Re: [PATCH 1/2] ARM: hyp-stub: improve ABI

Russell King - ARM Linux
2017-01-09T14:09:30Z

On Mon, Jan 09, 2017 at 02:05:00PM +0000, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
> So, although Marc produced a patch which updates the KVM hypervisor for
> the GET_VECTORS change, through reading the code today, it's become clear
> that much more is needed, so I'm yet again banging on about documentation.
> It's only become clear to me today that the KVM stub calling convention
> for the host kernel is:
>
> entry:
> r0 = function pointer
> r1 = 32-bit function argument 0
> r2 = 32-bit function argument 1
> r3 = 32-bit function argument 2
> no further arguments are supported
> --- or ---
> r0 = -1 (or 0 post Marc's patch) for get_vectors
> exit:
> r0 = vectors (if get_vectors call was made)
> otherwise, who knows...
>
> I specify "32-bit" there because they're shifted by one register, which,
> if a 64-bit argument is passed with EABI, the arguments will no longer be
> appropriately aligned... so it's an important detail to be aware of with
> the current KVM hypervisor interface.
>
> What I want to do here is to fix this kexec issue completely, not in a
> piecemeal fashion - I'm not interested in fixing one small problem, then
> coming back to it in a few months time to fix another problem. That's a
> waste of time (well, unless you're into job creation.) I've always been
> for "if you're going to do the job, damn well do the job properly". So
> I'm not going to accept anything short of fixing _both_ kexec and kdump
> together.
>
> So, given that the hyp-stub has this ABI after my patches:
>
> entry:
> r0 = argument (0 = get vectors, 1 = set vectors, 2 = call function)
> r1 = vectors for r0 = 1
> r3 = function pointer (with bit 0 already set for thumb functions)
> for r0 = 2
> exit:
> r0 = -1 for invalid calls
> r0 = current vectors address (for r0 = 0 on entry)
> is not expected to return for r0 = 2 on entry
> otherwise registers preserved preserved
>
> which is clearly incompatible with the current KVM stub, can we come up
> with a common ABI that is satisfactory to both.
>
> The above are probably the very first time anyone has written out the
> ABI of these things, and as can be seen, it's still something of a mess.

For completeness, this is the existing hyp-stub ABI:

entry:
r0 = -1 => get_vectors
r0 != -1 => set_vectors (to the value in r0)
exit:
r0 = current vector address

And that's it.

--
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