Re: [patch V6 10/37] x86/entry: Switch XEN/PV hypercall entry to IDTENTRY

From: Andy Lutomirski
Date: Wed May 20 2020 - 11:17:12 EST


On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 7:13 AM Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 11:58 AM Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> Which brings you into the situation that you call schedule() from the
> >> point where we just moved it out. If we would go there we'd need to
> >> ensure that RCU is watching as well. idtentry_exit() might have it
> >> turned off ....
> >
> > I don't think this is possible. Once you untangle all the wrappers,
> > the call sites are effectively:
> >
> > __this_cpu_write(xen_in_preemptible_hcall, true);
> > CALL_NOSPEC to the hypercall page
> > __this_cpu_write(xen_in_preemptible_hcall, false);
> >
> > I think IF=1 when this happens, but I won't swear to it. RCU had
> > better be watching.
> >
> > As I understand it, the one and only situation Xen wants to handle is
> > that an interrupt gets delivered during the hypercall. The hypervisor
> > is too clever for its own good and deals with this by rewinding RIP to
> > the beginning of whatever instruction did the hypercall and delivers
> > the interrupt, and we end up in this handler. So, if this happens,
> > the idea is to not only handle the interrupt but to schedule if
> > scheduling would be useful.
> >
> > So I don't think we need all this RCU magic. This really ought to be
> > able to be simplified to:
> >
> > idtentry_exit();
> >
> > if (appropriate condition)
> > schedule();
>
> This is exactly the kind of tinkering which causes all kinds of trouble.
>
> idtentry_exit()
>
> if (user_mode(regs)) {
> prepare_exit_to_usermode(regs);
> } else if (regs->flags & X86_EFLAGS_IF) {
> /* Check kernel preemption, if enabled */
> if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PREEMPTION)) {
> ....
> }
> instrumentation_begin();
> /* Tell the tracer that IRET will enable interrupts */
> trace_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare(CALLER_ADDR0);
> instrumentation_end();
> rcu_irq_exit();
> lockdep_hardirqs_on(CALLER_ADDR0);
> } else {
> /* IRQ flags state is correct already. Just tell RCU */
> rcu_irq_exit();
> }
>
> So in case IF is set then this already told the tracer and lockdep that
> interrupts are enabled. And contrary to the ugly version this exit path
> does not use rcu_irq_exit_preempt() which is there to warn about crappy
> RCU state when trying to schedule.
>
> So we went great length to sanitize _all_ of this and make it consistent
> just to say: screw it for that xen thingy.
>
> The extra checks and extra warnings for scheduling come with the
> guarantee to bitrot when idtentry_exit() or any logic invoked from there
> is changed. It's going to look like this:
>
> /*
> * If the below causes problems due to inconsistent state
> * or out of sync sanity checks, please complain to
> * luto@xxxxxxxxxx directly.
> */
> idtentry_exit();
>
> if (user_mode(regs) || !(regs->flags & X86_FlAGS_IF))
> return;
>
> if (!__this_cpu_read(xen_in_preemptible_hcall))
> return;
>
> rcu_sanity_check_for_preemption();
>
> if (need_resched()) {
> instrumentation_begin();
> xen_maybe_preempt_hcall();
> trace_hardirqs_on();
> instrumentation_end();
> }
>
> Of course you need the extra rcu_sanity_check_for_preemption() function
> just for this muck.
>
> That's a true win on all ends? I don't think so.

Hmm, fair enough. I guess the IRQ tracing messes a bunch of this logic up.

Let's keep your patch as is and consider cleanups later. One approach
might be to make this work more like extable handling: instead of
trying to schedule from inside the interrupt handler here, patch up
RIP and perhaps some other registers and let the actual Xen code just
do cond_resched(). IOW, try to make this work the way it always
should have:

int ret;
do {
ret = issue_the_hypercall();
cond_resched();
} while (ret == EAGAIN);