Re: [PATCH 0/4] KVM: API to block and resume all running vcpus in a vm

Christian Borntraeger
2022-10-24T07:57:28Z

Am 22.10.22 um 17:48 schrieb Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito:
> This new API allows the userspace to stop all running
> vcpus using KVM_KICK_ALL_RUNNING_VCPUS ioctl, and resume them with
> KVM_RESUME_ALL_KICKED_VCPUS.
> A "running" vcpu is a vcpu that is executing the KVM_RUN ioctl.
>
> This serie is especially helpful to userspace hypervisors like
> QEMU when they need to perform operations on memslots without the
> risk of having a vcpu reading them in the meanwhile.
> With "memslots operations" we mean grow, shrink, merge and split
> memslots, which are not "atomic" because there is a time window
> between the DELETE memslot operation and the CREATE one.
> Currently, each memslot operation is performed with one or more
> ioctls.
> For example, merging two memslots into one would imply:
> DELETE(m1)
> DELETE(m2)
> CREATE(m1+m2)
>
> And a vcpu could attempt to read m2 right after it is deleted, but
> before the new one is created.
>
> Therefore the simplest solution is to pause all vcpus in the kvm
> side, so that:
> - userspace just needs to call the new API before making memslots
> changes, keeping modifications to the minimum
> - dirty page updates are also performed when vcpus are blocked, so
> there is no time window between the dirty page ioctl and memslots
> modifications, since vcpus are all stopped.
> - no need to modify the existing memslots API
Isnt QEMU able to achieve the same goal today by forcing all vCPUs
into userspace with a signal? Can you provide some rationale why this
is better in the cover letter or patch description?