Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86/vdso: Add VCLOCK_HVCLOCK vDSO clock read method

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Mon Feb 13 2017 - 14:28:45 EST


On Mon, 13 Feb 2017, Andy Lutomirski wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 11:49 PM, Dexuan Cui <decui@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> From: Thomas Gleixner [mailto:tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >> Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 02:02
> >> ...
> >> That's important if the stuff happens cross CPU. If the update happens on
> >> the same CPU then this is a different story and as there are VMexits
> >> involved they might provide the required ordering already. But I can't tell
> >> as I have no idea how that host side thing is done.
> >>
> >> tglx
> >
> > IMO Hyper-V TSC page clocksource here seems pretty similar to KVM's pvclock,
> > So I would guess "the structure is only updated just before reentering the guest
> > after some VM event" (https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/kvm-pvclock/),
> > that is, the update should happen on the same CPU, I guess.
>
> If the patch is correct, there is one of these shared by all vCPUs, so
> this is not a sufficient explanation.

Right, because that's ony ONE TSC page for the whole guest and then the seq
stuff really lacks barriers.

Thanks,

tglx