linux-kernel.vger.kernel.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
To: Nadav Amit <namit@vmware.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
	Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>,
	Edward Cree <ecree@solarflare.com>,
	"H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Nadav Amit <nadav.amit@gmail.com>, X86 ML <x86@kernel.org>,
	Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
	David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [RFC v2 1/6] x86: introduce kernel restartable sequence
Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:21:37 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87va35e61a.fsf@linux.intel.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20181231072112.21051-2-namit@vmware.com> (Nadav Amit's message of "Sun, 30 Dec 2018 23:21:07 -0800")

Nadav Amit <namit@vmware.com> writes:

I see another poor man's attempt to reinvent TSX.

> It is sometimes beneficial to have a restartable sequence - very few
> instructions which if they are preempted jump to a predefined point.
>
> To provide such functionality on x86-64, we use an empty REX-prefix
> (opcode 0x40) as an indication for instruction in such a sequence. Before
> calling the schedule IRQ routine, if the "magic" prefix is found, we
> call a routine to adjust the instruction pointer.  It is expected that
> this opcode is not in common use.

You cannot just assume something like that. x86 is a constantly
evolving architecture. The prefix might well have meaning at
some point.

Before doing something like that you would need to ask the CPU
vendors to reserve the sequence you're using for software use.

You're doing the equivalent of patching a private system call
into your own kernel without working with upstream, don't do that.

Better to find some other solution to do the restart.
How about simply using a per cpu variable? That should be cheaper
anyways.

-Andi

  parent reply	other threads:[~2019-01-03 22:21 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 42+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2018-12-31  7:21 [RFC v2 0/6] x86: dynamic indirect branch promotion Nadav Amit
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 1/6] x86: introduce kernel restartable sequence Nadav Amit
2018-12-31 20:08   ` Andy Lutomirski
2018-12-31 21:12     ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-03 22:21   ` Andi Kleen [this message]
2019-01-03 22:29     ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-03 22:48       ` Andi Kleen
2019-01-03 22:52         ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-03 23:40           ` Andi Kleen
2019-01-03 23:56             ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-04  0:34   ` hpa
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 2/6] objtool: ignore instructions Nadav Amit
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 3/6] x86: patch indirect branch promotion Nadav Amit
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 4/6] x86: interface for accessing indirect branch locations Nadav Amit
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 5/6] x86: learning and patching indirect branch targets Nadav Amit
2018-12-31 20:05   ` Andy Lutomirski
2018-12-31 21:07     ` Nadav Amit
2018-12-31  7:21 ` [RFC v2 6/6] x86: outline optpoline Nadav Amit
2018-12-31 19:51 ` [RFC v2 0/6] x86: dynamic indirect branch promotion Andy Lutomirski
2018-12-31 19:53   ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-03 18:10     ` Josh Poimboeuf
2019-01-03 18:30       ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-03 20:31         ` Josh Poimboeuf
2019-01-03 22:18 ` Andi Kleen
2019-01-07 16:32   ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-01-08  7:47     ` Adrian Hunter
2019-01-08  9:25       ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-01-08 10:01         ` Adrian Hunter
2019-01-08 10:10           ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-01-08 17:27             ` Andi Kleen
2019-01-08 18:28               ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-08 19:01                 ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-01-08 20:47                   ` Nadav Amit
2019-01-08 20:53                     ` Andi Kleen
2019-01-09 10:35                     ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-08-29  8:23                       ` Tracing text poke / kernel self-modifying code (Was: Re: [RFC v2 0/6] x86: dynamic indirect branch promotion) Adrian Hunter
2019-08-29  8:53                         ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-08-29  9:40                           ` Adrian Hunter
2019-08-29 11:46                             ` Peter Zijlstra
2019-09-12  7:00                               ` Adrian Hunter
2019-09-12 12:17                                 ` hpa
2019-01-08 18:57               ` [RFC v2 0/6] x86: dynamic indirect branch promotion Peter Zijlstra

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=87va35e61a.fsf@linux.intel.com \
    --to=ak@linux.intel.com \
    --cc=bp@alien8.de \
    --cc=dwmw@amazon.co.uk \
    --cc=ecree@solarflare.com \
    --cc=hpa@zytor.com \
    --cc=jpoimboe@redhat.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=luto@kernel.org \
    --cc=mingo@redhat.com \
    --cc=nadav.amit@gmail.com \
    --cc=namit@vmware.com \
    --cc=pabeni@redhat.com \
    --cc=peterz@infradead.org \
    --cc=tglx@linutronix.de \
    --cc=x86@kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).