Re: [PATCH v2 6/7] tpm: expose spaces via a device link /dev/tpms<n>

From: Jarkko Sakkinen
Date: Fri Feb 24 2017 - 12:39:38 EST


On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 08:02:08AM -0500, James Bottomley wrote:
> On Thu, 2017-02-23 at 11:09 +0200, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 09:25:19PM +0200, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> > > From: James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >
> > > Currently the tpm spaces are not exposed to userspace. Make this
> > > exposure via a separate device, which can now be opened multiple
> > > times because each read/write transaction goes separately via the
> > > space.
> > >
> > > Concurrency is protected by the chip->tpm_mutex for each read/write
> > > transaction separately. The TPM is cleared of all transient
> > > objects by the time the mutex is dropped, so there should be no
> > > interference between the kernel and userspace.
> > > Signed-off-by: James Bottomley <
> > >
> > > James.Bottomley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> > Reviewed-by: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Tested-by: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Thanks!
>
> > Nitpicking but I've been thinking about naming. What about calling
> > the device as tpmrc0 as in resource context. I think that would be a
> > better name than TPM space.
>
> Well the original name was tpmrm<n> for TPM with Resource Manager. You
> wanted it to be tpms<n> for TPM with Spaces.
>
> I'm not entirely sold on the Resource Context name ... I think Resource Manager (because it's what the TCG calls it) or Spaces (because it's what all the code comments call it) are better. Resource Context sounds like what TPM2_SaveContext() creates for you rather than the interface.
>
> > You do not mix it up with namespaces and/or virtualization. With
> > resource in front it cannot be easily mixed up with TPM contexts
> > either.
>
> I'm a containers person. What this set of patches does is precisely OS
> level virtualization in my book, so I don't think you need to pretend
> it is't; and OS level virtualization is what a namespace does. The
> only difference between this and the other kernel namespaces is that
> you get a new namespace automatically when you open the device and you
> can't enter an existing namespace.
>
> I think therefore that tpmns<n> for TPM Namespace would be very
> appropriate.

Makes sense. We can go with tpmns.

/Jarkko