[RFCv2][PATCH 1/5] Documentation: Introduce kernel_force_cache_* APIs

From: Laura Abbott
Date: Mon Aug 08 2016 - 13:49:55 EST



Some frameworks (e.g. Ion) may need to do explicit cache management
to meet performance/correctness requirements. Rather than piggy-back
on another API and hope the semantics don't change, introduce a
set of APIs to force a page to be cleaned/invalidated in the cache.

Signed-off-by: Laura Abbott <labbott@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/cachetlb.txt | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
include/linux/cacheflush.h | 11 +++++++++++
2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
create mode 100644 include/linux/cacheflush.h

diff --git a/Documentation/cachetlb.txt b/Documentation/cachetlb.txt
index 3f9f808..18eec7c 100644
--- a/Documentation/cachetlb.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cachetlb.txt
@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ maps this page at its virtual address.
flush_dcache_page and update_mmu_cache. In the future, the hope
is to remove this interface completely.

-The final category of APIs is for I/O to deliberately aliased address
+Another set of APIs is for I/O to deliberately aliased address
ranges inside the kernel. Such aliases are set up by use of the
vmap/vmalloc API. Since kernel I/O goes via physical pages, the I/O
subsystem assumes that the user mapping and kernel offset mapping are
@@ -401,3 +401,19 @@ I/O and invalidating it after the I/O returns.
speculatively reading data while the I/O was occurring to the
physical pages. This is only necessary for data reads into the
vmap area.
+
+Nearly all drivers can handle cache management using the existing DMA model.
+There may be limited circumstances when a driver or framework needs to
+explicitly manage the cache; trying to force cache management into the DMA
+framework may lead to performance loss or unnecessary work. These APIs may
+be used to provide explicit coherency for memory that does not fall into
+any of the above categories. Implementers of this API must assume the
+address can be aliased. Any cache operations shall not be delayed and must
+be completed by the time the call returns.
+
+ void kernel_force_cache_clean(struct page *page, size_t size);
+ Ensures that any data in the cache by the page is written back
+ and visible across all aliases.
+
+ void kernel_force_cache_invalidate(struct page *page, size_t size);
+ Invalidates the cache for the given page.
diff --git a/include/linux/cacheflush.h b/include/linux/cacheflush.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4388846
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/cacheflush.h
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#ifndef CACHEFLUSH_H
+#define CACHEFLUSH_H
+
+#include <asm/cacheflush.h>
+
+#ifndef ARCH_HAS_FORCE_CACHE
+static inline void kernel_force_cache_clean(struct page *page, size_t size) { }
+static inline void kernel_force_cache_invalidate(struct page *page, size_t size) { }
+#endif
+
+#endif
--
2.7.4