Re: [Xen-devel] xen_exit_mmap() questions

[Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 3:45 PM, Boris Ostrovsky
<boris.ostrovsky@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 04/26/2017 04:52 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> I was trying to understand xen_drop_mm_ref() to update it for some
>> changes I'm working on, and I'm wondering whether we need
>> xen_exit_mmap() at all.
>>
>> AFAICS the intent is to force all CPUs to drop their lazy uses of the
>> mm being destroyed so it can be unpinned before tearing down the page
>> tables, thus making it faster to tear down the page tables.  This
>> seems like it'll speed up xen_set_pud() and xen_set_pmd(), but this
>> seems like it may be of rather limited value.
>
> Why do you think it's of limited value? Without it we will end up with a
> hypercall for each update.
>
> Or is your point that the number of those update is relatively small
> when we are tearing down?

The latter.  Also, unless I'm missing something, xen_set_pte() doesn't
have the optimization.  I haven't looked at exactly how page table
teardown works, but if it clears each PTE individually, then that's
the bulk of the work.

>
>
>>  Could we get away with
>> deleting it?
>>
>> Also, this code in drop_other_mm_ref() looks dubious to me:
>>
>>     /* If this cpu still has a stale cr3 reference, then make sure
>>        it has been flushed. */
>>     if (this_cpu_read(xen_current_cr3) == __pa(mm->pgd))
>>         load_cr3(swapper_pg_dir);
>>
>> If cr3 hasn't been flushed to the hypervisor because we're in a lazy
>> mode, why would load_cr3() help?  Shouldn't this be xen_mc_flush()
>> instead?
>
> load_cr3() actually ends with xen_mc_flush() by way of xen_write_cr3()
> -> xen_mc_issue().

xen_mc_issue() does:

        if ((paravirt_get_lazy_mode() & mode) == 0)
                xen_mc_flush();

I assume the load_cr3() is intended to deal with the case where we're
in lazy mode, but we'll still be in lazy mode, right?  Or does it
serve some other purpose?

--Andy

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