Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH 07/11] x86/altp2m: introduce p2m_ram_rw_ve type.

[Tim Deegan <tim@xxxxxxx>]

At 10:35 -0800 on 16 Jan (1421400901), Ed White wrote:
> On 01/16/2015 09:52 AM, Tim Deegan wrote:
> > At 12:38 -0800 on 15 Jan (1421321902), Ed White wrote:
> >> On 01/15/2015 09:03 AM, Tim Deegan wrote:
> >>> At 13:26 -0800 on 09 Jan (1420806397), Ed White wrote:
> >>>> This is treated exactly like p2m_ram_rw, except that suppress_ve is not
> >>>> set in the EPTE.
> >>>
> >>> I don't think this is going to work -- you probably want to support
> >>> p2m_ram_ro at least, and maybe other types, but duplicating each of
> >>> them as a 'type foo with #VE' doesn't seem right.
> >>>
> >>> Since the default is to set the ignore-#ve flag everywhere, how about
> >>> having an operation to enable #ve for a frame that just clears that
> >>> bit, and then having all other updates to altp2m entries preserve it?
> >>
> >> I hear you, but #VE is only even relevant for the in-domain agent
> >> model, and as the only current user of that model we not only don't
> >> want #VE to work on other page types, we specifically want it to be
> >> prohibited.
> > 
> > I see.  I think it would be very useful if you could add some
> > documentation of the new feature, covering this sort of thing, as well
> > as the exact semantics of the hypercalls.
> > 
> >> Can we do it this way, and then change it later if required?
> > 
> > No thank you.  It shouldn't be hard to do it the clean way from the
> > start.
> 
> The problem with doing it the clean way is that I have to use EPTE
> bit 63 even on hardware that doesn't support it. That's not a
> problem hardware-wise, because, at least for Intel, bit 63 is don't
> care for non-#VE hardware. It does mean Xen can't use it for
> anything else though.

That's fine for Xen.  In particular I can't imagine any other use that
Xen would have for that bit where we'd want it to be compatible with
emulated #VE but not real #VE.

Cheers,

Tim.

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