Re: [patch 1/2] HV: allow HVM virtual PICs to have their interrupt vector reprogrammed

[Keir Fraser <keir@xensource.com>]

On 22/5/07 16:42, "Stephen C. Tweedie" <sct@redhat.com> wrote:

>> So the fix here is to first of all extend the virtual PIC provided by
>> the hypervisor, supporting a new 2-byte control sequence which lets the
>> guests change the interrupt vectors _without_ fully reinitialising the
>> PIC
> 
> And this is the patch for that.  The new control sequence is:

Yeees. I have no problem with this hack in principle (in fact we definitely
want to take it), but this implementation is not good. The
custom_revector_flag cannot be a static variable: it needs to be per-domain!

Would it be possible to hack this PIC transition code into
vmx_world_{save,restore}? This would restrict the changes to code that will
obviously be killed off when vmxassist is removed, and might perhaps be
simpler and faster than making the changes via specialised pokes of the PIC
device from vmxassist itself?

If not, at least the patch to Xen itself needs to be fixed for correctness
and code style, and preferably enclosed in ifdef or given a big comment so
that it's clear that the hack's lifetime is limited to vmxassist's lifetime.

 Thanks,
 Keir