible with setting"
+ " guest-memfd=off");
+ return false;
+ }
fd = qemu_memfd_create(TYPE_MEMORY_BACKEND_MEMFD, backend->size,
m->hugetlb, m->hugetlbsize, m->seal ?
F_SEAL_GROW | F_SEAL_SHRINK | F_SEAL_SEAL : 0,
diff --git a/docs/system/guest-memfd.rst b/docs/system/guest-memfd.rst
index d62a214a91..4477756424 100644
--- a/docs/system/guest-memfd.rst
+++ b/docs/system/guest-memfd.rst
@@ -53,6 +53,27 @@ exposed as an experimental for the time being:
* guest_memfd does not currently support the hugetlb=on option
* guest_memfd does not currently support Transparent Huge Pages
+In-place conversion
+-------------------
+
+Newer kernels now support using a guest-memfd instance for both
+private and shared memory at the same time by re-using the same
+physical backing pages if a guest converts a GPA range between
+shared and private. This is known as "in-place conversion".
+
+For some confidential computing architectures, like SEV-SNP and
+TDX, this mode offers better performance due to not needing to
+deallocate/reallocate between 2 separate pools of shared vs. private
+memory every time the guest converts memory between shared/private.
+For other architectures, this is the only supported mode of
+operation.
+
+When in-place conversion is enabled, it is necessary to use the
+memory-backend-memfd backend with guest-memfd=on as shown in the
+"Usage" section. Because of this, guest-memfd=auto (which is the
+default) will result in the parameter being automatically enabled
+if the confidential guest type enables in-place conversion.
+
References
----------
diff --git a/qapi/qom.json b/qapi/qom.json
index 84166c2457..5d66e67087 100644
--- a/qapi/qom.json
+++ b/qapi/qom.json
@@ -756,8 +756,9 @@
# @guest-memfd: if 'on', use guest-memfd to back the memory region.
# See the :doc:`/system/guest-memfd` documentation for more
# details. If 'auto', the option will default to 'off'
-# currently, but in the future it may result in the option being
-# set to 'on' for QEMU configurations that explicitly require it.
+# unless the QEMU configuration explicitly requires it to be set,
+# e.g. if in-place conversion is enabled for confidential guest
+# types like sev-snp-guest.
# (default: auto, since: 11.2)
#
# Features:
--
2.43.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-07 13:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-07 13:41 [PATCH v3 00/19] guest_memfd: support in-place memory conversion Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 01/19] accel/kvm: Add helper for handling conversions of MMIO holes Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 02/19] accel/kvm: Fix kvm_convert_memory() calls crossing memory regions Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 03/19] accel/kvm: Fix handling of MMIO holes at start of conversion ranges Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 04/19] accel/kvm: Fix handling of conversion ranges with multiple MMIO holes Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 05/19] accel/kvm: Use dedicated helper for creating private-only gmem instances Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 06/19] [NOT-FOR-MERGE] linux-headers: Update headers for v13 of in-place conversion kernel support Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 07/19] accel/kvm: Add CGS flag to control in-place conversion support Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 08/19] system/memory: Re-use memory-backend-guest-memfd inode for private memory Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 09/19] accel/kvm: Handle guest_memfd flags internally when creating instances Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 10/19] system/memory: Default to guest_memfd for RAM for in-place conversion Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 11/19] accel/kvm: Move post-conversion updates to a separate helper Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 12/19] accel/kvm: Re-order attribute notifications for in-place conversion Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 13/19] accel/kvm: Support shared/private conversions via guest_memfd ioctls Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 14/19] accel/kvm: Don't default to private attributes for in-place conversion Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 15/19] i386/sev: Update SNP_LAUNCH_UPDATE " Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 16/19] i386/sev: Update CPUID failure handling " Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 17/19] accel/kvm: Disable discard " Michael Roth
2026-10-07 13:41 ` [PATCH v3 18/19] i386/sev: Add sev-snp-guest parameter to enable " Michael Roth
2026-10-08 6:11 ` Markus Armbruster
2026-10-07 13:41 ` Michael Roth [this message]
2026-10-08 6:14 ` [PATCH v3 19/19] hostmem: Automatically select set guest-memfd=on for " Markus Armbruster
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