Re: [PATCH net-next v1 1/3] vm_sockets: Include flag field in the vsock address data structure

[Paraschiv, Andra-Irina]

On 03/12/2020 11:21, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 01, 2020 at 05:25:03PM +0200, Andra Paraschiv wrote:
> > vsock enables communication between virtual machines and the host they
> > are running on. With the multi transport support (guest->host and
> > host->guest), nested VMs can also use vsock channels for communication.
> >
> > In addition to this, by default, all the vsock packets are forwarded to
> > the host, if no host->guest transport is loaded. This behavior can be
> > implicitly used for enabling vsock communication between sibling VMs.
> >
> > Add a flag field in the vsock address data structure that can be used to
> > explicitly mark the vsock connection as being targeted for a certain
> > type of communication. This way, can distinguish between nested VMs and
> > sibling VMs use cases and can also setup them at the same time. Till
> > now, could either have nested VMs or sibling VMs at a time using the
> > vsock communication stack.
> >
> > Use the already available "svm_reserved1" field and mark it as a flag
> > field instead. This flag can be set when initializing the vsock address
> > variable used for the connect() call.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Andra Paraschiv <andraprs@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >   include/uapi/linux/vm_sockets.h | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
> >   1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/vm_sockets.h b/include/uapi/linux/vm_sockets.h
> > index fd0ed7221645d..58da5a91413ac 100644
> > --- a/include/uapi/linux/vm_sockets.h
> > +++ b/include/uapi/linux/vm_sockets.h
> > @@ -114,6 +114,22 @@
> >   
> >   #define VMADDR_CID_HOST 2
> >   
> > +/* This sockaddr_vm flag value covers the current default use case:
> > + * local vsock communication between guest and host and nested VMs setup.
> > + * In addition to this, implicitly, the vsock packets are forwarded to the host
> > + * if no host->guest vsock transport is set.
> > + */
> > +#define VMADDR_FLAG_DEFAULT_COMMUNICATION	0x0000
> > +
> > +/* Set this flag value in the sockaddr_vm corresponding field if the vsock
> > + * channel needs to be setup between two sibling VMs running on the same host.
> > + * This way can explicitly distinguish between vsock channels created for nested
> > + * VMs (or local communication between guest and host) and the ones created for
> > + * sibling VMs. And vsock channels for multiple use cases (nested / sibling VMs)
> > + * can be setup at the same time.
> > + */
> > +#define VMADDR_FLAG_SIBLING_VMS_COMMUNICATION	0x0001
> vsock has the h2g and g2h concept. It would be more general to call this
> flag VMADDR_FLAG_G2H or less cryptically VMADDR_FLAG_TO_HOST.

Thanks for the feedback, Stefan.

I can update the naming to be more general, such as  "_TO_HOST", and 
keep the use cases (e.g. guest <-> host / nested / sibling VMs 
communication) mention in the comments so that would relate more to the 
motivation behind it.

Andra

> That way it just tells the driver in which direction to send packets
> without implying that sibling communication is possible (it's not
> allowed by default on any transport).
>
> I don't have a strong opinion on this but wanted to suggest the idea.
>
> Stefan




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