Re: [PATCH v4 22/30] context_tracking: Exit CT_STATE_IDLE upon irq/nmi entry

Frederic Weisbecker
2025-01-22T00:22:15Z

Le Tue, Jan 14, 2025 at 06:51:35PM +0100, Valentin Schneider a écrit :
> ct_nmi_{enter, exit}() only touches the RCU watching counter and doesn't
> modify the actual CT state part context_tracking.state. This means that
> upon receiving an IRQ when idle, the CT_STATE_IDLE->CT_STATE_KERNEL
> transition only happens in ct_idle_exit().
>
> One can note that ct_nmi_enter() can only ever be entered with the CT state
> as either CT_STATE_KERNEL or CT_STATE_IDLE, as an IRQ/NMI happenning in the
> CT_STATE_USER or CT_STATE_GUEST states will be routed down to ct_user_exit().

Are you sure? An NMI can fire between guest_state_enter_irqoff() and
__svm_vcpu_run(). And NMIs interrupting userspace don't call
enter_from_user_mode(). In fact they don't call irqentry_enter_from_user_mode()
like regular IRQs but irqentry_nmi_enter() instead. Well that's for archs
implementing common entry code, I can't speak for the others.

Unifying the behaviour between user and idle such that the IRQs/NMIs exit the
CT_STATE can be interesting but I fear this may not come for free. You would
need to save the old state on IRQ/NMI entry and restore it on exit.

Do we really need it?

Thanks.