[PATCH 2/3] drm: Add drm_user_fence helper

From: Srinivasan Shanmugam

Date: Fri Aug 28 2026 - 09:35:25 EST


Introduce a common DRM user fence helper providing the kref-managed,
MM-borrowing dma-fence-callback-to-workqueue pattern used by drivers
that must access userspace memory from a kthread context when a GPU
fence signals.

XE uses this pattern (xe_sync.c) to write a fence completion value
to a userspace VA. AMDGPU will use the same pattern to signal a
per-queue eventfd from a user-queue EOP fence callback.

The helper provides:
- struct drm_user_fence: embeddable base structure
- struct drm_user_fence_ops: worker/destroy callbacks
- drm_user_fence_init(): initialize and grab the process MM
- drm_user_fence_get/put(): reference counting
- drm_user_fence_add_callback(): attach to a dma-fence

The worker callback receives a bool indicating whether the process
MM was successfully obtained, allowing drivers to handle the
unavailable-MM case (log, skip the userspace write, etc.) without
duplicating the mmget/kthread_use_mm/mmput boilerplate.

Suggested-by: Christian König <christian.koenig@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Maxime Ripard <mripard@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@xxxxxxx>
Cc: David Airlie <airlied@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Simona Vetter <simona@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Sumit Semwal <sumit.semwal@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Thomas Hellström <thomas.hellstrom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: dri-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: intel-xe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-media@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linaro-mm-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: amd-gfx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Srinivasan Shanmugam <srinivasan.shanmugam@xxxxxxx>
Change-Id: Ieb91eb2e8d18f7634b02c9df67eba37a99fd0442
---
drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile | 1 +
drivers/gpu/drm/drm_user_fence.c | 69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
include/drm/drm_user_fence.h | 86 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 156 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_user_fence.c
create mode 100644 include/drm/drm_user_fence.h

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile b/drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile
index c5be8e80d0c8..ddb770738992 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ drm-y := \
drm_syncobj.o \
drm_sysfs.o \
drm_trace_points.o \
+ drm_user_fence.o \
drm_vblank.o \
drm_vblank_work.o \
drm_vma_manager.o \
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_user_fence.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_user_fence.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9f6327406d3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_user_fence.c
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+/*
+ * Copyright © 2024 The Linux Foundation
+ *
+ * DRM user fence — extends drm_work_fence with kthread_use_mm() support.
+ *
+ * Use this when a GPU fence signals and work needs to access userspace
+ * memory (copy_to_user, fault-able operations) from a kthread context.
+ * For work that does not require userspace memory access, use
+ * drm_work_fence directly.
+ */
+
+#include <linux/kthread.h>
+#include <linux/sched/mm.h>
+
+#include <drm/drm_user_fence.h>
+
+static void drm_user_fence_do_work(struct drm_work_fence *wfence)
+{
+ struct drm_user_fence *ufence =
+ container_of(wfence, struct drm_user_fence, base);
+ bool mm_ok = false;
+
+ if (mmget_not_zero(ufence->mm)) {
+ kthread_use_mm(ufence->mm);
+ mm_ok = true;
+ }
+
+ ufence->ops->worker(ufence, mm_ok);
+
+ if (mm_ok) {
+ kthread_unuse_mm(ufence->mm);
+ mmput(ufence->mm);
+ }
+}
+
+static void drm_user_fence_do_destroy(struct drm_work_fence *wfence)
+{
+ struct drm_user_fence *ufence =
+ container_of(wfence, struct drm_user_fence, base);
+
+ mmdrop(ufence->mm);
+ ufence->ops->destroy(ufence);
+}
+
+static const struct drm_work_fence_ops drm_user_fence_wf_ops = {
+ .work = drm_user_fence_do_work,
+ .destroy = drm_user_fence_do_destroy,
+};
+
+/**
+ * drm_user_fence_init - Initialize a user fence
+ * @ufence: user fence to initialize
+ * @wq: workqueue to run the worker on (must be ordered if sequencing matters)
+ * @ops: driver operations
+ *
+ * Must be called from process context with a valid current->mm.
+ * Grabs a reference to current->mm via mmgrab().
+ */
+void drm_user_fence_init(struct drm_user_fence *ufence,
+ struct workqueue_struct *wq,
+ const struct drm_user_fence_ops *ops)
+{
+ drm_work_fence_init(&ufence->base, wq, &drm_user_fence_wf_ops);
+ ufence->mm = current->mm;
+ mmgrab(ufence->mm);
+ ufence->ops = ops;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(drm_user_fence_init);
diff --git a/include/drm/drm_user_fence.h b/include/drm/drm_user_fence.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2b2b640f510f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/drm/drm_user_fence.h
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT */
+/*
+ * Copyright © 2024 The Linux Foundation
+ */
+
+#ifndef __DRM_USER_FENCE_H__
+#define __DRM_USER_FENCE_H__
+
+#include <drm/drm_work_fence.h>
+
+struct drm_user_fence;
+
+/**
+ * struct drm_user_fence_ops - driver callbacks for a DRM user fence
+ */
+struct drm_user_fence_ops {
+ /**
+ * @worker: Called from workqueue context with the process MM active.
+ *
+ * If @mm_ok is true, kthread_use_mm() is active and userspace memory
+ * (copy_to_user, etc.) may be accessed safely.
+ * If @mm_ok is false, the process MM was already gone; the driver
+ * should log a warning and skip the userspace write.
+ *
+ * wake_up() or other post-signal housekeeping should also happen here.
+ */
+ void (*worker)(struct drm_user_fence *ufence, bool mm_ok);
+
+ /**
+ * @destroy: Called when the last reference is dropped.
+ * Free the containing structure here.
+ */
+ void (*destroy)(struct drm_user_fence *ufence);
+};
+
+/**
+ * struct drm_user_fence - DRM user fence with MM borrowing
+ *
+ * Extends drm_work_fence with kthread_use_mm() support for drivers
+ * that need to access userspace memory when a GPU fence signals.
+ * For work that does not need userspace memory access, use
+ * drm_work_fence directly.
+ *
+ * Call drm_user_fence_init() at creation and drm_user_fence_add_callback()
+ * to arm on a dma-fence. Call drm_user_fence_cancel_sync() before teardown.
+ */
+struct drm_user_fence {
+ /** @base: Base work fence. Must be first. */
+ struct drm_work_fence base;
+ /** @mm: Process MM grabbed at init time. */
+ struct mm_struct *mm;
+ /** @ops: Driver operations. */
+ const struct drm_user_fence_ops *ops;
+};
+
+void drm_user_fence_init(struct drm_user_fence *ufence,
+ struct workqueue_struct *wq,
+ const struct drm_user_fence_ops *ops);
+
+static inline void drm_user_fence_get(struct drm_user_fence *ufence)
+{
+ drm_work_fence_get(&ufence->base);
+}
+
+static inline void drm_user_fence_put(struct drm_user_fence *ufence)
+{
+ drm_work_fence_put(&ufence->base);
+}
+
+static inline int drm_user_fence_add_callback(struct drm_user_fence *ufence,
+ struct dma_fence *fence)
+{
+ return drm_work_fence_add_callback(&ufence->base, fence);
+}
+
+static inline bool drm_user_fence_cancel(struct drm_user_fence *ufence)
+{
+ return drm_work_fence_cancel(&ufence->base);
+}
+
+static inline void drm_user_fence_cancel_sync(struct drm_user_fence *ufence)
+{
+ drm_work_fence_cancel_sync(&ufence->base);
+}
+
+#endif /* __DRM_USER_FENCE_H__ */
--
2.34.1