[RFC PATCH v2 41/41] arm64/sve: Documentation: Add overview of the SVE userspace ABI

[Dave Martin]

This patch adds initial documentation of the ABI provided by the
kernel to enable userspace software to make use of SVE.

Signed-off-by: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@xxxxxxx>
---
 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt | 475 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 475 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
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+            Scalable Vector Extension support for AArch64 Linux
+            ===================================================
+
+Author: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@xxxxxxx>
+Date:   20 March 2017
+
+This document outlines briefly the interface provided to userspace by Linux in
+order to support use of the ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE).
+
+This is an outline of the most important features and issues only and not
+intended to be exhaustive.
+
+This document does not aim to describe the SVE architecture or programmer's
+model.  To aid understanding, a minimal description of relevant programmer's
+model features for SVE is included in Appendix A.
+
+
+1.  General
+-----------
+
+* SVE registers Z0..Z31, P0..P15 and FFR and the current vector length VL, are
+  tracked per-thread.
+
+* The presence of SVE is reported to userspace via HWCAP_SVE in the aux vector
+  AT_HWCAP entry.  SVE is reported in /proc/cpuinfo as "sve".
+
+
+2.  Vector length terminology
+-----------------------------
+
+The size of an SVE vector (Z) register is referred to as the "vector length".
+
+To avoid confusion about the units used to express vector length, the kernel
+adopts the following conventions:
+
+* Vector length (VL) = size of a Z-register in bytes
+
+* Vector quadwords (VQ) = size of a Z-register in units of 128 bits
+
+(So, VL = 16 * VQ.)
+
+The VQ convention is used where the underlying granularity is important, such
+as in data structure definitions.  In most other situations, the VL convention
+is used.  This is consistent with the meaning of the "VL" pseudo-register in
+the SVE instruction set architecture.
+
+
+3.  System call behaviour
+-------------------------
+
+* On syscall, V0..V31 are preserved (as without SVE).  Thus, bits [127:0] of
+  Z0..Z31 are preserved.  All other bits of Z0..Z31, and all of P0..P15 and FFR
+  become unspecified on return from a syscall.
+
+* The SVE registers are not used to pass arguments to or receive results from
+  any syscall.
+
+* In practice the affected registers/bits will be preserved or will be replaced
+  with zeros on return from a syscall, but userspace should not make
+  assumptions about this.  The kernel behaviour may vary on a case-by-case
+  basis.
+
+
+4.  Signal handling
+-------------------
+
+* A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal
+  delivery. [1]
+
+* This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context.  The FPSR and FPCR registers
+  are only present in fpsimd_context.  For convenience, the content of V0..V31
+  is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context.
+
+* The sve_context record is included if and only if the SVE registers are live
+  at the time of signal delivery.
+
+If the sve_context record is present in the signal frame:
+
+* sve_context.vl encodes the current vector length of the thread.
+
+* The remainder of the data has a vl-dependent size and layout.  Macros
+  SIG_SVE_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to the members.
+
+* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
+  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
+  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
+  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
+
+
+5.  Signal return
+-----------------
+
+When returning from a signal handler:
+
+* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, the SVE registers/bits
+  become non-live and unspecified.  (In practice, this is likely to mean that
+  these bits become zero, but software should not make assumptions about this.)
+
+* If sve_context is present in the signal frame, the SVE registers become live
+  and are populated appropriately.  However, for backward compatibility
+  reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31 are always restored from the corresponding
+  members of fpsimd_context.vregs[] and not from sve_context.  The remaining
+  bits are restored from sve_context.
+
+* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
+  irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.
+
+* The vector length cannot be changed via signal return.  If sve_context.vl in
+  the signal frame does not match the current vector length, the signal return
+  attempt is treated as illegal, resulting in a forced SIGSEGV.
+
+
+6.  prctl extensions
+--------------------
+
+Some new prctl() calls are added to allow programs to manage the SVE vector
+length:
+
+prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, unsigned long vl, unsigned long flags)
+
+    Sets the vector length of the calling thread.
+
+    flags:
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_THREAD
+
+	    Permit setting even if the calling process has multiple threads.
+	    This is otherwise forbidden in order to prevent accidents.
+
+	    Worker threads with different vector lengths can be created in this
+	    way, within a single process.
+
+	    General-purpose userspace code may not work correctly unless all
+	    threads have the same vector length.
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    Inherit the current vector length across execve().  Otherwise, the
+	    vector length is reset to the system default at execve().  (See
+	    Section 9.)
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
+
+	    Defer the requested vector length change until the next execve().
+	    This allows launching of a new program with a different vector
+	    length, while avoiding runtime side effects in the caller.
+
+	    This also overrides the effect of PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT for the
+	    first execve().
+
+	    Without PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC, any outstanding deferred vector
+	    length change is cancelled.
+
+    Return value: a nonnegative on success, or a negative value on error:
+	EINVAL: SVE not supported, invalid vector length requested, or
+	    invalid flags.
+
+    The returned value describes the resulting configuration, encoded as for
+    PR_SVE_GET_VL.
+
+    Changing the vector length causes all of P0..P15, FFR and all bits of
+    Z0..V31 except for Z0 bits [127:0] .. Z31 bits [127:0] to become
+    unspecified.  Calling PR_SVE_SET_VL with vl equal to the thread's current
+    vector length does not constitute a change to the vector length for this
+    purpose.
+
+    If vl is greater than the maximum vector length supported by the system,
+    the vector length is set to the maximum supported vector length.
+
+
+prctl(PR_SVE_GET_VL)
+
+    Gets the vector length of the calling thread.
+
+    The following flag may be OR-ed into the result:
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    Vector length will be inherited across execve().
+
+    There is no way to determine whether there is an outstanding deferred
+    vector length change (which would only normally be the case between a
+    fork() or vfork() and the corresponding execve() in typical use).
+
+    To extract the vector length from the result, use PR_SVE_GET_VL_LEN().
+
+    Return value: a nonnegative value on success, or a negative value on error:
+	EINVAL: SVE not supported.
+
+
+prctl(PR_GET_MINSIGSTKSZ)
+
+    Returns the minimum amount of stack space in bytes required for guaranteed
+    signal delivery.
+
+    The returned value is analogous to the POSIX macro MINSIGSTKSZ, except that
+    expansion of the signal frame is taken into account.  This allows correct
+    allocation of stacks even for large vector lengths.
+
+    Return value: a nonnegative value on success, or a negative value on error:
+	EINVAL: Function not implemented.
+
+    If this call fails, the value provided for MINSIGSTKSZ by [1] can be
+    assumed.
+
+
+7.  ptrace extensions
+---------------------
+
+* A new regset NT_ARM_SVE is defined for use with PTRACE_GETREGSET and
+  PTRACE_SETREGSET.
+
+  Refer to [2] for definitions.
+
+The regset data starts with struct user_sve_header, containing:
+
+    size
+
+	Size of the complete regset, in bytes.
+	This depends on vl and possibly on other things in the future.
+
+	If a call to PTRACE_GETREGSET requests less data than the value of
+	size, the caller can allocate a larger buffer and retry in order to
+	read the complete regset.
+
+    max_size
+
+	Maximum size in bytes that the regset can grow to for the target
+	thread.  The regset won't grow bigger than this even if the target
+	thread changes its vector length etc.
+
+    vl
+
+	Target thread's current vector length, in bytes.
+
+    max_vl
+
+	Maximum possible vector length for the target thread.
+
+    flags
+
+	either
+
+	    SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD
+
+		SVE registers are not live (GETREGSET) or are to be made
+		non-live (SETREGSET).
+
+		The payload is of type struct user_fpsimd_state, with the same
+		meaning as for NT_PRFPREG, starting at offset
+		SVE_PT_FPSIMD_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header.
+
+		Extra data might be appended in the future: the size of the
+		payload should be obtained using SVE_PT_FPSIMD_SIZE(vq, flags).
+
+		vq should be obtained using sve_vq_from_vl(vl).
+
+		or
+
+	    SVE_PT_REGS_SVE
+
+		SVE registers are live (GETREGSET) or are to be made live
+		(SETREGSET).
+
+		The payload contains the SVE register data, starting at offset
+		SVE_PT_SVE_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header, and with
+		size SVE_PT_SVE_SIZE(vq, flags);
+
+	... OR-ed with zero or more of the following flags, which have the same
+	meaning and behaviour as the corresponding PR_SET_VL_* flags:
+
+	    SVE_PT_VL_THREAD (SETREGSET only)
+
+	    SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC (SETREGSET only).
+
+* The effects of changing the vector length and/or flags are equivalent to
+  those documented for PR_SVE_SET_VL.
+
+* In the SVE_PT_REGS_SVE case, the size and layout of the payload depends on
+  the header fields.  The SVE_PT_SVE_*() macros are provided to facilitate
+  access to the members.
+
+* In either case, for SETREGSET it is permissible to omit the payload, in which
+  case only the vector length and flags are changed (along with any
+  consequences of those changes).
+
+  The effect of writing a partial, incomplete payload is unspecified.
+
+
+8.  ELF coredump extensions
+---------------------------
+
+* A NT_ARM_SVE note will be added to each coredump for each thread of the
+  dumped process.  The contents will be equivalent to the data that would have
+  been read if a PTRACE_GETREGSET of NT_ARM_SVE were executed for each thread
+  when the coredump was generated.
+
+  Each of these notes may be padded up to a larger size: if so, the surplus
+  data should be ignored when parsing the coredump.
+
+
+9.  System runtime configuration
+--------------------------------
+
+* To mitigate the ABI impact of expansion of the signal frame, a policy
+  mechanism is provided for administrators, distro maintainers and developers
+  to set the default vector length for userspace processes:
+
+/proc/cpu/sve_default_vector_length
+
+    Writing the text representation of an integer to this file sets the system
+    default vector length to the specified value, unless the value is greater
+    than the maximum vector length supported by the system in which case the
+    default vector length is set to that maximum.
+
+    The result can be determined by reopening the file and reading its
+    contents.
+
+    At boot, the default vector length is initially set to 64 or the maximum
+    supported vector length, whichever is smaller.  This determines the initial
+    vector length of the init process (PID 1).
+
+    Reading this file returns the current system default vector length.
+
+* At every execve() call, the new vector length of the new process is set to
+  the system default vector length, unless
+
+    * PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT (or equivalently SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT) is set for the
+      calling thread, or
+
+    * a deferred vector length change is pending, established via the
+      PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag (or SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC).
+
+* Modifying the system default vector length does not affect the vector length
+  of any existing process or thread that does not make an execve() call.
+
+
+Appendix A.  SVE programmer's model (informative)
+=================================================
+
+This section provides a minimal description of the additions made by SVE to the
+ARMv8-A programmer's model that are relevant to this document.
+
+Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
+to replace any architectural specification.
+
+A.1.  Registers
+---------------
+
+In A64 state, SVE adds the following:
+
+* 32 8VL-bit vector registers Z0..Z31
+  For each Zn, Zn bits [127:0] alias the ARMv8-A vector register Vn.
+
+  A register write using a Vn register name zeros all bits of the corresponding
+  Zn except for bits [127:0].
+
+* 16 VL-bit predicate registers P0..P15
+
+* 1 VL-bit special-purpose predicate register FFR (the "first-fault register")
+
+* a VL "pseudo-register" that determines the size of each vector register
+
+  The SVE instruction set architecture provides no way to write VL directly.
+  Instead, it can be modified only by EL1 and above, by writing appropriate
+  system registers.
+
+* The value of VL can be configured at runtime by EL1 and above:
+  16 <= VL <= VLmax, where VL must be a multiple of 16.
+
+* The maximum vector length is determined by the hardware:
+  16 <= VLmax <= 256.
+
+  (The SVE architecture specifies 256, but permits future architecture
+  revisions to raise this limit.)
+
+* FPSR and FPCR are retained from ARMv8-A, and interact with SVE floating-point
+  operations in a similar way to the way in which they interact with ARMv8
+  floating-point operations.
+
+         8VL-1                       128               0  bit index
+        +----          ////            -----------------+
+     Z0 |                               :       V0      |
+      :                                          :
+     Z7 |                               :       V7      |
+     Z8 |                               :     * V8      |
+      :                                       :  :
+    Z15 |                               :     *V15      |
+    Z16 |                               :      V16      |
+      :                                          :
+    Z31 |                               :      V31      |
+        +----          ////            -----------------+
+                                                 31    0
+         VL-1                  0                +-------+
+        +----       ////      --+          FPSR |       |
+     P0 |                       |               +-------+
+      : |                       |         *FPCR |       |
+    P15 |                       |               +-------+
+        +----       ////      --+
+    FFR |                       |               +-----+
+        +----       ////      --+            VL |     |
+                                                +-----+
+
+(*) callee-save:
+    This only applies to bits [63:0] of Z-/V-registers.
+    FPCR contains callee-save and caller-save bits.  See [3] for details.
+
+
+A.2.  Procedure call standard
+-----------------------------
+
+The ARMv8-A base procedure call standard is extended as follows with respect to
+the additional SVE register state:
+
+* All SVE register bits that are not shared with FP/SIMD are caller-save.
+
+* Z8 bits [63:0] .. Z15 bits [63:0] are callee-save.
+
+  This follows from the way these bits are mapped to V8..V15, which are caller-
+  save in the base procedure call standard.
+
+
+Appendix B.  ARMv8-A FP/SIMD programmer's model
+===============================================
+
+Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
+to replace any architectural specification.
+
+Refer to [3] for for more information.
+
+ARMv8-A defines the following floating-point / SIMD register state:
+
+* 32 128-bit vector registers V0..V31
+* 2 32-bit status/control registers FPSR, FPCR
+
+         127           0  bit index
+        +---------------+
+     V0 |               |
+      : :               :
+     V7 |               |
+   * V8 |               |
+   :  : :               :
+   *V15 |               |
+    V16 |               |
+      : :               :
+    V31 |               |
+        +---------------+
+
+                 31    0
+                +-------+
+           FPSR |       |
+                +-------+
+          *FPCR |       |
+                +-------+
+
+(*) callee-save:
+    This only applies to bits [63:0] of V-registers.
+    FPCR contains a mixture of callee-save and caller-save bits.
+
+
+References
+==========
+
+[1] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
+    AArch64 Linux signal ABI definitions
+
+[2] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/ptrace.h
+    AArch64 Linux ptrace ABI definitions
+
+[3] ARM IHI0055C
+    http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ihi0055c/IHI0055C_beta_aapcs64.pdf
+    http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.subset.swdev.abi/index.html
+    Procedure Call Standard for the ARM 64-bit Architecture (AArch64)
-- 
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