Re: [PATCH 12/14] iommufd: Add APIs to preserve/unpreserve a vfio cdev

Samiullah Khawaja
2026-03-26T00:16:31Z

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 09:23:13PM +0000, Pranjal Shrivastava wrote:
>On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 08:41:46PM +0000, Samiullah Khawaja wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 08:24:24PM +0000, Pranjal Shrivastava wrote:
>> > On Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 10:09:46PM +0000, Samiullah Khawaja wrote:
>> > > Add APIs that can be used to preserve and unpreserve a vfio cdev. Use
>> > > the APIs exported by the IOMMU core to preserve/unpreserve device. Pass
>> > > the LUO preservation token of the attached iommufd into IOMMU preserve
>> > > device API. This establishes the ownership of the device with the
>> > > preserved iommufd.
>> > >
>> > > Signed-off-by: Samiullah Khawaja <skhawaja@google.com>
>> > > ---
>> > > drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c | 69 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>> > > include/linux/iommufd.h | 23 ++++++++++++
>> > > 2 files changed, 92 insertions(+)
>> > >
>> > > diff --git a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c
>> > > index 4c842368289f..30cb5218093b 100644
>> > > --- a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c
>> > > +++ b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c
>> > > @@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
>> > > /* Copyright (c) 2021-2022, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES
>> > > */
>> > > #include <linux/iommu.h>
>> > > +#include <linux/iommu-lu.h>
>> > > #include <linux/iommufd.h>
>> > > #include <linux/pci-ats.h>
>> > > #include <linux/slab.h>
>> > > @@ -1661,3 +1662,71 @@ int iommufd_get_hw_info(struct iommufd_ucmd *ucmd)
>> > > iommufd_put_object(ucmd->ictx, &idev->obj);
>> > > return rc;
>> > > }
>> > > +
>> > > +#ifdef CONFIG_IOMMU_LIVEUPDATE
>> > > +int iommufd_device_preserve(struct liveupdate_session *s,
>> > > + struct iommufd_device *idev,
>> > > + u64 *tokenp)
>> > > +{
>> > > + struct iommufd_group *igroup = idev->igroup;
>> > > + struct iommufd_hwpt_paging *hwpt_paging;
>> > > + struct iommufd_hw_pagetable *hwpt;
>> > > + struct iommufd_attach *attach;
>> > > + int ret;
>> > > +
>> > > + mutex_lock(&igroup->lock);
>> > > + attach = xa_load(&igroup->pasid_attach, IOMMU_NO_PASID);
>> >
>> > By explicitly looking up IOMMU_NO_PASID, we skip any PASID attachments
>> > the device might have. Since PASID live update is NOT supported in this
>> > series, should we check if the pasid_attach xarray contains anything
>> > other than IOMMU_NO_PASID and return -EOPNOTSUPP?
>> >
>> > Otherwise, we silently fail to preserve those domains without informing
>> > the VMM?
>>
>> VMM should be able to preserve the NO_PASID domains even if it has PASID
>> attachments. This is the intended behaviour, I will document it in the
>> uAPI docs.
>
>I think I'm miscommunicating here. My concern isn't about whether the
>kernel can mechanically preserve the NO_PASID domain when PASID
>attachments exist. I agree that part works fine.
>
>My concern is purely about silent state loss. If a VMM asks the kernel
>to preserve a device, it expects the entire IOMMU state for that device
>to be safely handed over. If the kernel silently skips the PASID
>attachments and returns success (0), the VMM on the new kernel will wake
>up assuming those PASIDs are still perfectly intact. When the guest
>attempts a PASID-tagged DMA, it will unexpectedly fault.

This is a valid concern about silent state loss and I should have been
elaborate in my reply earlier.

My thinking is that PASID preservation should be a granular and opt-in
feature.

- PRESERVE_DEVICE only preserves the IOMMU_NO_PASID attachment.
- A future patch would add mechanism to mark PASID attachment for
preservation. The VMM would have to call this for each specific PASID
it wants to preserve.
>
>So the question is: how strictly should the kernel protect userspace
>from this footgun? A few options that I can see:
>
>1. Rely on uAPI docs
>2. Fail the preserve ioctl (-EOPNOTSUPP) if active PASID attachments
> are detected.
>3. Add an opt-in flag: We could add a flag to the ioctl
> (IOMMU_LU_FLAG_IGNORE_PASID) so userspace has to explicitly
> acknowledge the state drop?
>
>Options 2 or 3 are especially important when we consider backwards
>compatibility. If this series is merged in 7.2 with the "silent drop"
>behavior now, when full PASID live update support is eventually added
>in a future kernel, userspace will have no robust way to know if it's
>running on a kernel that preserves PASIDs or silently drops them. By
>returning an error or requiring a flag now, we reserve the right to
>cleanly implement the feature later without breaking the UAPI contract.

I think these are valid points and I will return -EOPNOTSUPP if active
PASID attachments are detected.

I will update this in next revision.
>
>This is an open question from me, I'm okay with any of the 3 options
>I'd like to know what the maintainers think about this as well.
>
>[ ---- >8 ----- ]
>
>Thanks,
>Praan

Thanks,
Sami