linux-kernel - [PATCH v3 2/2] XEN: Document the semantic of the pagetable

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Message-ID: <1345561346-6781-3-git-send-email-attilio.rao@citrix.com>
Date:	Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:02:26 +0100
From:	Attilio Rao <attilio.rao@...rix.com>
To:	<linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, <mingo@...hat.com>,
	<hpa@...or.com>, <tglx@...utronix.de>, <x86@...nel.org>,
	<Stefano.Stabellini@...citrix.com>
CC:	<konrad.wilk@...cle.com>, Attilio Rao <attilio.rao@...rix.com>
Subject: [PATCH v3 2/2] XEN: Document the semantic of the pagetable_reserve PVOPS

The informations added on the hook are:
- Native behaviour
- Xen specific behaviour
- Logic behind the Xen specific behaviour
- PVOPS semantic

Even if in general it would be a good idea to separate PVOPS implementation
from semantic, in this case it is beneficial to give a little bit of context
on the implementation in order to favourably understand the semantic.

Signed-off-by: Attilio Rao <attilio.rao@...rix.com>
Reviewed-by: Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>
Acked-by: Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@...citrix.com>
---
 arch/x86/include/asm/x86_init.h |   19 +++++++++++++++++--
 1 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/x86_init.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/x86_init.h
index 38155f6..b22093c 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/x86_init.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/x86_init.h
@@ -72,8 +72,23 @@ struct x86_init_oem {
  * struct x86_init_mapping - platform specific initial kernel pagetable setup
  * @pagetable_reserve:	reserve a range of addresses for kernel pagetable usage
  *
- * For more details on the purpose of this hook, look in
- * init_memory_mapping and the commit that added it.
+ * It does reserve a range of pages, to be used as pagetable pages.
+ * The start and end parameters are expected to be contained in the
+ * [pgt_buf_start, pgt_buf_top] range.
+ * The native implementation reserves the pages via the memblock_reserve()
+ * interface.
+ * The Xen implementation, besides reserving the range via memblock_reserve(),
+ * also sets RW the remaining pages contained in the ranges
+ * [pgt_buf_start, start) and [end, pgt_buf_top).
+ * This is needed because the range [pgt_buf_start, pgt_buf_top] was
+ * previously mapped read-only by xen_set_pte_init: when running
+ * on Xen all the pagetable pages need to be mapped read-only in order to
+ * avoid protection faults from the hypervisor. However, once the correct
+ * amount of pages is reserved for the pagetables, all the others contained
+ * in the range must be set to RW so that they can be correctly recycled by
+ * the VM subsystem.
+ * This operation is meant to be performed only during init_memory_mapping(),
+ * just after space for the kernel direct mapping tables is found.
  */
 struct x86_init_mapping {
 	void (*pagetable_reserve)(u64 start, u64 end);
-- 
1.7.2.5

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