[PATCH v2 0/3] arm64/sme: Support disabling streaming mode via ptrace on SME only systems

Mark Brown
2025-10-15T18:34:00Z

Currently it is not possible to disable streaming mode via ptrace on SME
only systems, the interface for doing this is to write via NT_ARM_SVE but
such writes will be rejected on a system without SVE support. Enable this
functionality by allowing userspace to write SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD format data
via NT_ARM_SVE with the vector length set to 0 on SME only systems. Such
writes currently error since we require that a vector length is specified
which should minimise the risk that existing software is relying on current
behaviour.

Reads are not supported since I am not aware of any use case for this and
there is some risk that an existing userspace application may be confused if
it reads NT_ARM_SVE on a system without SVE. Existing kernels will return
FPSIMD formatted register state from NT_ARM_SVE if full SVE state is not
stored, for example if the task has not used SVE. Returning a vector length
of 0 would create a risk that software could try to do things like allocate
space for register state with zero sizes, while returning a vector length of
128 bits would look like SVE is supported. It seems safer to just not make
the changes to add read support.

It remains possible for userspace to detect a SME only system via the ptrace
interface only since reads of NT_ARM_SSVE and NT_ARM_ZA will suceed while
reads of NT_ARM_SVE will fail. Read/write access to the FPSIMD registers in
non-streaming mode is available via REGSET_FPR.

The aim is is to make a minimally invasive change, no operation that would
previously have succeeded will be affected, and we use a previously defined
interface in new circumstances rather than define completely new ABI.

Signed-off-by: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
---
Changes in v2:
- Rebase onto v6.18-rc1
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250820-arm64-sme-ptrace-sme-only-v1-0-f7c22b2871f8@kernel.org

---
Mark Brown (3):
arm64/sme: Support disabling streaming mode via ptrace on SME only systems
kselftst/arm64: Test NT_ARM_SVE FPSIMD format writes on non-SVE systems
kselftest/arm64: Cover disabling streaming mode without SVE in fp-ptrace

Documentation/arch/arm64/sve.rst | 5 +++
arch/arm64/kernel/ptrace.c | 40 +++++++++++++++---
tools/testing/selftests/arm64/fp/fp-ptrace.c | 5 +--
tools/testing/selftests/arm64/fp/sve-ptrace.c | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4 files changed, 100 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: cb6649f6217c0331b885cf787f1d175963e2a1d2
change-id: 20250717-arm64-sme-ptrace-sme-only-1fb850600ea0

Best regards,
--
Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>