From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:55360) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gbLL8-0000nn-Ow for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 24 Dec 2018 03:11:55 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gbLL5-0003Yk-KZ for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 24 Dec 2018 03:11:54 -0500 Received: from mga04.intel.com ([192.55.52.120]:10092) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gbLL5-0003SU-AI for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Mon, 24 Dec 2018 03:11:51 -0500 Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2018 16:11:43 +0800 From: Yi Zhang Message-ID: <20181224081142.GA6477@tiger-server> References: <5eb87eb9a389242772375dd52bd97c17564a0829.1545120100.git.yi.z.zhang@linux.intel.com> <20181218085249-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20181219091017.GA35378@tiger-server> <20181219105555-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20181220030312.GA70591@tiger-server> <20181219223700-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20181220053739.GB70591@tiger-server> <20181220090435-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> <20181221031817.GA77135@tiger-server> <20181221112902-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20181221112902-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH V7 6/6] hostmem-file: add 'sync' option List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: "Michael S. Tsirkin" Cc: peter.maydell@linaro.org, yu.c.zhang@linux.intel.com, ehabkost@redhat.com, imammedo@redhat.com, qemu-devel@nongnu.org, pbonzini@redhat.com, stefanha@redhat.com, crosthwaite.peter@gmail.com, richard.henderson@linaro.org, xiaoguangrong.eric@gmail.com On 2018-12-21 at 11:36:07 -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote: > On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 11:18:18AM +0800, Yi Zhang wrote: > > On 2018-12-20 at 09:06:41 -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote: > > > On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 01:37:40PM +0800, Yi Zhang wrote: > > > > On 2018-12-19 at 22:42:07 -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote: > > > > > On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 11:03:12AM +0800, Yi Zhang wrote: > > > > > > On 2018-12-19 at 10:59:10 -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote: > > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 05:10:18PM +0800, Yi Zhang wrote: > > > > > > > > > > + > > > > > > > > > > + - 'sync' option of memory-backend-file is not 'off', and > > > > > > > > > > + > > > > > > > > > > + - 'share' option of memory-backend-file is 'on'. > > > > > > > > > > + > > > > > > > > > > + - 'pmem' option of memory-backend-file is 'on' > > > > > > > > > > + > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Wait isn't this what pmem was supposed to do? > > > > > > > > > Doesn't it mean "persistent memory"? > > > > > > > > pmem is a option for memory-backend-file, user should know the backend > > > > > > > > is in host persistent memory, with this flags on, while there is a host crash > > > > > > > > or a power failures. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > [1] Qemu will take necessary operations to guarantee the persistence. > > > > > > > > https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/cover/944749/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > [2] Host kernel also take opretions to consistent filesystem metadata. > > > > > > > > Add MAP_SYNC flags. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > OK so I'm a user. Can you educate me please? > > > > > > We suppose an administrator should know it, what is the back-end region coming from, > > > > > > is it persistent? what is the font-end device is? a volatile dimm or an > > > > > > nonvolatile dimm? then they can choice put the pmem=on[off] and sync=on[off]. > > > > > > If he didn't, we encourage that don't set these 2 flags. > > > > > > > > > > > > > When should MAP_SYNC not > > > > > > > be set? Are there any disadvantages (e.g. performance?)? > > > > > > Not only the performance, sometimes like the front-end device is an > > > > > > volatile ram, we don't wanna set such option although the backend is a > > > > > > novolatile memory, if power lose, all of thing should lose in this ram. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I am not sure how does above answer the questions. If I don't know, > > > > > neither will the hypothetical administrator. Looks like a better > > > > > interface is needed to make the choice on behalf of the user. > > > > > > > > > By default, we have already ignore the 2 flags, unless the administrator > > > > know how to make that use. By-now, seems we don't have a better way to detect what > > > > memory-backend-file is, a persistent memory or not. > > > > > > In that case how about an interface where user tells QEMU "this backend > > > is in persistent memory"? > > > > Actually, [pmem=on] already did this, we can get the backend memory type from: > > > > file_memory_backend_get_pmem(), > > > > That is already being used in the memory_region_init_ram_from_file. that > > is why I reuse the RAM_PMEM to identify the region coming from a > > persitent memory? correct me if something I misunderstood? > > Right and thus my question: why not set SYNC unconditionally with pmem=on? A case is that we set pmem but don't wanna sync in a /dev/dax backend, which is direct mapping to physical nvdimm device without filesystem aware, SYNC is useless in this condition. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > MST > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >