Re: [PATCH] vfio/pci: Support error recovery

[Alex Williamson <alex.williamson@redhat.com>]

On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 18:12:34 +0200
"Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 08:39:48PM -0700, Alex Williamson wrote:
> > On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 05:15:13 +0200
> > "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com> wrote:
> >   
> > > On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 03:43:13PM -0700, Alex Williamson wrote:  
> > > > > So just don't do it then. Topology must match between host and guest,
> > > > > except maybe for the case of devices with host driver  (e.g. PF)
> > > > > which we might be able to synchronize against.    
> > > > 
> > > > We're talking about host kernel level handling here.  The host kernel
> > > > cannot defer the link reset to the user under the assumption that the
> > > > user is handling the devices in a very specific way.  The moment we do
> > > > that, we've lost.    
> > > 
> > > The way is same as baremetal though, so why not?  
> > 
> > How do we know this?  What if the user is dpdk?  The kernel is
> > responsible for maintaining the integrity of the system and devices,
> > not the user.
> >   
> > > And if user doesn't do what's expected, we can
> > > do the full link reset on close.  
> > 
> > That's exactly my point, if we're talking about multiple devices,
> > there's no guarantee that the close() for each is simultaneous.  If one
> > function is released before the other we cannot do a bus reset.  If
> > that device is then opened by another user before its sibling is
> > released, then we once again cannot perform a link reset.  I don't
> > think it would be reasonable to mark the released device quarantined
> > until the sibling is released, that would be a terrible user experience.  
> 
> Not sure why you find it so terrible, and I don't think there's another way.

If we can't do it without regressing the support we currently have,
let's not do it at all.