Re: [PATCH 2/3] KVM: X86: implement the logic for spinlock optimization

From: Longpeng(Mike)
Date: Mon Aug 07 2017 - 08:28:34 EST




On 08/07/2017 06:45 PM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
On 07/08/2017 10:44, Longpeng(Mike) wrote:
+
+ /*
+ * Intel sdm vol3 ch-25.1.3 says: The âPAUSE-loop exitingâ
+ * VM-execution control is ignored if CPL > 0. So the vcpu
+ * is always exiting with CPL=0 if it uses PLE.

This is not true (how can it be?). What 25.1.3 says is, the VCPU is
always at CPL=0 if you get a PAUSE exit (reason 40) and PAUSE exiting is
0 (it always is for KVM). But here you're looking for a VCPU that
didn't get a PAUSE exit, so the CPL can certainly be 3.


Hi Paolo,

My comment above is something wrong(please forgive my poor English), my origin meaning is:
The âPAUSE-loop exitingâ VM-execution control is ignored if
CPL > 0. So the vcpu's CPL is must 0 if it exits due to PLE.

* kvm_arch_spin_in_kernel() returns whether the vcpu(which exits due to spinlock) is CPL=0. It only be called by kvm_vcpu_on_spin(), and the input vcpu is 'me' which get a PAUSE exit now. *

I split kvm_arch_vcpu_in_kernel(in RFC) into two functions: kvm_arch_spin_in_kernel and kvm_arch_preempt_in_kernel


Because of KVM/VMX L1 never set CPU_BASED_PAUSE_EXITING and only set
SECONDARY_EXEC_PAUSE_LOOP_EXITING if supported, so for L1:
1. get a PAUSE exit with CPL=0 if PLE is supported
2. never get a PAUSE exit if don't support PLE

So, I think it can direct return true(CPL=0) if supports PLE.

But for nested KVM/VMX(I'm not familiar with nested), it could set CPU_BASED_PAUSE_EXITING, so I think get_cpl() is also needed.


If the above is correct, what about this way( we can save a vmcs_read opeartion for L1):

kvm_arch_vcpu_spin_in_kernel(vcpu)
{
if (!is_guest_mode(vcpu))
return true;

return vmx_get_cpl(vcpu) == 0;
}

kvm_vcpu_on_spin()
{
/* @me get a PAUSE exit */
me_in_kernel = kvm_arch_vcpu_spin_in_kernel(me);
...
for each vcpu {
...
if (me_in_kernel && !...preempt_in_kernel(vcpu))
continue;
...
}
...
}

---
Regards,
Longpeng(Mike)

However, I understand that vmx_get_cpl can be a bit slow here. You can
actually read SS's access rights directly in this function and get the
DPL from there, that's going to be just a single VMREAD.

The only difference is when vmx->rmode.vm86_active=1. However,
pause-loop exiting is not working properly anyway if
vmx->rmode.vm86_active=1, because CPL=3 according to the processor.

Paolo

+ * The following block needs less cycles than vmx_get_cpl().
+ */
+ if (cpu_has_secondary_exec_ctrls())
+ secondary_exec_ctrl = vmcs_read32(SECONDARY_VM_EXEC_CONTROL);
+ if (secondary_exec_ctrl & SECONDARY_EXEC_PAUSE_LOOP_EXITING)
+ return true;
+

Paolo