Date:   Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:35:54 -0500
From:   Peter Xu <peterx@...hat.com>
To:     David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Cc:     Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@...labora.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        kernel@...labora.com, Paul Gofman <pgofman@...eweavers.com>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 1/2] mm/userfaultfd: Support WP on multiple VMAs

On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 09:53:47AM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> On 16.02.23 21:25, Peter Xu wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 16, 2023 at 10:37:36AM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> > > On 16.02.23 10:16, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
> > > > mwriteprotect_range() errors out if [start, end) doesn't fall in one
> > > > VMA. We are facing a use case where multiple VMAs are present in one
> > > > range of interest. For example, the following pseudocode reproduces the
> > > > error which we are trying to fix:
> > > > - Allocate memory of size 16 pages with PROT_NONE with mmap
> > > > - Register userfaultfd
> > > > - Change protection of the first half (1 to 8 pages) of memory to
> > > >     PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE. This breaks the memory area in two VMAs.
> > > > - Now UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT_MODE_WP on the whole memory of 16 pages errors
> > > >     out.
> > > 
> > > I think, in QEMU, with partial madvise()/mmap(MAP_FIXED) while handling
> > > memory remapping during reboot to discard pages with memory errors, it would
> > > be possible that we get multiple VMAs and could not enable uffd-wp for
> > > background snapshots anymore. So this change makes sense to me.
> > 
> > Any pointer for this one?
> 
> In qemu, softmmu/physmem.c:qemu_ram_remap() is instructed on reboot to remap
> VMAs due to MCE pages. We apply QEMU_MADV_MERGEABLE (if configured for the
> machine) and QEMU_MADV_DONTDUMP (if configured for the machine), so the
> kernel could merge the VMAs again.
> 
> (a) From experiments (~2 years ago), I recall that some VMAs won't get
> merged again ever. I faintly remember that this was the case for hugetlb. It
> might have changed in the meantime, haven't tried it again. But looking at
> is_mergeable_vma(), we refuse to merge with vma->vm_ops->close. I think that
> might be set for hugetlb (hugetlb_vm_op_close).
> 
> (b) We don't consider memory-backend overrides, like toggling a backend
> QEMU_MADV_MERGEABLE or QEMU_MADV_DONTDUMP from backends/hostmem.c, resulting
> in multiple unmergable VMAs.
> 
> (c) We don't consider memory-backend  mbind() we don't re-apply the mbind()
> policy, resulting in unmergable VMAs.
> 
> 
> The correct way to handle (b) and (c) would be to notify the memory backend,
> to let it reapply the correct flags, and to reapply the mbind() policy (I
> once had patches for that, have to look them up again).

Makes sense.  There should be a single entry for reloading a RAM with the
specified properties rather than randomly applying when we noticed.

> 
> So in these rare setups with MCEs, we would be getting more VMAs and while
> the uffd-wp registration would succeed, uffd-wp protection would fail.
> 
> Not that this is purely theoretical, people don't heavily use background
> snapshots yet, so I am not aware of any reports. Further, I consider it only
> to happen very rarely (MCE+reboot+a/b/c).
> 
> So it's more of a "the app doesn't necessarily keep track of the exact
> VMAs".

Agree.

> 
> [I am not sure sure how helpful remapping !anon memory really is, we should
> be getting the same messed-up MCE pages from the fd again, but that's a
> different discussion I guess]

Yes it sounds like a bug to me.  I'm afraid what it really wanted here is
actually not remap but truncation in strict semantics.  I think the
hwpoison code in QEMU is just slightly buggy all around - e.g. I found that
qemu_ram_remap() probably wants to use host psize not the guest.

But let's not pollute the mailing lists anymore; thanks for the context!

-- 
Peter Xu

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