Re: [PATCH v3 8/9] userfaultfd: update documentation to describe minor fault handling

[Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>]

On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 02:48:18PM -0800, Axel Rasmussen wrote:
> Reword / reorganize things a little bit into "lists", so new features /
> modes / ioctls can sort of just be appended.
> 
> Describe how UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MINOR and UFFDIO_CONTINUE can be used
> to intercept and resolve minor faults. Make it clear that COPY and
> ZEROPAGE are used for MISSING faults, whereas CONTINUE is used for MINOR
> faults.

Bare with me since I'm not native speaker.. but I'm pointing out things that
reads odd to me.  Feel free to argue. :)

[...]

> +Resolving Userfaults
> +--------------------
> +
> +There are three basic ways to resolve userfaults:
> +
> +- ``UFFDIO_COPY`` atomically copies some existing page contents from
> +  userspace.
> +
> +- ``UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE`` atomically zeros the new page.
> +
> +- ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE`` maps an existing, previously-populated page.
> +
> +These operations are atomic in the sense that they guarantee nothing can
> +see a half-populated page, since readers will keep userfaulting until the
> +operation has finished.
> +
> +By default, these wake up userfaults blocked on the range in question.
> +They support a ``UFFDIO_*_MODE_DONTWAKE`` ``mode`` flag, which indicates
> +that waking will be done separately at some later time.
> +
> +Which of these are used depends on the kind of fault:

Maybe:

"We should choose the ioctl depending on the kind of the page fault, and what
 we'd like to do with it:"

?

> +
> +- For ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` faults, a new page has to be
> +  provided. This can be done with either ``UFFDIO_COPY`` or

UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE does not need a new page.

> +  ``UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE``. The default (non-userfaultfd) behavior would be to
> +  provide a zero page, but in userfaultfd this is left up to userspace.

"By default, kernel will provide a zero page for a missing fault.  With
 userfaultfd, the userspace could decide which content to provide before the
 faulted thread continues." ?

> +
> +- For ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MINOR`` faults, an existing page already

"page cache existed"?

> +  exists. Userspace needs to ensure its contents are correct (if it needs
> +  to be modified, by writing directly to the non-userfaultfd-registered
> +  side of shared memory), and then issue ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE`` to resolve
> +  the fault.

"... Userspace can modify the page content before asking the faulted thread to
 continue the fault with UFFDIO_CONTINUE ioctl." ?

-- 
Peter Xu