Re: [PATCH v5 08/12] x86/tdx: Add HLT support for TDX guest

From: Kuppuswamy, Sathyanarayanan
Date: Tue Aug 24 2021 - 13:46:35 EST




On 8/24/21 9:10 AM, Borislav Petkov wrote:
On Wed, Aug 04, 2021 at 11:13:25AM -0700, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
@@ -240,6 +243,32 @@ SYM_FUNC_START(__tdx_hypercall)
movl $TDVMCALL_EXPOSE_REGS_MASK, %ecx
+ /*
+ * For the idle loop STI needs to be called directly before
+ * the TDCALL that enters idle (EXIT_REASON_HLT case). STI
+ * enables interrupts only one instruction later. If there
+ * are any instructions between the STI and the TDCALL for
+ * HLT then an interrupt could happen in that time, but the
+ * code would go back to sleep afterwards, which can cause
+ * longer delays.

<-- newline in the comment here for better readability.

Ok. I will add it in next version.


There leads to significant difference in

"There leads..." ?

Will fix this in next version. "This leads"


+ * network performance benchmarks. So add a special case for
+ * EXIT_REASON_HLT to trigger sti before TDCALL. But this
+ * change is not required for all HLT cases. So use R15
+ * register value to identify the case which needs sti. So,

s/sti/STI/g

will fix this in next version.


+ * if R11 is EXIT_REASON_HLT and R15 is 1, then call sti
+ * before TDCALL instruction. Note that R15 register is not
+ * required by TDCALL ABI when triggering the hypercall for
+ * EXIT_REASON_HLT case. So use it in software to select the
+ * sti case.
+ */
+ cmpl $EXIT_REASON_HLT, %r11d
+ jne skip_sti
+ cmpl $1, %r15d
+ jne skip_sti
+ /* Set R15 register to 0, it is unused in EXIT_REASON_HLT case */
+ xor %r15, %r15
+ sti
+skip_sti:
tdcall

...

+static __cpuidle void tdg_safe_halt(void)
+{
+ u64 ret;
+
+ /*
+ * Enable interrupts next to the TDVMCALL to avoid
+ * performance degradation.

That comment needs some more love to say exactly what the problem is.

It is a bug in this submission. After adding STI fix, this local_irq_enable()
had to be removed. Somehow I have missed to do it. I will fix this
in next version.


+ */
+ local_irq_enable();
+
+ /* IRQ is enabled, So set R12 as 0 */
+ ret = _tdx_hypercall(EXIT_REASON_HLT, 0, 0, 0, 1, NULL);
+
+ /* It should never fail */
+ BUG_ON(ret);
+}


--
Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
Linux Kernel Developer