Date:	Mon, 16 Nov 2015 11:25:21 -0500
From:	Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com>
To:	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>
Cc:	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	xen-devel <xen-devel@...ts.xen.org>,
	David Vrabel <david.vrabel@...rix.com>,
	Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] xen/x86: Adjust stack pointer in xen_sysexit

On 11/15/2015 01:02 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Nov 13, 2015 5:23 PM, "Boris Ostrovsky" <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 11/13/2015 06:26 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>>> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Boris Ostrovsky
>>> <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com> wrote:
>>>> After 32-bit syscall rewrite, and specifically after commit 5f310f739b4c
>>>> ("x86/entry/32: Re-implement SYSENTER using the new C path"), the stack
>>>> frame that is passed to xen_sysexit is no longer a "standard" one (i.e.
>>>> it's not pt_regs).
>>>>
>>>> We need to adjust it so that subsequent xen_iret can use it.
>>> I'm wondering if this should be more straightforward:
>>>
>>>           movq    %rsp, %rdi
>>>           call    do_fast_syscall_32
>>>           testl   %eax, %eax
>>>           jz      .Lsyscall_32_done
>>>
>>>           /* Opportunistic SYSRET */
>>> sysret32_from_system_call:
>>>           XEN_DO_SYSRET32
>>>
>>> where XEN_DO_SYSRET32 is a simple pv op that, on Xen, jumps to a
>>> variant of Xen's iret path that knows that the fast path is okay.
>>
>>
>> This patch is for 32-bit kernel. I actually haven't looked at compat code (probably because our tests don't try that), I need to do that too.
> In 4.4, it's almost identical (which was part of the point of this
> whole series).  We use sysret32 instead of sysexit, but the underlying
> structure is the same: munge the stack frame and register state
> appropriately to use the fast return instruction in question and then
> execute it.  In both cases, the only real difference from the IRET
> path is that we're willing to lose the values of some subset of cx,
> dx, and (on 64-bit kernels) r11.


So it turned out that for compat mode we don't need to do anything since 
xen_sysret32 doesn't assume any stack format (or, rather, it assumes 
that it can't be used) and builds the IRET frame itself.


>
>> As for XEN_DO_SYSRET32 --- we'd presumably need to have a nop for baremetal otherwise current paravirt op will use native_usergs_sysret32 (for compat code). Which means a new pv_op, I think.
> Agreed, unless...
>
> Does Xen have a cpufeature?  Using ALTERNATIVE instead of a pvop could
> be easier to follow and be less code at the same time.  Frankly,
> following the control flow from asm through the pre-paravirt-patching
> and post-paravirt-patching variants and into the final targets is
> getting a little bit old, and ALTERNATIVE is crystal clear in
> comparison (and has all the interesting info inline with the rest of
> the asm).  Of course, it doesn't work early in boot, but that's fine
> for anything involving user/kernel switches.


We don't currently have a Xen-specific CPU feature. We could, in 
principle, add it but we can't replace all of current paravirt patching 
with a single feature since PVH guests use a subset of existing pv ops 
(and in the future it may become even more fine-grained).

And I don't think we should go ALTERNATIVE route for one set of features 
and keep pv ops for the rest --- it should be either one or the other.


-boris

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