[PATCH][RFC] pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[PATCH][RFC] pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Avi Kivity]

[resend due to bad alias expansion resulting in some recipients
 being bogus]

Some hardware and software systems maintain page tables outside the normal
Linux page tables, which reference userspace memory.  This includes
Infiniband, other RDMA-capable devices, and kvm (with a pending patch).

Because these systems maintain external page tables (and external tlbs),
Linux cannot demand page this memory and it must be locked.  For kvm at
least, this is a significant reduction in functionality.

This sample patch adds a new mechanism, pte notifiers, that allows drivers
to register an interest in a changes to ptes. Whenever Linux changes a
pte, it will call a notifier to allow the driver to adjust the external
page table and flush its tlb.

Note that only one notifier is implemented, ->clear(), but others should be
similar.

pte notifiers are different from paravirt_ops: they extend the normal
page tables rather than replace them; and they provide high-level information
such as the vma and the virtual address for the driver to use.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi-atKUWr5tajBWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org>

diff --git a/include/linux/mm.h b/include/linux/mm.h
index 655094d..5d2bbee 100644
--- a/include/linux/mm.h
+++ b/include/linux/mm.h
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #include <linux/debug_locks.h>
 #include <linux/backing-dev.h>
 #include <linux/mm_types.h>
+#include <linux/pte_notifier.h>
 
 struct mempolicy;
 struct anon_vma;
@@ -108,6 +109,9 @@ struct vm_area_struct {
 #ifndef CONFIG_MMU
 	atomic_t vm_usage;		/* refcount (VMAs shared if !MMU) */
 #endif
+#ifdef CONFIG_PTE_NOTIFIERS
+	struct list_head pte_notifier_list;
+#endif
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
 	struct mempolicy *vm_policy;	/* NUMA policy for the VMA */
 #endif
diff --git a/include/linux/pte_notifier.h b/include/linux/pte_notifier.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d28832b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/pte_notifier.h
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#ifndef _LINUX_PTE_NOTIFIER_H
+#define _LINUX_PTE_NOTIFIER_H
+
+#include <linux/list.h>
+
+struct vm_area_struct;
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_PTE_NOTIFIERS
+
+struct pte_notifier;
+
+struct pte_notifier_ops {
+	void (*close)(struct pte_notifier *pn, struct vm_area_struct *vma);
+	void (*clear)(struct pte_notifier *pn, struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+		      unsigned long address);
+};
+
+struct pte_notifier {
+	struct list_head link;
+	const struct pte_notifier_ops *ops;
+};
+
+
+void vma_init_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma);
+void vma_close_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma);
+void pte_notifier_register(struct pte_notifier *pn,
+			   struct vm_area_struct *vma);
+void pte_notifier_unregister(struct pte_notifier *pn);
+
+#define pte_notifier_call(vma, function, args...)			\
+	do {								\
+		struct pte_notifier *__pn;				\
+									\
+		list_for_each_entry(__pn, &vma->pte_notifier_list, link) \
+			__pn->ops->function(__pn, vma, args);		\
+	} while (0)
+
+#else
+
+static inline void vma_init_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma) {}
+static inline void vma_close_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma) {}
+static inline void pte_notifier_register(struct pte_notifier *pn,
+					 struct vm_area_struct *vma) {}
+static inline void pte_notifier_unregister(struct pte_notifier *pn) {}
+
+#define pte_notifier_call(vma, function, args...) \
+	do { } while (0)
+
+#endif
+
+
+#endif
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index e24d348..7b10151 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -176,3 +176,6 @@ config NR_QUICK
 config VIRT_TO_BUS
 	def_bool y
 	depends on !ARCH_NO_VIRT_TO_BUS
+
+config PTE_NOTIFIERS
+       bool
diff --git a/mm/Makefile b/mm/Makefile
index 245e33a..59f6a03 100644
--- a/mm/Makefile
+++ b/mm/Makefile
@@ -29,4 +29,5 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_FS_XIP) += filemap_xip.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_MIGRATION) += migrate.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_SMP) += allocpercpu.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_QUICKLIST) += quicklist.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_PTE_NOTIFIERS) += pte_notifiers.o
 
diff --git a/mm/mmap.c b/mm/mmap.c
index b653721..cc6c4fe 100644
--- a/mm/mmap.c
+++ b/mm/mmap.c
@@ -1134,6 +1134,7 @@ munmap_back:
 	vma->vm_page_prot = protection_map[vm_flags &
 				(VM_READ|VM_WRITE|VM_EXEC|VM_SHARED)];
 	vma->vm_pgoff = pgoff;
+	vma_init_pte_notifiers(vma);
 
 	if (file) {
 		error = -EINVAL;
diff --git a/mm/pte_notifier.c b/mm/pte_notifier.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b9076c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mm/pte_notifier.c
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+
+#include <linux/pte_notifier.h>
+
+void vma_init_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&vma->pte_notifier_list);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vma_init_pte_notifiers);
+
+void vma_destroy_pte_notifiers(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+	struct pte_notifier *pn;
+	struct list_head *n;
+
+	list_for_each_entry_safe(pn, n, &vma->pte_notifier_list, link) {
+		pn->ops->close(__pn, vma);
+		__list_del(n);
+	}
+}
+
+void pte_notifier_register(struct pte_notifier *pn, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+	list_add(&pn->link, &vma->pte_notifier_list);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(pte_notifier_register);
+
+void pte_notifier_unregister(struct pte_notifier *pn)
+{
+	list_del(&pn->link);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(pte_notifier_unregister);
+
diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index 41ac397..3f61d38 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -682,6 +682,7 @@ static int try_to_unmap_one(struct page *page, struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	}
 
 	/* Nuke the page table entry. */
+	pte_notifier_call(vma, clear, address);
 	flush_cache_page(vma, address, page_to_pfn(page));
 	pteval = ptep_clear_flush(vma, address, pte);
 

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[ofa-general] Re: [PATCH][RFC]: pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Avi Kivity]

Rik van Riel wrote:
>>
>> I imagine that many of the paravirt_ops mmu hooks will need to be 
>> exposed as pte notifiers.  This can't be done as part of the 
>> paravirt_ops code due to the need to pass high level data structures, 
>> though.
>
> Wait, I thought that paravirt_ops was all on the side of the
> guest kernel, where these host kernel operations are invisible?
>

It is, but the hooks are in much the same places.  It could be argued 
that you'd embed pte notifiers in paravirt_ops for a host kernel, but 
that's not doable because pte notifiers use higher-level data strutures 
(like vmas).

-- 
Any sufficiently difficult bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

Re: [PATCH][RFC] pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Avi Kivity]

Rusty Russell wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 22:32 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
>   
>> [resend due to bad alias expansion resulting in some recipients
>>  being bogus]
>>
>> Some hardware and software systems maintain page tables outside the normal
>> Linux page tables, which reference userspace memory.  This includes
>> Infiniband, other RDMA-capable devices, and kvm (with a pending patch).
>>     
>
> And lguest.  I can't tell until I've actually implemented it, but I
> think it will seriously reduce the need for page pinning which is why
> only root can currently launch guests.
>
>   

Ah yes, lguest.

> My concern is locking: this is called with the page lock held, and I
> guess we have to bump the guest out if it's currently running.
>   

This will complicate kvm's locking too.  We usually take kvm->lock to do 
mmu ops, but that is now a mutex.


-- 
Any sufficiently difficult bug is indistinguishable from a feature.


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[ofa-general] Re: [PATCH][RFC]: pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Avi Kivity]

[resend due to broken cc list in my original post]

Jack Steiner wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 07:38:48PM +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
>   
>> Some hardware and software systems maintain page tables outside the normal
>> Linux page tables, which reference userspace memory.  This includes
>> Infiniband, other RDMA-capable devices, and kvm (with a pending patch).
>>
>>     
>
> I like it. 
>
> We have 2 special devices with external TLBs that can
> take advantage of this.
>
> One suggestion - at least for what we need. Can the notifier be
> registered against the mm_struct instead of (or in addition to) the
> vma?
>   

Yes.  It's a lot simpler since this way we don't have to support vma
creation/splitting/merging/destruction.  There's a tiny performance hit
for kvm, but it isn't worth the bother.

Will implement for v2 of this patch.

-- 
Any sufficiently difficult bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

Re: [PATCH][RFC] pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Shaohua Li]

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 22:32 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
> [resend due to bad alias expansion resulting in some recipients
>  being bogus]
> 
> Some hardware and software systems maintain page tables outside the normal
> Linux page tables, which reference userspace memory.  This includes
> Infiniband, other RDMA-capable devices, and kvm (with a pending patch).
> 
> Because these systems maintain external page tables (and external tlbs),
> Linux cannot demand page this memory and it must be locked.  For kvm at
> least, this is a significant reduction in functionality.
> 
> This sample patch adds a new mechanism, pte notifiers, that allows drivers
> to register an interest in a changes to ptes. Whenever Linux changes a
> pte, it will call a notifier to allow the driver to adjust the external
> page table and flush its tlb.
> 
> Note that only one notifier is implemented, ->clear(), but others should be
> similar.
> 
> pte notifiers are different from paravirt_ops: they extend the normal
> page tables rather than replace them; and they provide high-level
> information
> such as the vma and the virtual address for the driver to use.
Looks great. So for kvm, all guest pages will be vma mapped?
There are lock issues in kvm between kvm lock and page lock. 
Will shadow page table be still stored in page->private? If yes, the
page->private must be cleaned before add_to_swap.

Thanks,
Shaohua

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Re: [PATCH][RFC]: pte notifiers -- support for external page tables

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge]

Avi Kivity wrote:
> It is, but the hooks are in much the same places.  It could be argued
> that you'd embed pte notifiers in paravirt_ops for a host kernel, but
> that's not doable because pte notifiers use higher-level data
> strutures (like vmas).

Also, I wouldn't like to preclude the possibility of having a kernel
that's both a guest and a host (ie, nested vmms).

    J

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