linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] kvm: x86: Convey the exit reason to user-space on emulation failure

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Date:   Thu, 08 Jul 2021 15:17:40 +0100
From:   David Edmondson <dme@....org>
To:     David Matlack <dmatlack@...gle.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>,
        Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@...hat.com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, x86@...nel.org,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] kvm: x86: Convey the exit reason to user-space
 on emulation failure

Apologies if you see two of these - I had some email problems earlier.

On Wednesday, 2021-07-07 at 23:20:04 UTC, David Matlack wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 06, 2021 at 11:12:05AM +0100, David Edmondson wrote:
>> To help when debugging failures in the field, if instruction emulation
>> fails, report the VM exit reason to userspace in order that it can be
>> recorded.
>
> What is the benefit of seeing the VM-exit reason that led to an
> emulation failure?

I can't cite an example of where this has definitively led in a
direction that helped solve a problem, but we do sometimes see emulation
failures reported in situations where we are not able to reproduce the
failures on demand and the existing information provided at the time of
failure is either insufficient or suspect.

Given that, I'm left casting about for data that can be made available
to assist in postmortem analysis of the failures.

>> I'm unsure whether sgx_handle_emulation_failure() needs to be adapted
>> to use the emulation_failure part of the exit union in struct kvm_run
>> - advice welcomed.
>> 
>> v2:
>> - Improve patch comments (dmatlack)
>> - Intel should provide the full exit reason (dmatlack)
>> - Pass a boolean rather than flags (dmatlack)
>> - Use the helper in kvm_task_switch() and kvm_handle_memory_failure()
>>   (dmatlack)
>> - Describe the exit_reason field of the emulation_failure structure
>>   (dmatlack)
>> 
>> David Edmondson (2):
>>   KVM: x86: Add kvm_x86_ops.get_exit_reason
>>   KVM: x86: On emulation failure, convey the exit reason to userspace
>> 
>>  arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h |  1 +
>>  arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h    |  3 +++
>>  arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c             |  6 ++++++
>>  arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c             | 11 +++++++----
>>  arch/x86/kvm/x86.c                 | 22 +++++++++++++---------
>>  include/uapi/linux/kvm.h           |  7 +++++++
>>  6 files changed, 37 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
>> 
>> -- 
>> 2.30.2
>> 

dme.
-- 
It's gettin', it's gettin', it's gettin' kinda hectic.