[PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[Simon Ser]

There have suggestions to bake pitch alignment, address alignement,
contiguous memory or other placement (hidden VRAM, GTT/BAR, etc)
constraints into modifiers. Last time this was brought up it seemed
like the consensus was to not allow this. Document this in drm_fourcc.h.

There are several reasons for this.

- Encoding all of these constraints in the modifiers would explode the
  search space pretty quickly (we only have 64 bits to work with).
- Modifiers need to be unambiguous: a buffer can only have a single
  modifier.
- Modifier users aren't expected to parse modifiers.

Signed-off-by: Simon Ser <contact@emersion.fr>
Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>
Cc: Daniel Stone <daniel@fooishbar.org>
Cc: Bas Nieuwenhuizen <bas@basnieuwenhuizen.nl>
Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
Cc: Marek Olšák <maraeo@gmail.com>
---
 include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
index 490143500a50..97eb0f1cf9f8 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
@@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ extern "C" {
  * may preserve meaning - such as number of planes - from the fourcc code,
  * whereas others may not.
  *
+ * Modifiers must uniquely encode buffer layout. In other words, a buffer must
+ * match only a single modifier. A modifier must not be a subset of layouts of
+ * another modifier. For instance, it's incorrect to encode pitch alignment in
+ * a modifier: a buffer may match a 64-pixel aligned modifier and a 32-pixel
+ * aligned modifier. That said, modifiers can have implicit minimal
+ * requirements.
+ *
+ * Users see modifiers as opaque tokens they can check for equality and
+ * intersect. Users musn't need to know to reason about the modifier value
+ * (i.e. users are not expected to extract information out of the modifier).
+ *
  * Vendors should document their modifier usage in as much detail as
  * possible, to ensure maximum compatibility across devices, drivers and
  * applications.
-- 
2.26.2


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Re: [PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[Daniel Vetter]

On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 08:52:00AM +0000, Simon Ser wrote:
> There have suggestions to bake pitch alignment, address alignement,
> contiguous memory or other placement (hidden VRAM, GTT/BAR, etc)
> constraints into modifiers. Last time this was brought up it seemed
> like the consensus was to not allow this. Document this in drm_fourcc.h.
> 
> There are several reasons for this.
> 
> - Encoding all of these constraints in the modifiers would explode the
>   search space pretty quickly (we only have 64 bits to work with).
> - Modifiers need to be unambiguous: a buffer can only have a single
>   modifier.
> - Modifier users aren't expected to parse modifiers.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Simon Ser <contact@emersion.fr>
> Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>
> Cc: Daniel Stone <daniel@fooishbar.org>
> Cc: Bas Nieuwenhuizen <bas@basnieuwenhuizen.nl>
> Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
> Cc: Marek Olšák <maraeo@gmail.com>
> ---
>  include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h | 11 +++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> index 490143500a50..97eb0f1cf9f8 100644
> --- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> +++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> @@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ extern "C" {
>   * may preserve meaning - such as number of planes - from the fourcc code,
>   * whereas others may not.
>   *
> + * Modifiers must uniquely encode buffer layout. In other words, a buffer must
> + * match only a single modifier. A modifier must not be a subset of layouts of
> + * another modifier. For instance, it's incorrect to encode pitch alignment in
> + * a modifier: a buffer may match a 64-pixel aligned modifier and a 32-pixel
> + * aligned modifier. That said, modifiers can have implicit minimal
> + * requirements.

I think we should also add the aliasing when the fourcc codes are
involved, with afbc as example. Maybe:

For modifiers where the combination of fourcc code and modifier can alias,
a canonical pair needs to be defined and used by all drivers. An example
is afbc, where both argb and abgr have the exact same compressed layout.

With something like that added:

Reviewed-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>


> + *
> + * Users see modifiers as opaque tokens they can check for equality and
> + * intersect. Users musn't need to know to reason about the modifier value
> + * (i.e. users are not expected to extract information out of the modifier).
> + *
>   * Vendors should document their modifier usage in as much detail as
>   * possible, to ensure maximum compatibility across devices, drivers and
>   * applications.
> -- 
> 2.26.2
> 
> 

-- 
Daniel Vetter
Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
http://blog.ffwll.ch
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Re: [PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[Brian Starkey]

On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 10:55:34AM +0200, Daniel Vetter wrote:
> On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 08:52:00AM +0000, Simon Ser wrote:
> > There have suggestions to bake pitch alignment, address alignement,
> > contiguous memory or other placement (hidden VRAM, GTT/BAR, etc)
> > constraints into modifiers. Last time this was brought up it seemed
> > like the consensus was to not allow this. Document this in drm_fourcc.h.
> > 
> > There are several reasons for this.
> > 
> > - Encoding all of these constraints in the modifiers would explode the
> >   search space pretty quickly (we only have 64 bits to work with).
> > - Modifiers need to be unambiguous: a buffer can only have a single
> >   modifier.
> > - Modifier users aren't expected to parse modifiers.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Simon Ser <contact@emersion.fr>
> > Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>
> > Cc: Daniel Stone <daniel@fooishbar.org>
> > Cc: Bas Nieuwenhuizen <bas@basnieuwenhuizen.nl>
> > Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
> > Cc: Marek Olšák <maraeo@gmail.com>
> > ---
> >  include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h | 11 +++++++++++
> >  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > index 490143500a50..97eb0f1cf9f8 100644
> > --- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > +++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > @@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ extern "C" {
> >   * may preserve meaning - such as number of planes - from the fourcc code,
> >   * whereas others may not.
> >   *
> > + * Modifiers must uniquely encode buffer layout. In other words, a buffer must
> > + * match only a single modifier. A modifier must not be a subset of layouts of
> > + * another modifier. For instance, it's incorrect to encode pitch alignment in
> > + * a modifier: a buffer may match a 64-pixel aligned modifier and a 32-pixel
> > + * aligned modifier. That said, modifiers can have implicit minimal
> > + * requirements.
> 
> I think we should also add the aliasing when the fourcc codes are
> involved, with afbc as example. Maybe:
> 
> For modifiers where the combination of fourcc code and modifier can alias,
> a canonical pair needs to be defined and used by all drivers. An example
> is afbc, where both argb and abgr have the exact same compressed layout.

That's actually explicitly _not_ the case for AFBC, which was one of
the things I was trying to document in afbc.rst.

> 
> With something like that added:
> 
> Reviewed-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>
> 
> 
> > + *
> > + * Users see modifiers as opaque tokens they can check for equality and
> > + * intersect. Users musn't need to know to reason about the modifier value
> > + * (i.e. users are not expected to extract information out of the modifier).
> > + *

Doesn't this conflict with "implicit minimal requirements" above?

Certainly for a bunch of different AFBC modifiers, the allocator would
need to understand some fields in order to properly align-up the
buffer size.

Thanks,
-Brian

> >   * Vendors should document their modifier usage in as much detail as
> >   * possible, to ensure maximum compatibility across devices, drivers and
> >   * applications.
> > -- 
> > 2.26.2
> > 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Vetter
> Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
> http://blog.ffwll.ch
> _______________________________________________
> dri-devel mailing list
> dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org
> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel
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Re: [PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[Simon Ser]

> > > + * Users see modifiers as opaque tokens they can check for equality and
> > > + * intersect. Users musn't need to know to reason about the modifier value
> > > + * (i.e. users are not expected to extract information out of the modifier).
> > > + *
>
> Doesn't this conflict with "implicit minimal requirements" above?

Ah, when I wrote "users", I meant "non-driver users": programs like
compositors and user-space applications. Of course kernel and user-space
drivers can extract information out of the modifiers. Is this why there's some
confusion here?

> Certainly for a bunch of different AFBC modifiers, the allocator would
> need to understand some fields in order to properly align-up the
> buffer size.

It's probably a little early to speculate on the future allocator design. For
instance, instead of having a monolithic allocator, the kernel driver (and
other buffer consumers) could advertise a list of constraints for each
format/modifier. That way no-one would need to extract information out of
modifiers to figure out alignment (but maybe drivers would still want to, to
reject bad imports for instance). But again, I'm just throwing ideas around at
this point.

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Re: [PATCH] drm/fourcc: document modifier uniqueness requirements

[Daniel Vetter]

On Mon, Jun 01, 2020 at 11:35:54AM +0100, Brian Starkey wrote:
> On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 10:55:34AM +0200, Daniel Vetter wrote:
> > On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 08:52:00AM +0000, Simon Ser wrote:
> > > There have suggestions to bake pitch alignment, address alignement,
> > > contiguous memory or other placement (hidden VRAM, GTT/BAR, etc)
> > > constraints into modifiers. Last time this was brought up it seemed
> > > like the consensus was to not allow this. Document this in drm_fourcc.h.
> > > 
> > > There are several reasons for this.
> > > 
> > > - Encoding all of these constraints in the modifiers would explode the
> > >   search space pretty quickly (we only have 64 bits to work with).
> > > - Modifiers need to be unambiguous: a buffer can only have a single
> > >   modifier.
> > > - Modifier users aren't expected to parse modifiers.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: Simon Ser <contact@emersion.fr>
> > > Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>
> > > Cc: Daniel Stone <daniel@fooishbar.org>
> > > Cc: Bas Nieuwenhuizen <bas@basnieuwenhuizen.nl>
> > > Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
> > > Cc: Marek Olšák <maraeo@gmail.com>
> > > ---
> > >  include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h | 11 +++++++++++
> > >  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
> > > 
> > > diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > > index 490143500a50..97eb0f1cf9f8 100644
> > > --- a/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > > +++ b/include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h
> > > @@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ extern "C" {
> > >   * may preserve meaning - such as number of planes - from the fourcc code,
> > >   * whereas others may not.
> > >   *
> > > + * Modifiers must uniquely encode buffer layout. In other words, a buffer must
> > > + * match only a single modifier. A modifier must not be a subset of layouts of
> > > + * another modifier. For instance, it's incorrect to encode pitch alignment in
> > > + * a modifier: a buffer may match a 64-pixel aligned modifier and a 32-pixel
> > > + * aligned modifier. That said, modifiers can have implicit minimal
> > > + * requirements.
> > 
> > I think we should also add the aliasing when the fourcc codes are
> > involved, with afbc as example. Maybe:
> > 
> > For modifiers where the combination of fourcc code and modifier can alias,
> > a canonical pair needs to be defined and used by all drivers. An example
> > is afbc, where both argb and abgr have the exact same compressed layout.
> 
> That's actually explicitly _not_ the case for AFBC, which was one of
> the things I was trying to document in afbc.rst.

I guess I wasn't clear: I wanted to highlight afbc as one modifier where
we discussed this aliasing problem, and worded the entire spec to make
sure the aliasing doesn't happen.
> 
> > 
> > With something like that added:
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>
> > 
> > 
> > > + *
> > > + * Users see modifiers as opaque tokens they can check for equality and
> > > + * intersect. Users musn't need to know to reason about the modifier value
> > > + * (i.e. users are not expected to extract information out of the modifier).
> > > + *
> 
> Doesn't this conflict with "implicit minimal requirements" above?
> 
> Certainly for a bunch of different AFBC modifiers, the allocator would
> need to understand some fields in order to properly align-up the
> buffer size.

There's kinda two side to the modifier coin:

- one is how this all looks to the higher levels sitting on top of
  egl/kms/... For those modifiers should be opaque things. And we really
  don't care how much they alias, since worst case it's just a bunch more
  modifiers to compare and pass around.

- the other side is the implement. For that side it very much matters that
  modifiers don't alias badly, so that we can avoid cases where the hw
  supports a common format, but the drivers use different aliases to
  discribe it, preventing buffer sharing in an efficient format.

Finally we never let higher levels allocate the buffers, it's always just
some low-level allocator that does that (gbm, egl, ...). And those lower
levels obviously should understand the implementation and alignment
constraints of the modifiers involved.

Should we make this split a bit clearer of how this is supposed to work in
userspace?
-Daniel


> 
> Thanks,
> -Brian
> 
> > >   * Vendors should document their modifier usage in as much detail as
> > >   * possible, to ensure maximum compatibility across devices, drivers and
> > >   * applications.
> > > -- 
> > > 2.26.2
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Daniel Vetter
> > Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
> > http://blog.ffwll.ch
> > _______________________________________________
> > dri-devel mailing list
> > dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org
> > https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel

-- 
Daniel Vetter
Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
http://blog.ffwll.ch
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