Re: [PATCH 10/14] iommufd-lu: Implement ioctl to let userspace mark an HWPT to be preserved

From: Pranjal Shrivastava

Date: Wed Mar 25 2026 - 10:48:49 EST


On Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 10:09:44PM +0000, Samiullah Khawaja wrote:
> From: YiFei Zhu <zhuyifei@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Userspace provides a token, which will then be used at restore to
> identify this HWPT. The restoration logic is not implemented and will be
> added later.
>
> Signed-off-by: YiFei Zhu <zhuyifei@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Samiullah Khawaja <skhawaja@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> drivers/iommu/iommufd/Makefile | 1 +
> drivers/iommu/iommufd/iommufd_private.h | 13 +++++++
> drivers/iommu/iommufd/liveupdate.c | 49 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
> drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c | 2 +
> include/uapi/linux/iommufd.h | 19 ++++++++++
> 5 files changed, 84 insertions(+)
> create mode 100644 drivers/iommu/iommufd/liveupdate.c
>
> diff --git a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/Makefile b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/Makefile
> index 71d692c9a8f4..c3bf0b6452d3 100644
> --- a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/Makefile
> +++ b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/Makefile
> @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_IOMMUFD_DRIVER) += iova_bitmap.o
>
> iommufd_driver-y := driver.o
> obj-$(CONFIG_IOMMUFD_DRIVER_CORE) += iommufd_driver.o
> +obj-$(CONFIG_IOMMU_LIVEUPDATE) += liveupdate.o
> diff --git a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/iommufd_private.h b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/iommufd_private.h
> index eb6d1a70f673..6424e7cea5b2 100644
> --- a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/iommufd_private.h
> +++ b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/iommufd_private.h
> @@ -374,6 +374,10 @@ struct iommufd_hwpt_paging {
> bool auto_domain : 1;
> bool enforce_cache_coherency : 1;
> bool nest_parent : 1;
> +#ifdef CONFIG_IOMMU_LIVEUPDATE
> + bool lu_preserve : 1;
> + u32 lu_token;

Did we downsize the token? Shouldn't this be u64 as everywhere else?

> +#endif
> /* Head at iommufd_ioas::hwpt_list */
> struct list_head hwpt_item;
> struct iommufd_sw_msi_maps present_sw_msi;
> @@ -707,6 +711,15 @@ iommufd_get_vdevice(struct iommufd_ctx *ictx, u32 id)
> struct iommufd_vdevice, obj);
> }
>
> +#ifdef CONFIG_IOMMU_LIVEUPDATE
> +int iommufd_hwpt_lu_set_preserve(struct iommufd_ucmd *ucmd);
> +#else
> +static inline int iommufd_hwpt_lu_set_preserve(struct iommufd_ucmd *ucmd)
> +{
> + return -ENOTTY;
> +}
> +#endif
> +
> #ifdef CONFIG_IOMMUFD_TEST
> int iommufd_test(struct iommufd_ucmd *ucmd);
> void iommufd_selftest_destroy(struct iommufd_object *obj);
> diff --git a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/liveupdate.c b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/liveupdate.c
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..ae74f5b54735
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/liveupdate.c
> @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
> +
> +#define pr_fmt(fmt) "iommufd: " fmt
> +
> +#include <linux/file.h>
> +#include <linux/iommufd.h>
> +#include <linux/liveupdate.h>
> +
> +#include "iommufd_private.h"
> +
> +int iommufd_hwpt_lu_set_preserve(struct iommufd_ucmd *ucmd)
> +{
> + struct iommu_hwpt_lu_set_preserve *cmd = ucmd->cmd;
> + struct iommufd_hwpt_paging *hwpt_target, *hwpt;
> + struct iommufd_ctx *ictx = ucmd->ictx;
> + struct iommufd_object *obj;
> + unsigned long index;
> + int rc = 0;
> +
> + hwpt_target = iommufd_get_hwpt_paging(ucmd, cmd->hwpt_id);
> + if (IS_ERR(hwpt_target))
> + return PTR_ERR(hwpt_target);
> +
> + xa_lock(&ictx->objects);
> + xa_for_each(&ictx->objects, index, obj) {
> + if (obj->type != IOMMUFD_OBJ_HWPT_PAGING)
> + continue;

Couldn't these be HWPT_NESTED? Are we explicitly skipping HWPT_NESTED
here? ARM SMMUv3 heavily relies on IOMMU_DOMAIN_NESTED to back vIOMMUs
and hold critical guest translation state. We'd need to support
HWPT_NESTED for arm-smmu-v3.

> +
> + hwpt = container_of(obj, struct iommufd_hwpt_paging, common.obj);
> +
> + if (hwpt == hwpt_target)
> + continue;
> + if (!hwpt->lu_preserve)
> + continue;
> + if (hwpt->lu_token == cmd->hwpt_token) {
> + rc = -EADDRINUSE;
> + goto out;
> + }

I see that this entire loop is to avoid collisions but could we improve
this? We are doing an O(N) linear search over the entire ictx->objects
xarray while holding xa_lock on every setup call.

If the kernel requires a strict 1:1 mapping of lu_token to hwpt,
wouldn't it be much better to track these in a dedicated xarray?

Just thinking out loud, if we added a dedicated lu_tokens xarray to
iommufd_ctx, we could drop the linear search and the lock entirely,
letting the xarray handle the collision natively like this:

rc = xa_insert(&ictx->lu_tokens, cmd->hwpt_token, hwpt_target, GFP_KERNEL);
if (rc == -EBUSY) {
rc = -EADDRINUSE;
goto out;
} else if (rc) {
goto out;
}

This ensures instant collision detection without iterating the global
object pool. When the HWPT is eventually destroyed (or un-preserved), we
simply call xa_erase(&ictx->lu_tokens, hwpt->lu_token).

> + }
> +
> + hwpt_target->lu_preserve = true;

I don't see a way to unset hwpt->lu_preserve once it's been set. What if
a VMM marks a HWPT for preservation, but then the guest decides to rmmod
the device before the actual kexec? The VMM would need a way to
unpreserve it so we don't carry stale state across the live update?

Are we relying on the VMM to always call IOMMU_DESTROY on that HWPT when
it's no longer needed for preservation? A clever VMM optimizing for perf
might just pool or cache detached HWPTs for future reuse. If that HWPT
goes back into a free pool and gets re-attached to a new device later,
the sticky lu_preserve state will inadvertently leak across the kexec..

> + hwpt_target->lu_token = cmd->hwpt_token;
> +
> +out:
> + xa_unlock(&ictx->objects);
> + iommufd_put_object(ictx, &hwpt_target->common.obj);
> + return rc;
> +}
> +
> diff --git a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c
> index 5cc4b08c25f5..e1a9b3051f65 100644
> --- a/drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c
> +++ b/drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c
> @@ -493,6 +493,8 @@ static const struct iommufd_ioctl_op iommufd_ioctl_ops[] = {
> __reserved),
> IOCTL_OP(IOMMU_VIOMMU_ALLOC, iommufd_viommu_alloc_ioctl,
> struct iommu_viommu_alloc, out_viommu_id),
> + IOCTL_OP(IOMMU_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE, iommufd_hwpt_lu_set_preserve,
> + struct iommu_hwpt_lu_set_preserve, hwpt_token),
> #ifdef CONFIG_IOMMUFD_TEST
> IOCTL_OP(IOMMU_TEST_CMD, iommufd_test, struct iommu_test_cmd, last),
> #endif
> diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/iommufd.h b/include/uapi/linux/iommufd.h
> index 2c41920b641d..25d8cff987eb 100644
> --- a/include/uapi/linux/iommufd.h
> +++ b/include/uapi/linux/iommufd.h
> @@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ enum {
> IOMMUFD_CMD_IOAS_CHANGE_PROCESS = 0x92,
> IOMMUFD_CMD_VEVENTQ_ALLOC = 0x93,
> IOMMUFD_CMD_HW_QUEUE_ALLOC = 0x94,
> + IOMMUFD_CMD_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE = 0x95,
> };
>
> /**
> @@ -1299,4 +1300,22 @@ struct iommu_hw_queue_alloc {
> __aligned_u64 length;
> };
> #define IOMMU_HW_QUEUE_ALLOC _IO(IOMMUFD_TYPE, IOMMUFD_CMD_HW_QUEUE_ALLOC)
> +
> +/**
> + * struct iommu_hwpt_lu_set_preserve - ioctl(IOMMU_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE)

Nit: The IOCTL is called "IOMMU_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE" which subtly
implies the existence of a "GET_PRESERVE". Should we perhaps just call
it IOMMU_HWPT_LU_PRESERVE?

> + * @size: sizeof(struct iommu_hwpt_lu_set_preserve)
> + * @hwpt_id: Iommufd object ID of the target HWPT
> + * @hwpt_token: Token to identify this hwpt upon restore
> + *
> + * The target HWPT will be preserved during iommufd preservation.
> + *
> + * The hwpt_token is provided by userspace. If userspace enters a token
> + * already in use within this iommufd, -EADDRINUSE is returned from this ioctl.
> + */
> +struct iommu_hwpt_lu_set_preserve {
> + __u32 size;
> + __u32 hwpt_id;
> + __u32 hwpt_token;
> +};

Nit: Let's make sure we follow the 64-bit alignment as enforced in the
rest of this file, note the __u32 __reserved fields in existing IOCTL
structs.

> +#define IOMMU_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE _IO(IOMMUFD_TYPE, IOMMUFD_CMD_HWPT_LU_SET_PRESERVE)
> #endif

Thanks,
Praan