Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] KVM: MMIO: Lock coalesced device when checking for available entry

Sasha Levin
2011-07-18T12:58:50Z

On Mon, 2011-07-18 at 15:29 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
> On 07/18/2011 03:03 PM, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > On Mon, 2011-07-18 at 14:43 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > > On 07/18/2011 01:15 PM, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 2011-07-18 at 12:50 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > > > > On 07/18/2011 12:29 PM, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > > > > > > Hmm. This means we take the lock for every I/O, whether it hits
> > > > > > > coalesced mmio or not.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > We need to do the range check before taking the lock and the space check
> > > > > > > after taking the lock.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I'll fix that.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Shouldn't the range check be also locked somehow? Currently it is
> > > > > > possible that a coalesced region was removed while we are checking the
> > > > > > ranges, and we won't issue a mmio exit as the host expects
> > > > >
> > > > > It's "locked" using rcu.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Where is that happening?
> > > >
> > > > All the coalesced zones are stored under the coalesced "device" in a
> > > > simple array. When adding and removing zones, kvm->slots_lock is taken -
> > > > I don't see anything which prevents a range check during zone removal
> > > > unless slots_lock prevents IO.
> > >
> > > Range check during slot removal is legal. While you are removing a
> > > slot, a concurrent write may hit or miss the slot; it doesn't matter.
> > >
> > > Userspace should flush the coalesced mmio buffer after removal to ensure
> > > there are no pending writes.
> > >
> >
> > But the write may hit a non-existent slot.
> >
> > Something like this:
> >
> > Thread 1 Thread 2
> > ----------------------------------
> > Check range |
> > Found slot |
> > | Remove slot
> > | Flush buffer
> > Get spinlock |
> > Write to buffer |
> >
>
> Cannot happen, due to rcu. The "remove slot" step waits until all rcu
> readers are gone.
>
> In other words: it's magic.
>

I might be missing something, but I don't see anything rcu related in
anything within /virt/kvm/coalesced_mmio.c or in
kvm_vm_ioctl_unregister_coalesced_mmio() specifically.

Where is rcu invoked on the zones array?

All I see is a simple array and counter declared as such:

int nb_zones;
struct kvm_coalesced_mmio_zone zone[KVM_COALESCED_MMIO_ZONE_MAX];

And in the register/unregister functions it's a simple array manipulation.

--

Sasha.