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From: Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@suse.com>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>, Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@samsung.com>,
	Leon Romanovsky <leon@kernel.org>,
	Keith Busch <kbusch@kernel.org>,
	Caleb Sander Mateos <csander@purestorage.com>,
	Sagi Grimberg <sagi@grimberg.me>, Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>,
	John Garry <john.g.garry@oracle.com>,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org (open list:DOCUMENTATION),
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org (open list),
	linux-mm@kvack.org (open list:MEMORY MANAGEMENT),
	Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@suse.com>
Subject: [PATCH 7/8] docs: dma-api: update streaming DMA API physical address constraints
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:39:22 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250624133923.1140421-8-ptesarik@suse.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20250624133923.1140421-1-ptesarik@suse.com>

Clarify that SWIOTLB also allows to use any physical address with the
streaming DMA API. Remove the requirement to use platform-dependent flags
to allocate buffers for dma_map_single().

Do not claim that platforms with an IOMMU may not require physically
contiguous buffers. Although the claim is generally correct, it is
misleading, because the current implementation of the streaming DMA API
explicitly rejects vmalloc addresses, no matter if an IOMMU is present or
not.

Signed-off-by: Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@suse.com>
---
 Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst | 18 ++++++------------
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst b/Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst
index cd432996949c..65132ec88104 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst
@@ -210,18 +210,12 @@ DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL	direction isn't known
 	this API should be obtained from sources which guarantee it to be
 	physically contiguous (like kmalloc).
 
-	Further, the DMA address of the memory must be within the dma_mask of
-	the device.  To ensure that the memory allocated by kmalloc is within
-	the dma_mask, the driver may specify various platform-dependent flags
-	to restrict the DMA address range of the allocation (e.g., on x86,
-	GFP_DMA guarantees to be within the first 16MB of available DMA
-	addresses, as required by ISA devices).
-
-	Note also that the above constraints on physical contiguity and
-	dma_mask may not apply if the platform has an IOMMU (a device which
-	maps an I/O DMA address to a physical memory address).  However, to be
-	portable, device driver writers may *not* assume that such an IOMMU
-	exists.
+	Mapping may also fail if the memory is not within the DMA mask of the
+	device.  However, this constraint does not apply if the platform has
+	an IOMMU (a device which maps an I/O DMA address to a physical memory
+	address), or the kernel is configured with SWIOTLB (bounce buffers).
+	It is reasonable to assume that at least one of these mechanisms
+	allows streaming DMA to any physical address.
 
 .. warning::
 
-- 
2.49.0


  parent reply	other threads:[~2025-06-24 13:39 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 30+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-06-24 13:39 [PATCH 0/8] update DMA API documentation Petr Tesarik
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 1/8] docs: dma-api: use "DMA API" consistently throughout the document Petr Tesarik
2025-06-25  2:41   ` Randy Dunlap
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 2/8] docs: dma-api: replace consistent with coherent Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  4:51   ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  7:21     ` Marek Szyprowski
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 3/8] docs: dma-api: remove remnants of PCI DMA API Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  1:46   ` Bagas Sanjaya
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 4/8] docs: dma-api: add a kernel-doc comment for dma_pool_zalloc() Petr Tesarik
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 5/8] docs: dma-api: remove duplicate description of the DMA pool API Petr Tesarik
2025-06-25  2:40   ` Randy Dunlap
2025-06-25  6:41     ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 6/8] docs: dma-api: clarify DMA addressing limitations Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  1:47   ` Bagas Sanjaya
2025-06-24 13:39 ` Petr Tesarik [this message]
2025-06-26  1:49   ` [PATCH 7/8] docs: dma-api: update streaming DMA API physical address constraints Bagas Sanjaya
2025-06-26  5:06     ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  7:09       ` Marek Szyprowski
2025-06-26  8:25         ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  9:58       ` Robin Murphy
2025-06-26 13:48         ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26 16:45           ` Robin Murphy
2025-06-26 19:40             ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-27 11:07               ` Robin Murphy
2025-06-27 11:32                 ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-27 12:55             ` Christoph Hellwig
2025-06-27 13:02               ` Petr Tesarik
2025-06-27 12:52       ` Christoph Hellwig
2025-06-24 13:39 ` [PATCH 8/8] docs: dma-api: clean up documentation of dma_map_sg() Petr Tesarik
2025-06-26  1:50   ` Bagas Sanjaya

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