Re: [PATCH v1 3/8]: PVH startup changes (enlighten.c)

[Mukesh Rathor <mukesh.rathor@oracle.com>]

On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:33:39 +0100
Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@eu.citrix.com> wrote:

> > Wish it was simple. But for PV and PVH, domU, it's already setup
> > the shared page. All we need to do is __va(shared_info). But for
> > HVM domUs and PVH dom0, we need to hcall with pfn to get it
> > remapped.
> 
> For PVH domU is already setup as a pfn only because in
> tools/libxc/xc_dom_x86.c:alloc_magic_pages we have this code:
> 
>     if ( xc_dom_feature_translated(dom) )
>         dom->shared_info_pfn = xc_dom_alloc_page(dom, "shared info");
> 
> and in tools/libxc/xc_dom_x86.c:start_info_x86_64 we have:
> 
>     xen_pfn_t shinfo =
>         xc_dom_feature_translated(dom) ? dom->shared_info_pfn : dom->
>         shared_info_mfn;
> 
> if we simply get rid of the two "if xc_dom_feature_translated(dom)"
> wouldn't we get an mfn for PVH domU too? AFAICT all the other cases
> would remain unmodified, but PVH domU would start getting an mfn for
> shared_info.
> 
> > Changing the
> > tool to map pfn, would result in unnecessary hcall for all PV and
> > PVH domUs. It's only two lines of code, so lets just leave it. I'll
> > make the comment better.
> 
> Yes, there would be one more unnecessary hypercall but we would get
> rid of 4 "if". I think is a good trade off.

Well, not really unfortunately! There are two fields in the library 
shared_info_mfn and shared_info_pfn in struct xc_dom_image. For
xlated, pfn is set, otherwise, mfn is set. If I set mfn for auto 
xlated also, I end up changing/adding  more code in the library where
it tries to map the shared page. Moreover, it's better to stick with the
library assumption that for auto xlated, pfn is set, otherwise,
mfn is set.

Hope that makes sense. I tried it, btw.

thanks,
Mukesh