linux-kernel - [PATCH v3 3/3] Documentation: kvm: new UAPI for handling SEA

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Message-ID: <20250731205844.1346839-4-jiaqiyan@google.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:58:44 +0000
From: Jiaqi Yan <jiaqiyan@...gle.com>
To: maz@...nel.org, oliver.upton@...ux.dev
Cc: joey.gouly@....com, suzuki.poulose@....com, yuzenghui@...wei.com, 
	catalin.marinas@....com, will@...nel.org, pbonzini@...hat.com, corbet@....net, 
	shuah@...nel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org, kvmarm@...ts.linux.dev, 
	linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
	linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org, 
	duenwen@...gle.com, rananta@...gle.com, jthoughton@...gle.com, 
	Jiaqi Yan <jiaqiyan@...gle.com>
Subject: [PATCH v3 3/3] Documentation: kvm: new UAPI for handling SEA

Document the new userspace-visible features and APIs for handling
synchronous external abort (SEA)
- KVM_CAP_ARM_SEA_TO_USER: How userspace enables the new feature.
- KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA: exit userspace gets when it needs to handle SEA
  and what userspace gets while taking the SEA.

Signed-off-by: Jiaqi Yan <jiaqiyan@...gle.com>
---
 Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst | 61 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 61 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
index 53e0179d52949..b61bca10a3a10 100644
--- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
@@ -7231,6 +7231,55 @@ exit, even without calls to ``KVM_ENABLE_CAP`` or similar.  In this case,
 it will enter with output fields already valid; in the common case, the
 ``unknown.ret`` field of the union will be ``TDVMCALL_STATUS_SUBFUNC_UNSUPPORTED``.
 Userspace need not do anything if it does not wish to support a TDVMCALL.
+
+::
+		/* KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA */
+		struct {
+			__u64 esr;
+			#define KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA_FLAG_GPA_VALID   (1ULL << 0)
+			__u64 flags;
+			__u64 gva;
+			__u64 gpa;
+		} arm_sea;
+
+Used on arm64 systems. When the VM capability KVM_CAP_ARM_SEA_TO_USER is
+enabled, a VM exit is generated if guest causes a synchronous external abort
+(SEA) and the host APEI fails to handle the SEA.
+
+Historically KVM handles SEA by first delegating the SEA to host APEI as there
+is high chance that the SEA is caused by consuming uncorrected memory error.
+However, not all platforms support SEA handling in APEI, and KVM's fallback
+handling is to inject an async SError into the guest, which usually panics
+guest kernel unpleasantly. As an alternative, userspace can participate in
+the SEA handling by enabling KVM_CAP_ARM_SEA_TO_USER at VM creation, after
+querying the capability. Once enabled, when KVM has to handle the guest
+caused SEA, it returns to userspace with KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA, with details
+about the SEA available in 'arm_sea'.
+
+The 'esr' field holds the value of the exception syndrome register (ESR) while
+KVM taking the SEA, which tells userspace the character of the current SEA,
+such as its Exception Class, Synchronous Error Type, Fault Specific Code and
+so on. For more details on ESR, check the Arm Architecture Registers
+documentation.
+
+The following values are defined for the 'flags' field
+
+  - KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA_FLAG_GPA_VALID -- the faulting guest physical address
+    is valid and userspace can get its value in the 'gpa' field.
+
+Note userspace can tell whether the faulting guest virtual address is valid
+from the FnV bit in 'esr' field. If FnV bit in 'esr' field is not set, the
+'gva' field holds the valid faulting guest virtual address.
+
+Userspace needs to take actions to handle guest SEA synchronously, namely in
+the same thread that runs KVM_RUN and receives KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA. One of the
+encouraged approach is to utilize the KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS to inject the SEA
+to the faulting VCPU. This way, the guest has the opportunity to keep running
+and limit the blast radius of the SEA to the particular guest application that
+caused the SEA. Userspace may also emulate the SEA to VM by itself using the
+KVM_SET_ONE_REG API. In this case, it can use the valid values from 'gva' and
+'gpa' fields to manipulate VCPU's registers (e.g. FAR_EL1, HPFAR_EL1).
+
 ::
 
 		/* Fix the size of the union. */
@@ -8625,6 +8674,18 @@ This capability indicate to the userspace whether a PFNMAP memory region
 can be safely mapped as cacheable. This relies on the presence of
 force write back (FWB) feature support on the hardware.
 
+7.45 KVM_CAP_ARM_SEA_TO_USER
+----------------------------
+
+:Architecture: arm64
+:Target: VM
+:Parameters: none
+:Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL if unsupported.
+
+This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is available, means
+that KVM has an implementation that allows userspace to participate in handling
+synchronous external abort caused by VM, by an exit of KVM_EXIT_ARM_SEA.
+
 8. Other capabilities.
 ======================
 
-- 
2.50.1.565.gc32cd1483b-goog