[PATCH v10 19/21] KVM: x86: Use kernel timekeeping snapshots for getting kvmclock time since boot

From: Sean Christopherson

Date: Wed Aug 26 2026 - 17:37:34 EST


From: David Woodhouse <dwmw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Replace the KVM-private vgettsc()+do_kvmclock_base() timekeeping
reimplementation with calls to the recently crafted, generic
ktime_get_snapshot_id() interface. This is the first step towards dropping
KVM's homebrewed implementation entirely (do_monotonic() and do_realtime()
will be converted in the near future).

As with KVM's implementation, the snapshot provides both the system time
and the raw_cycles (TSC), atomically paired using a sequence counter. The
equivalents to vgettsc()'s TSC and HVCLOCK modes respectively are if the
clocksource itself is TSC (cs_id == CSID_X86_TSC) and if the underlying
hardware clocksource is TSC (hw_csid == CSID_X86_TSC). In the Hyper-V
case, i.e. hw_csid == CSID_X86_TSC, if the clocksource couldn't provide a
raw hardware counter value, treat the clock not being based on TSC, which
which is equivalent to vgettsc() returning VDSO_CLOCKMODE_NONE.

Unlike KVM's current implementation, don't include offs_boot in the
atomically-acquired tuple as there's simply no need to do so: the time
since boot only changes at boot (duh) and at suspend/resume boundaries.
Unless processes aren't being frozen/thawed before/after suspend/resume,
which would completely break suspend/resume, TK_OFFS_BOOT can't change
while kvm_get_time_and_clockread() is running. And if KVM does somehow try
to take a snapshot during suspend, timekeeping core will WARN and refuse to
provide the snapshot.

This is a step towards eliminating the pvclock_gtod_data private copy
of timekeeping state and the associated notifier callback.

Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
[sean: separate from other conversions, massage changelog accordingly]
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 57 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------
1 file changed, 30 insertions(+), 27 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
index 51a8250e758b..32390b20a2b4 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
#include "smm.h"

#include <linux/clocksource.h>
+#include <linux/timekeeping.h>
#include <linux/interrupt.h>
#include <linux/kvm.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
@@ -1437,29 +1438,6 @@ static inline u64 vgettsc(struct pvclock_clock *clock, u64 *tsc_timestamp,
return v * clock->mult;
}

-/*
- * As with get_kvmclock_base_ns(), this counts from boot time, at the
- * frequency of CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW (hence adding gtos->offs_boot).
- */
-static int do_kvmclock_base(s64 *t, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
-{
- struct pvclock_gtod_data *gtod = &pvclock_gtod_data;
- unsigned long seq;
- int mode;
- u64 ns;
-
- do {
- seq = read_seqcount_begin(&gtod->seq);
- ns = gtod->raw_clock.base_cycles;
- ns += vgettsc(&gtod->raw_clock, tsc_timestamp, &mode);
- ns >>= gtod->raw_clock.shift;
- ns += ktime_to_ns(ktime_add(gtod->raw_clock.offset, gtod->offs_boot));
- } while (unlikely(read_seqcount_retry(&gtod->seq, seq)));
- *t = ns;
-
- return mode;
-}
-
/*
* This calculates CLOCK_MONOTONIC at the time of the TSC snapshot, with
* no boot time offset.
@@ -1504,6 +1482,29 @@ static int do_realtime(struct timespec64 *ts, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
return mode;
}

+static bool kvm_snapshot_has_tsc(struct system_time_snapshot *snap,
+ u64 *tsc_timestamp)
+{
+ /*
+ * ktime_get_snapshot_id() cannot fail for standard clock IDs
+ * (only for invalid/aux clocks or during suspend, with a WARN).
+ */
+ if (!snap->valid)
+ return false;
+
+ if (snap->cs_id == CSID_X86_TSC) {
+ *tsc_timestamp = snap->cycles;
+ return true;
+ }
+
+ if (snap->hw_csid == CSID_X86_TSC && snap->hw_cycles) {
+ *tsc_timestamp = snap->hw_cycles;
+ return true;
+ }
+
+ return false;
+}
+
/*
* Calculates the kvmclock_base_ns (CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW + boot time) and
* reports the TSC value from which it do so. Returns true if host is
@@ -1511,12 +1512,14 @@ static int do_realtime(struct timespec64 *ts, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
*/
static bool kvm_get_time_and_clockread(s64 *kernel_ns, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
- /* checked again under seqlock below */
- if (!gtod_is_based_on_tsc(pvclock_gtod_data.clock.vclock_mode))
+ struct system_time_snapshot snap = {};
+
+ ktime_get_snapshot_id(CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW, &snap);
+ if (!kvm_snapshot_has_tsc(&snap, tsc_timestamp))
return false;

- return gtod_is_based_on_tsc(do_kvmclock_base(kernel_ns,
- tsc_timestamp));
+ *kernel_ns = ktime_to_ns(ktime_mono_to_any(snap.systime, TK_OFFS_BOOT));
+ return true;
}

/*
--
2.55.0.887.g758fc8c411-goog