RE: [PATCH v6 kernel 3/5] virtio-balloon: speed up inflate/deflate process

[Li, Liang Z]

> On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 04:56:58AM +0000, Li, Liang Z wrote:
> > > > -	virtqueue_add_outbuf(vq, &sg, 1, vb, GFP_KERNEL);
> > > > -	virtqueue_kick(vq);
> > > > +static void do_set_resp_bitmap(struct virtio_balloon *vb,
> > > > +		unsigned long base_pfn, int pages)
> > > >
> > > > -	/* When host has read buffer, this completes via balloon_ack */
> > > > -	wait_event(vb->acked, virtqueue_get_buf(vq, &len));
> > > > +{
> > > > +	__le64 *range = vb->resp_data + vb->resp_pos;
> > > >
> > > > +	if (pages > (1 << VIRTIO_BALLOON_NR_PFN_BITS)) {
> > > > +		/* when the length field can't contain pages, set it to 0 to
> > >
> > > /*
> > >  * Multi-line
> > >  * comments
> > >  * should look like this.
> > >  */
> > >
> > > Also, pls start sentences with an upper-case letter.
> > >
> >
> > Sorry for that.
> >
> > > > +		 * indicate the actual length is in the next __le64;
> > > > +		 */
> > >
> > > This is part of the interface so should be documented as such.
> > >
> > > > +		*range = cpu_to_le64((base_pfn <<
> > > > +				VIRTIO_BALLOON_NR_PFN_BITS) | 0);
> > > > +		*(range + 1) = cpu_to_le64(pages);
> > > > +		vb->resp_pos += 2;
> > >
> > > Pls use structs for this kind of stuff.
> >
> > I am not sure if you mean to use
> >
> > struct  range {
> >  	__le64 pfn: 52;
> > 	__le64 nr_page: 12
> > }
> > Instead of the shift operation?
> 
> Not just that. You want to add a pages field as well.
> 

pages field? Could you give more hints?

> Generally describe the format in the header in some way so host and guest
> can easily stay in sync.

'VIRTIO_BALLOON_NR_PFN_BITS' is for this purpose and it will be passed to the
related function in page_alloc.c as a parameter.

Thanks!
Liang
> All the pointer math and void * means we get zero type safety and I'm not
> happy about it.
> 
> It's not good that virtio format seeps out to page_alloc anyway.
> If unavoidable it is not a good idea to try to hide this fact, people will assume
> they can change the format at will.
> 
> --
> MST