Re: [PATCH v2 01/16] KVM: x86: Rename register accessors to be GPR-specific
From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Tue Mar 10 2026 - 19:12:44 EST
On Tue, Mar 10, 2026, Chang S. Bae wrote:
> On 3/9/2026 6:23 PM, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> >
> > Oh, yikes, I didn't even see that this series is playing games with the register
> > indices.
> >
> > Whatever we do, the changelog asbolutely needs to call out the real motiviation.
>
> Given the discussion here, it looks so apparent the changelog is missing
> that detail. I'll ensure something like what you wrote here to the revision.
>
> > I'll try to come back to this tomorrow with more complete thoughts and hopefully
>
> Sure, you call it. I know you have a lot on your plate, so I hope you feel
> free to take your time. Thanks!
>
> > E.g. passing in VCPU_REGS_RIP to kvm_gpr_read() will compile just fine, but will
> > read the wrong register on APX capable hardware.
>
> Right, so new semantics likely need to be established. As responded before,
> one option would be separate them in structure:
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> index ff07c45e3c73..ff8a317be5cf 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> @@ -795,10 +795,14 @@ enum kvm_only_cpuid_leafs {
>
> struct kvm_vcpu_arch {
> /*
> - * rip and regs accesses must go through
> - * kvm_{register,rip}_{read,write} functions.
> + * regs accesses must go through kvm_register_{read,write}
> + * functions.
> */
> unsigned long regs[NR_VCPU_REGS];
> +
> + /* rip accesses must go through kvm_rip_{read,write} */
> + unsigned long rip;
Ya, this is where I ended up too. And then as prep work, we can and should
convert regs_{avail,dirty} to proper bitmaps so that the size can be dynamic
for 32-bit vs. 64-bit vs. APX-capable (or we could just use a "unsigned long",
it would only change what BUILD_BUG_ON()s are needed).
E.g. I have
unsigned long regs[NR_VCPU_GENERAL_PURPOSE_REGS];
unsigned long rip;
DECLARE_BITMAP(regs_avail, NR_VCPU_TOTAL_REGS);
DECLARE_BITMAP(regs_dirty, NR_VCPU_TOTAL_REGS);
and then the below as a final testing hack for APX. I should be able to post a
small series later today, which will map out out most of the register crud (I
didn't do anything with the emulator, so it's not a complete prep series, but
it should be enough to allow us to choose a direction).
enum kvm_reg {
VCPU_REGS_RAX = __VCPU_REGS_RAX,
VCPU_REGS_RCX = __VCPU_REGS_RCX,
VCPU_REGS_RDX = __VCPU_REGS_RDX,
VCPU_REGS_RBX = __VCPU_REGS_RBX,
VCPU_REGS_RSP = __VCPU_REGS_RSP,
VCPU_REGS_RBP = __VCPU_REGS_RBP,
VCPU_REGS_RSI = __VCPU_REGS_RSI,
VCPU_REGS_RDI = __VCPU_REGS_RDI,
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_64
VCPU_REGS_R8 = __VCPU_REGS_R8,
VCPU_REGS_R9 = __VCPU_REGS_R9,
VCPU_REGS_R10 = __VCPU_REGS_R10,
VCPU_REGS_R11 = __VCPU_REGS_R11,
VCPU_REGS_R12 = __VCPU_REGS_R12,
VCPU_REGS_R13 = __VCPU_REGS_R13,
VCPU_REGS_R14 = __VCPU_REGS_R14,
VCPU_REGS_R15 = __VCPU_REGS_R15,
#define CONFIG_X86_APX
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_APX
VCPU_REG_R16 = VCPU_REGS_R15 + 1,
VCPU_REG_R17,
VCPU_REG_R18,
VCPU_REG_R19,
VCPU_REG_R20,
VCPU_REG_R21,
VCPU_REG_R22,
VCPU_REG_R23,
VCPU_REG_R24,
VCPU_REG_R25,
VCPU_REG_R26,
VCPU_REG_R27,
VCPU_REG_R28,
VCPU_REG_R29,
VCPU_REG_R30,
VCPU_REG_R31,
#endif
NR_VCPU_GENERAL_PURPOSE_REGS,
VCPU_REG_RIP = NR_VCPU_GENERAL_PURPOSE_REGS,
VCPU_REG_PDPTR,
VCPU_REG_CR0,
/*
* Alias AMD's ERAPS (not a real register) to CR3 so that common code
* can trigger emulation of the RAP (Return Address Predictor) with
* minimal support required in common code. Piggyback CR3 as the RAP
* is cleared on writes to CR3, i.e. marking CR3 dirty will naturally
* mark ERAPS dirty as well.
*/
VCPU_REG_CR3,
VCPU_REG_ERAPS = VCPU_REG_CR3,
VCPU_REG_CR4,
VCPU_REG_RFLAGS,
VCPU_REG_SEGMENTS,
VCPU_REG_EXIT_INFO_1,
VCPU_REG_EXIT_INFO_2,
NR_VCPU_TOTAL_REGS,
};