Re: [Xen-devel] Regression: x86/mm: new _PTE_SWP_SOFT_DIRTY bit conflicts with existing use

[Pavel Emelyanov <xemul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 08/21/2013 11:07 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 12:03 PM, Cyrill Gorcunov <gorcunov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 08:50:26PM +0200, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>>> But is there a manifest bug or not?  What is the deal with Xen?
>>>
>>
>> I personally don't see bug here because
>>
>>  - this swapped page soft dirty bit is set for non-present entries only,
>>    never for present ones, just at moment we form swap pte entry
>>
>>  - i don't find any code which would test for this bit directly without
>>    is_swap_pte call
>>
>> but the use of paw bit itself is confusing, so I'm working on patch which
>> won't use it. Again, if someone knows where exactly access to pse bit when
>> pte keeps swap entry may happen (for any purpose other than dirty page
>> tracking) please share.
> 
> I doubt that there are cacheability issues here, since the swap type
> already overlaps with PWT and PCD.
> 
> What happens if the page being swapped is a THP page?  (I have no idea
> how, or even if, this works, but presumably PSE is important.)

Huge-page is splitted into small ones, then the smaller ones get swapped out.

> --Andy
> 



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