Re: [PATCH] docs: kvm: Fix KVM_KVMCLOCK_CTRL API doc

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Fri May 01 2020 - 16:51:10 EST


On Fri, May 01, 2020 at 04:32:34PM -0400, Joshua Abraham wrote:
> On Fri, May 01, 2020 at 01:18:36PM -0700, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > No, the current documentation is correct. It's probably not as clear as
> > it could be, but it's accurate as written. More below.
> >
> > The ioctl() signals to the host kernel that host userspace has paused the
> > vCPU.
> >
> > > The host will set a flag in the pvclock structure that is checked
> >
> > The host kernel, i.e. KVM, then takes that information and forwards it to
> > the guest kernel via the aforementioned pvclock flag.
> >
> > The proposed change would imply the ioctl() is somehow getting routed
> > directly to the guest, which is wrong.
>
> The rationale is that the guest is what consumes the pvclock flag, the
> host kernel does nothing interesting (from the API caller perspective)
> besides setting up the kvmclock update. The ioctl calls kvm_set_guest_paused()
> which even has a comment saying "[it] indicates to the guest kernel that it has
> been stopped by the hypervisor." I think that the docs first sentence should
> clearly reflect that the API tells the guest that it has been paused.

I don't disagree, but simply doing s/host/guest yields a misleading
sentence and inconsistencies with the rest of the paragraph.