Re: MULTI_mmu_update, HYPERVISOR_mmu_update and pte entry

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org>]

On 05/12/2011 03:41 PM, chrisbenninger wrote:
> Hi, I am working on being able to determine which process owns a PTE
> being changed during each MMU update in 64-bit paravirtualized mode. I
> have a couple questions here.
>
> 1. When a linux DomU wants to make an update to a PTE, it calls
> HYPERVISOR_mmu_update? In my case it appears to be calling
> MULTI_mmu_update mostly. Are these two functions the only primary ways
> a VM will ask for an MMU update?

There's also update_va_mapping and direct writes to the pte which are
trapped and emulated.  However, I've got patches to drop the use of
update_va_mapping in pvops Linux, at least.

> 2. The mmu_update struct that comes along with a MMU update has a
> /unint64_t ptr/  which is a machine address to the PTE being changed.
> Is there any way to use this machine address and determine the pte_t
> or page from within a DomU?

>From within domU?  You could convert it back into a pseudo-phys address
and get the pfn, but its hard to connect a random pte page to a virtual
address or even connect it to an address space.

What are you trying to achieve?  Most usermode pte updates will be to
the current process.

    J