Re: [PATCH 05/18] KVM: x86: hyper-v: Introduce MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL

Nicolas Saenz Julienne
2024-09-16T15:33:51Z

On Fri Sep 13, 2024 at 7:01 PM UTC, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 09, 2024, Nicolas Saenz Julienne wrote:
> > Model inactive VTL vCPUs' behaviour with a new MP state.
> >
> > Inactive VTLs are in an artificial halt state. They enter into this
> > state in response to invoking HvCallVtlCall, HvCallVtlReturn.
> > User-space, which is VTL aware, can processes the hypercall, and set the
> > vCPU in MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL. When a vCPU is run in this state it'll
> > block until a wakeup event is received. The rules of what constitutes an
> > event are analogous to halt's except that VTL's ignore RFLAGS.IF.
> >
> > When a wakeup event is registered, KVM will exit to user-space with a
> > KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT exit, and KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_WAKEUP event type.
> > User-space is responsible of deciding whether the event has precedence
> > over the active VTL and will switch the vCPU to KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE
> > before resuming execution on it.
> >
> > Running a KVM_MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL vCPU with pending events will
> > return immediately to user-space.
> >
> > Note that by re-using the readily available halt infrastructure in
> > KVM_RUN, MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL correctly handles (or disables)
> > virtualisation features like the VMX preemption timer or APICv before
> > blocking.
>
> IIUC, this is a convoluted and roundabout way to let userspace check if a vCPU
> has a wake event, correct? Even by the end of the series, KVM never sets
> MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL, i.e. the only use for this is to combine it as:
>
> KVM_SET_MP_STATE => KVM_RUN => KVM_SET_MP_STATE => KVM_RUN

Correct.

> The upside to this approach is that it requires minimal uAPI and very few KVM
> changes, but that's about it AFAICT. On the other hand, making this so painfully
> specific feels like a missed opportunity, and unnecessarily bleeds VTL details
> into KVM.
>
> Bringing halt-polling into the picture (by going down kvm_vcpu_halt()) is also
> rather bizarre since quite a bit of time has already elapsed since the vCPU first
> did HvCallVtlCall/HvCallVtlReturn. But that doesn't really have anything to do
> with MP_STATE_HV_INACTIVE_VTL, e.g. it'd be just as easy to go to kvm_vcpu_block().
>
> Why not add an ioctl() to very explicitly block until a wake event is ready?
> Or probably better, a generic "wait" ioctl() that takes the wait type as an
> argument.
>
> Kinda like your idea of supporting .poll() on the vCPU FD[*], except it's very
> specifically restricted to a single caller (takes vcpu->mutex). We could probably
> actually implement it via .poll(), but I suspect that would be more confusing than
> helpful.
>
> E.g. extract the guts of vcpu_block() to a separate helper, and then wire that
> up to an ioctl().
>
> As for the RFLAGS.IF quirk, maybe handle that via a kvm_run flag? That way,
> userspace doesn't need to do a round-trip just to set a single bit. E.g. I think
> we should be able to squeeze it into "struct kvm_hyperv_exit".

It's things like the RFLAG.IF exemption that deterred me from building a
generic interface. We might find out that the generic blocking logic
doesn't match the expected VTL semantics and be stuck with a uAPI that
isn't enough for VSM, nor useful for any other use-case. We can always
introduce 'flags' I guess.

Note that I'm just being cautious here, AFAICT the generic approach
works, and I'm fine with going the "wait" ioctl.

> Actually, speaking of kvm_hyperv_exit, is there a reason we can't simply wire up
> HVCALL_VTL_CALL and/or HVCALL_VTL_RETURN to a dedicated complete_userspace_io()
> callback that blocks if some flag is set? That would make it _much_ cleaner to
> scope the RFLAGS.IF check to kvm_hyperv_exit, and would require little to no new
> uAPI.

So IIUC, the approach is to have complete_userspace_io() block after
re-entering HVCALL_VTL_RETURN. Then, have it exit back onto user-space
whenever an event is made available (maybe re-using
KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_WAKEUP?). That would work, but will need something
extra to be compatible with migration/live-update.

> > @@ -3797,6 +3798,10 @@ bool svm_interrupt_blocked(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> > if (!gif_set(svm))
> > return true;
> >
> > + /*
> > + * The Hyper-V TLFS states that RFLAGS.IF is ignored when deciding
> > + * whether to block interrupts targeted at inactive VTLs.
> > + */
> > if (is_guest_mode(vcpu)) {
> > /* As long as interrupts are being delivered... */
> > if ((svm->nested.ctl.int_ctl & V_INTR_MASKING_MASK)
> > @@ -3808,7 +3813,7 @@ bool svm_interrupt_blocked(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> > if (nested_exit_on_intr(svm))
> > return false;
> > } else {
> > - if (!svm_get_if_flag(vcpu))
> > + if (!svm_get_if_flag(vcpu) && !kvm_hv_vcpu_is_idle_vtl(vcpu))
>
> Speaking of RFLAGS.IF, I think it makes sense to add a common x86 helper to handle
> the RFLAGS.IF vs. idle VTL logic. Naming will be annoying, but that's about it.
>
> E.g. kvm_is_irq_blocked_by_rflags_if() or so.

Noted.

Thanks,
Nicolas