Re: [PATCH 4/5] x86, mm: Add set_memory_wt() for WT

From: Andy Lutomirski
Date: Mon Sep 08 2014 - 13:24:08 EST


On Sep 8, 2014 8:18 AM, "Toshi Kani" <toshi.kani@xxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 2014-09-07 at 09:49 -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> > On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Yigal Korman <yigal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > I think that what confused Andy (or at least me) is the documentation in Documentation/x86/pat.txt
> > > If it's possible, can you please update pat.txt as part of the patch?
> >
> > Indeed. That file seems to indicate several times that the intended
> > use of set_memory_xyz is for RAM.
>
>
> Good point. pat.txt is correct that the "intended" use of
> set_memory_xyz() is for RAM since there is no other way to set non-WB
> attribute for RAM. For reserved memory, one should call ioremap_xyz()
> to map with the xyz attribute directly. From the functionality POV,
> set_memory_xyz() works for reserved memory, but such usage is not
> intended.
>
> Should I drop the patch 4/5 until we can track the use of WT for RAM?

Probably not. I can imagine someone ioremapping a huge chunk of
NV-DIMM and then wanting to change some of it to WT. Unless I've
missed something (which is rather likely), the cleanest way to do this
is with set_memory_wt.

If that happens, someone should update pat.txt to indicate that it's allowed.

--Andy
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