Re: [PATCH v6 18/18] RDMA/mlx5: Ask P2PDMA whether ATS takes a direct peer-to-peer route

[Jason Gunthorpe]

On Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 03:42:28PM +0200, Thomas Hellström wrote:
> 
> 1) Xe attachment check if pci_p2pdma_distance() returns OK for the
> path. Then Xe always sets up dma-addresses using dma_map_resource(). 

Open coding pci_p2pdma_distance() in drivers is a hack. Using
dma_map_resource() like this was never "allowed".

We've fixed things so these hacks are not needed, the drivers need to
move over to things like dma_buf_phys_vec_to_sgt() and the hmm helpers
to use the DMA API correctly.

> 1a) Let's say the importer (Xe) has ATS enabled, and the exporter is
> supposed to map dma_addresses.
> In between there is a switch that allows direct traffic.
> Now with your patch series, How would the exporter know that Xe has ATS
> enabled and therefore should return IOVA mappings rather than the BUS
> addresses representing the shortcut.

The thing that does the DMA map must be aware of what PCI TLPs the
PCIe initiator will use to compute the proper P2P mapping mode.

ATS always needs an IOVA but that still doesn't mean the P2P will
work.

> It seems to me that a pci-device settable flag "ATS always enabled"
> should be enough to fix both issues?

It should be be per-mapping to support the NIC workflow that isn't a
global operation.

Jason