[PATCH v3 08/11] KVM: arm: implement dirty bit mechanism for debug registers

Christoffer Dall christoffer.dall at linaro.org
Fri Jul 3 04:56:11 PDT 2015


On Fri, Jul 03, 2015 at 05:54:47PM +0800, Zhichao Huang wrote:
> 
> 
> On June 30, 2015 5:20:20 PM GMT+08:00, Christoffer Dall <christoffer.dall at linaro.org> wrote:
> >On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 06:41:31PM +0800, Zhichao Huang wrote:
> >> The trapping code keeps track of the state of the debug registers,
> >> allowing for the switch code to implement a lazy switching strategy.
> >> 
> >> Signed-off-by: Zhichao Huang <zhichao.huang at linaro.org>
> >> ---
> >>  arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_asm.h  |  3 +++
> >>  arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_host.h |  3 +++
> >>  arch/arm/kernel/asm-offsets.c   |  1 +
> >>  arch/arm/kvm/coproc.c           | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> >>  arch/arm/kvm/interrupts_head.S  | 42
> >+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >>  5 files changed, 86 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> >> 
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_asm.h b/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_asm.h
> >> index ba65e05..4fb64cf 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_asm.h
> >> +++ b/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_asm.h
> >> @@ -64,6 +64,9 @@
> >>  #define cp14_DBGDSCRext	65	/* Debug Status and Control external */
> >>  #define NR_CP14_REGS	66	/* Number of regs (incl. invalid) */
> >>  
> >> +#define KVM_ARM_DEBUG_DIRTY_SHIFT	0
> >> +#define KVM_ARM_DEBUG_DIRTY		(1 << KVM_ARM_DEBUG_DIRTY_SHIFT)
> >> +
> >>  #define ARM_EXCEPTION_RESET	  0
> >>  #define ARM_EXCEPTION_UNDEFINED   1
> >>  #define ARM_EXCEPTION_SOFTWARE    2
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> >> index 3d16820..09b54bf 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> >> +++ b/arch/arm/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> >> @@ -127,6 +127,9 @@ struct kvm_vcpu_arch {
> >>  	/* System control coprocessor (cp14) */
> >>  	u32 cp14[NR_CP14_REGS];
> >>  
> >> +	/* Debug state */
> >> +	u32 debug_flags;
> >> +
> >>  	/*
> >>  	 * Anything that is not used directly from assembly code goes
> >>  	 * here.
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm/kernel/asm-offsets.c b/arch/arm/kernel/asm-offsets.c
> >> index 9158de0..e876109 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm/kernel/asm-offsets.c
> >> +++ b/arch/arm/kernel/asm-offsets.c
> >> @@ -185,6 +185,7 @@ int main(void)
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_FIQ_REGS,		offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu,
> >arch.regs.fiq_regs));
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_PC,		offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu,
> >arch.regs.usr_regs.ARM_pc));
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_CPSR,		offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu,
> >arch.regs.usr_regs.ARM_cpsr));
> >> +  DEFINE(VCPU_DEBUG_FLAGS,	offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu,
> >arch.debug_flags));
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_HCR,		offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu, arch.hcr));
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_IRQ_LINES,	offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu, arch.irq_lines));
> >>    DEFINE(VCPU_HSR,		offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu, arch.fault.hsr));
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm/kvm/coproc.c b/arch/arm/kvm/coproc.c
> >> index eeee648..fc0c2ef 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm/kvm/coproc.c
> >> +++ b/arch/arm/kvm/coproc.c
> >> @@ -220,14 +220,49 @@ bool access_vm_reg(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
> >>  	return true;
> >>  }
> >>  
> >> +/*
> >> + * We want to avoid world-switching all the DBG registers all the
> >> + * time:
> >> + *
> >> + * - If we've touched any debug register, it is likely that we're
> >> + *   going to touch more of them. It then makes sense to disable the
> >> + *   traps and start doing the save/restore dance
> >> + * - If debug is active (ARM_DSCR_MDBGEN set), it is then mandatory
> >> + *   to save/restore the registers, as the guest depends on them.
> >> + *
> >> + * For this, we use a DIRTY bit, indicating the guest has modified
> >the
> >> + * debug registers, used as follow:
> >> + *
> >> + * On guest entry:
> >> + * - If the dirty bit is set (because we're coming back from
> >trapping),
> >> + *   disable the traps, save host registers, restore guest
> >registers.
> >> + * - If debug is actively in use (ARM_DSCR_MDBGEN set),
> >> + *   set the dirty bit, disable the traps, save host registers,
> >> + *   restore guest registers.
> >> + * - Otherwise, enable the traps
> >> + *
> >> + * On guest exit:
> >> + * - If the dirty bit is set, save guest registers, restore host
> >> + *   registers and clear the dirty bit. This ensure that the host can
> >> + *   now use the debug registers.
> >> + *
> >> + * Notice:
> >> + * - For ARMv7, if the CONFIG_HAVE_HW_BREAKPOINT is set in the guest,
> >> + *   debug is always actively in use (ARM_DSCR_MDBGEN set).
> >> + *   We have to do the save/restore dance in this case, because the
> >> + *   host and the guest might use their respective debug registers
> >> + *   at any moment.
> >
> >so doesn't this pretty much invalidate the whole saving/dirty effort?
> >
> >Guests configured from for example multi_v7_defconfig will then act
> >like
> >this and you will save/restore all these registers always.
> >
> >Wouldn't a better approach be to enable trapping to hyp mode most of
> >the
> >time, and simply clear the enabled bit of any host-used break- or
> >wathcpoints upon guest entry, perhaps maintaining a bitmap of which
> >ones
> >must be re-set when exiting the guest, and thereby drastically reducing
> >the amount of save/restore code you'd have to perform.
> >
> >Of course, you'd also have to keep track of whether the guest has any
> >breakpoints or watchpoints enabled for when you do the full
> >save/restore
> >dance.
> >
> >That would also avoid all issues surrounding accesses to DBGDSCRext
> >register I think.
> 
> I have thought about it, which means to say, "Since we can't find
> whether the guest has any hwbrpts enabled from the DBGDSCR, why
> don't we find it from the DBGBCR and DBGWCR?".
> 
> Case 1: The host and the guest enable all the hwbrpts.
> It's necessary to world switch the debug registers all the time.
> 
> Case 2: The host and the guest enable some of the hwbrpts.
> It's necessary to world switch the debug registers which are enabled.
> But if we want skip thouse registers which aren't enabled, we have to 
> keep track of all the debug states both in the host and the guest.
> We need to judge which debug registers we should switch, and which 
> not. It may bring in a complex logic in the assembly code. And if the
> host or guest enabled almost all of the hwbrpts, this operation may
> bring in the loss outweights the grain.
> Is it acceptable and worthy? If yes, I will do it.
> 
> Case 3: Neither the host nor the guest enable any hwbrpts.
> It's the case that we can skip the whole world switch thing.
> The only problem is that we have to read all the debug registers on each
> guest entry to find whether the host enable any hwbrpts or not.
> But this case is a normal case, which is worthy to do the efforts to
> reduce the saving/restoring overhead.
> 
I would never try to do a partial save/restore, just look at the
control registers to see if anything is enabled as an indication of
whether or not we need to do the save/restore of all the registers and
disable trapping.

Reading the guest control registers (from memory) only should be much
faster than saving/restoring the whole lot.  Perhaps there's even a hook
in Linux to figure out if any of the registers are being used?

Thanks,
-Christoffer



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