From 460df4c1fc7c00829050c08d6368dc6e6beef307 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paolo Bonzini Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 11:50:15 +0100 Subject: KVM: race-free exit from KVM_RUN without POSIX signals MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit The purpose of the KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK API is to let userspace "kick" a VCPU out of KVM_RUN through a POSIX signal. A signal is attached to a dummy signal handler; by blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN and unblocking it inside, this possible race is closed: VCPU thread service thread -------------------------------------------------------------- check flag set flag raise signal (signal handler does nothing) KVM_RUN However, one issue with KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK is that it has to take tsk->sighand->siglock on every KVM_RUN. This lock is often on a remote NUMA node, because it is on the node of a thread's creator. Taking this lock can be very expensive if there are many userspace exits (as is the case for SMP Windows VMs without Hyper-V reference time counter). As an alternative, we can put the flag directly in kvm_run so that KVM can see it: VCPU thread service thread -------------------------------------------------------------- raise signal signal handler set run->immediate_exit KVM_RUN check run->immediate_exit Reviewed-by: Radim Krčmář Reviewed-by: David Hildenbrand Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini --- Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt | 13 ++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'Documentation/virtual') diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt index e4f2cdcf78eb..069450938b79 100644 --- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt +++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt @@ -3389,7 +3389,18 @@ struct kvm_run { Request that KVM_RUN return when it becomes possible to inject external interrupts into the guest. Useful in conjunction with KVM_INTERRUPT. - __u8 padding1[7]; + __u8 immediate_exit; + +This field is polled once when KVM_RUN starts; if non-zero, KVM_RUN +exits immediately, returning -EINTR. In the common scenario where a +signal is used to "kick" a VCPU out of KVM_RUN, this field can be used +to avoid usage of KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK, which has worse scalability. +Rather than blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN, userspace can set up +a signal handler that sets run->immediate_exit to a non-zero value. + +This field is ignored if KVM_CAP_IMMEDIATE_EXIT is not available. + + __u8 padding1[6]; /* out */ __u32 exit_reason; -- cgit v1.2.3