From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Paul Durrant <paul@xen.org>, David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>,
Dongli Zhang <dongli.zhang@oracle.com>
Subject: [PATCH v8 06/17] KVM: x86: Drop unnecessary CPU pinning when computing/getting kvmclock
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2026 16:39:10 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260804233923.3504629-7-seanjc@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260804233923.3504629-1-seanjc@google.com>
When computing the current kvmclock value, don't pin the task to the
current CPU for the entire duration of the master clock path, as the
CPU pinning was never about ensuring rdtsc() and cpu_tsc_khz would
agree. As pointed out by David, ka->use_master_clock can only be true
when the host clocksource is TSC based, which in turn requires a stable,
constant and synchronised TSC across all CPUs.
The CPU pinning was added in commit e2c2206a1899 ("KVM: x86: Fix potential
preemption when get the current kvmclock timestamp") purely in response to
a CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT=y bug due. Despite what the comment would suggest,
including rdtsc() in the {get,put}_cpu() section was opportunistic. In
fact, Paolo even said exactly that when suggesting that KVM guarantee the
rdtsc() would execute on the same CPU[*].
: Also, rdtsc() should really be on the same CPU as __this_cpu_read. We
: know it's not really really necessary because the master clock is
: active, but since we need a get_cpu/put_cpu pair, better be clean.
Nothing has changed in the last ~9 years, i.e. the rdtsc() still *should*
be on the same CPU, but super strictly speaking, all will be fine if the
task is migrated between grabbing the frequency and doing rdtsc().
Dropping the CPU pinning will allow dropping the rdtsc() entirely without
having to resort to a large "rewrite get_kvmclock()" patch.
Opportunistically add a comment to explain why KVM needs to snapshot the
frequency, because that _is_ a hard requirement to avoid reintroducing the
bug fixed by commit e70b57a6ce4e ("KVM: X86: Fix softlockup when get the
current kvmclock")
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/ae8de642-8f14-a70a-1fab-57e2c4093cd5@redhat.com [*]
Suggested-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
---
arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 15 +++++++++------
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
index f60f4826db1a..0c0bf4c14bc5 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
@@ -1655,13 +1655,18 @@ static void __get_kvmclock(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_clock_data *data)
{
struct kvm_arch *ka = &kvm->arch;
struct pvclock_vcpu_time_info hv_clock;
+ u64 tsc_hz;
- /* both __this_cpu_read() and rdtsc() should be on the same cpu */
+ /*
+ * Snapshot and validate the TSC frequency as kvmclock_cpu_down_prep()
+ * zeros the per-CPU value when a CPU is going offline.
+ */
get_cpu();
+ tsc_hz = (u64)get_cpu_tsc_khz() * HZ_PER_KHZ;
+ put_cpu();
data->flags = 0;
- if (ka->use_master_clock &&
- (static_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_CONSTANT_TSC) || __this_cpu_read(cpu_tsc_khz))) {
+ if (ka->use_master_clock && tsc_hz) {
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_64
struct timespec64 ts;
@@ -1675,15 +1680,13 @@ static void __get_kvmclock(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_clock_data *data)
data->flags |= KVM_CLOCK_TSC_STABLE;
hv_clock.tsc_timestamp = ka->master_cycle_now;
hv_clock.system_time = ka->master_kernel_ns + ka->kvmclock_offset;
- kvm_get_time_scale(NSEC_PER_SEC, get_cpu_tsc_khz() * 1000LL,
+ kvm_get_time_scale(NSEC_PER_SEC, tsc_hz,
&hv_clock.tsc_shift,
&hv_clock.tsc_to_system_mul);
data->clock = __pvclock_read_cycles(&hv_clock, data->host_tsc);
} else {
data->clock = get_kvmclock_base_ns() + ka->kvmclock_offset;
}
-
- put_cpu();
}
static void get_kvmclock(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_clock_data *data)
--
2.55.0.571.g244d577d93-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-04 23:39 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 30+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-04 23:39 [PATCH v8 00/17] KVM: x86: Cleaning up the KVM clock mess, part 1 Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 01/17] KVM: x86: Update "last guest TSC" snapshot prior to enabling IRQs/preemption Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 02/17] KVM: x86: Improve accuracy of KVM clock when TSC scaling is in force Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 03/17] KVM: x86: Explicitly disable TSC scaling without CONSTANT_TSC Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 04/17] KVM: x86: Activate master clock immediately on vCPU creation Sean Christopherson
2026-08-05 0:06 ` sashiko-bot
2026-08-05 9:11 ` David Woodhouse
2026-08-05 15:02 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 05/17] KVM: x86: Avoid NTP frequency skew for KVM clock on 32-bit host Sean Christopherson
2026-08-05 0:02 ` sashiko-bot
2026-08-05 18:21 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-07 0:27 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` Sean Christopherson [this message]
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 07/17] KVM: x86: Move "no master clock" fallback from __get_kvmclock() to get_kvmclock() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:52 ` sashiko-bot
2026-08-05 15:17 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 08/17] KVM: x86: Wrap all of __get_kvmclock_master_clock() with CONFIG_X86_64=y Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 09/17] KVM: x86: Fall back to non-master-clock if clockread fails in get_kvmclock() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 10/17] KVM: x86: Fix KVM clock precision in get_kvmclock() with TSC scaling Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 11/17] KVM: x86: Use get_kvmclock() in kvm_get_wall_clock_epoch() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 12/17] KVM: x86: Fix compute_guest_tsc() to handle negative time deltas Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 13/17] KVM: x86: Disable preemption, not IRQs, when getting TSC+freq pair Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:56 ` sashiko-bot
2026-08-05 15:16 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-05 15:55 ` David Woodhouse
2026-08-05 16:22 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 14/17] KVM: x86: Make master clock logic in guest PV clock updates 64-bit only Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 15/17] KVM: x86: Upscale TSC to "now", not master clock when updating PV clocks Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 16/17] KVM: x86: Simplify and comment kvm_get_time_scale() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-04 23:39 ` [PATCH v8 17/17] KVM: x86: Remove implicit rdtsc() from kvm_compute_l1_tsc_offset() Sean Christopherson
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