Re: [PATCH 4/6] hw-breakpoints: Rewrite the hw-breakpoints layer on top of perf events

[Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 08:58:52PM +0100, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > index fc2974a..6560129 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > @@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
> >  #define CREATE_TRACE_POINTS
> >  #include "trace.h"
> >  
> > +#include <asm/debugreg.h>
> >  #include <asm/uaccess.h>
> >  #include <asm/msr.h>
> >  #include <asm/desc.h>
> > @@ -3643,14 +3644,12 @@ static int vcpu_enter_guest(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_run *kvm_run)
> >  	trace_kvm_entry(vcpu->vcpu_id);
> >  	kvm_x86_ops->run(vcpu, kvm_run);
> >  
> > -	if (unlikely(vcpu->arch.switch_db_regs || test_thread_flag(TIF_DEBUG))) {
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg[0], 0);
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg[1], 1);
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg[2], 2);
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg[3], 3);
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg6, 6);
> > -		set_debugreg(current->thread.debugreg7, 7);
> > -	}
> > +	/*
> > +	 * CHECKME: is vcpu->arch.switch_db_regs sufficient to check
> > +	 * if the guest is using breakpoints? If so we may want to do
> > +	 * this check before.
> > +	 */
> > +	hw_breakpoint_restore();
> 
> Obviously, this variant will make KVM users very unhappy. But trying to
> reduce this performance regression via vcpu->arch.switch_db_regs will
> make hw-breakpoint users unhappy: KVM leaves at least dr7 clobbered
> behind, even if the guest does not use breakpoints.


Yeah, that's why I've made unconditionally. At least it works in every
cases, but this is temporary.

 
> We really need a replacement for TIF_DEBUG (but we only need this [1]).
> 
> Jan
> 
> [1]http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/39784/focus=39827
> 


Thinking about it, this check should cover every cases:

if (vcpu->arch.switch_db_regs || __get_cpu_var(dr7) & DR_GLOBAL_ENABLE_MASK)

If we have __get_cpu_var(dr7) & DR_GLOBAL_ENABLE_MASK, it means there is an
active breakpoint and then we should restore the current state.