[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Message-ID: <20110519234154.GA13784@redhat.com>
Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 02:41:54 +0300
From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>
To: Shirley Ma <mashirle@...ibm.com>
Cc: Michał Mirosław <mirqus@...il.com>,
Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com>,
David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@...il.com>,
Avi Kivity <avi@...hat.com>, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
netdev@...r.kernel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH V5 2/6 net-next] netdevice.h: Add zero-copy flag in
netdevice
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 12:42:49PM -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-05-18 at 10:00 -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> > On Wed, 2011-05-18 at 19:51 +0300, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > > > > Yes, I agree. I think for tcpdump, we really need to copy the
> > > data
> > > > > anyway, to avoid guest changing it in between. So we do that
> > and
> > > then
> > > > > use the copy everywhere, release the old one. Hmm?
> > > >
> > > > Yes. Old one use zerocopy, new one use copy data.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > > Shirley
> > >
> > > No, that's wrong, as they might become different with a
> > > malicious guest. As long as we copied already, lets realease
> > > the data and have everyone use the copy.
> >
> > Ok, I will patch pskb_expand_head to test it out.
>
> I am patching skb_copy, skb_clone, pskb_copy, pskb_expand_head to
> convert a zero-copy skb to a copy skb to avoid this kind of issue.
>
> This overhead won't impact macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy normally.
>
> Shirley
OK, that will handle packet socket at least in that it won't crash :)
So the requirements are
- data must be released in a timely fashion (e.g. unlike virtio-net
tun or bridge)
- no filtering based on data (data is mapped in guest)
- SG support
- HIGHDMA support (on arches where this makes sense)
- on fast path no calls to skb_copy, skb_clone, pskb_copy,
pskb_expand_head as these are slow
First 2 requirements are a must, all other requirements
are just dependencies to make sure zero copy will be faster
than non zero copy.
Using a new feature bit is probably the simplest approach to
this. macvtap on top of most physical NICs most likely works
correctly so it seems a bit more work than it needs to be,
but it's also the safest one I think ...
--
MST
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Powered by blists - more mailing lists