Re: [RFC PATCH 2/3] kvm: Allow memory slot array to grow on demand

From: Avi Kivity
Date: Sun Feb 27 2011 - 04:45:05 EST


On 02/24/2011 08:08 PM, Alex Williamson wrote:
> > @@ -207,7 +206,7 @@ struct kvm_mmu_page {
> > * One bit set per slot which has memory
> > * in this shadow page.
> > */
> > - DECLARE_BITMAP(slot_bitmap, KVM_MEMORY_SLOTS + KVM_PRIVATE_MEM_SLOTS);
> > + unsigned long *slot_bitmap;
>
> What about
>
> union {
> DECLARE_BITMAP(direct_slot_bitmap, BITS_PER_LONG);
> unsigned long *indirect_slot_bitmap;
> };
>
> to make the hackery below more explicit?

Yeah, it need something to make the hackery go down easier. I was
actually thinking about:

unsigned long *slot_bitmap;
DECLARE_BITMAP(direct_slot_bitmap, BITS_PER_LONG);

Where we'd then just set:

slot_bitmap =&direct_slot_bitmap;

It wastes 8 bytes, and pushes the cache a little harder, but still helps
the locality and makes the usage more consistent.

unsigned long *sp_slot_bitmap(struct kvm_mmu_page *sp) { ... }

gives you the best of both worlds.

>
> We don't support failing kvm_mmu_get_page(). See
> mmu_memory_cache_alloc() and mmu_topup_memory_caches().

Hmm, apparently my search stopped at __direct_map() calling
kvm_mmu_get_page() and handling an error.

That's dead code (was there from the very first commit into mmu.c).

> >
> > r = -ENOMEM;
> > - slots = kzalloc(sizeof(struct kvm_memslots), GFP_KERNEL);
> > +
> > + if (mem->slot>= kvm->memslots->nmemslots) {
> > + nmemslots = mem->slot + 1;
> > + flush = true;
>
> Isn't flush here a little too agressive? Shouldn't we flush only if we
> cross the BITS_PER_LONG threshold?

Perhaps, but is that overly exploiting our knowledge about the bitmap
implementation? I figured better to error too aggressively than too
lazy since this is a rare event already.

I'm worried about the screen-clearing using the vga window at 0xa[08]000. If that works without too much flushing, then we're fine.

On second thoughts we're likely fine even if we do flush, since it's in a tight loop so it takes very little work to reestablish the dropped sptes.

> > @@ -1832,6 +1854,8 @@ static long kvm_vm_ioctl(struct file *filp,
> > sizeof kvm_userspace_mem))
> > goto out;
> >
> > + kvm_userspace_mem.slot += KVM_PRIVATE_MEM_SLOTS;
> > +
>
> Slightly uneasy about this, but no real objection.

If you have better ideas, let me know. This reminds me to ask about
this chunk:

@@ -671,7 +674,7 @@ int __kvm_set_memory_region(struct kvm *kvm,

/* Check for overlaps */
r = -EEXIST;
- for (i = 0; i< KVM_MEMORY_SLOTS; ++i) {
+ for (i = KVM_PRIVATE_MEM_SLOTS; i< kvm->memslots->nmemslots; ++i) {
struct kvm_memory_slot *s =&kvm->memslots->memslots[i];

if (s == memslot || !s->npages)

I kept the same behavior as previous, but it highlights that we're not
checking for overlaps between private slots and anything else. Existing
bug? Thanks,

Yes, possibly serious. Who knows what happens if we create a page using one slot and remove it via another?

Let's go write some Visual Basic.

--
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/