Re: [External] Re: virtio_pci: Question about virtio_pci kernel module refcnt

[Zhang Tianci]

Hi, thanks for your reply

On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 9:53 AM Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 10:34 AM Zhang Tianci
> <zhangtianci.1997@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Hi, thank you for your reply, but I still have a few questions:
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 7:31 PM Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 07:21:45PM +0800, Zhang Tianci wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > I noticed that the reference count of the virtio_pci kernel module
> > > > in the VM is always 0, even though there are at least two
> > > > virtio block devices and one virtiofs device in the VM.
> > > >
> > > > Using rmmod virtio_pci can unload the virtio_pci module,
> > > > but this renders the virtio block devices unusable.
> > >
> > > it removes them. you can put it back in and you will
> > > get devices again.
> >
> > But I can't do it anymore because the rootfs is no longer available,
> > or rather, the OS is no longer available.
> >
> > >
> > > > I wonder if this result is expected? Why don't the virtio block devices
> > > > and virtiofs device hold a reference count to the virtio_pci kernel module?
> > >
> > > because they don't have to.
> >
> > Is it due to design reasons or implementation reasons?
> > Is it because the semantics of kernel module refcnt does not include such
> > logical dependency?
>
> Note that virito has a bus so it follows the device/driver model so if
> I was not wrong the refcnt was handled by the driver core.

Let's look at an example:

$ lsmod | grep virtio
virtio_balloon                 20480  0
virtio_console                40960  1
virtiofs                            32768  1  <-  one virtiofs
fuse                                172032  2 virtiofs
virtio_net                         73728  0
net_failover                     20480  1 virtio_net
virtio_blk                         32768  2  <- two block devices
virtio_pci                         24576  0
virtio_pci_legacy_dev     16384  1 virtio_pci
virtio_pci_modern_dev   16384  1 virtio_pci
virtio                                16384  6
virtio_console,virtio_balloon,virtiofs,virtio_pci,virtio_blk,virtio_net
virtio_ring                         49152  6
virtio_console,virtio_balloon,virtiofs,virtio_pci,virtio_blk,virtio_net

There are two virtio_blk devices which are vda and vdb, and one virtiofs device.
We can find the block device and fs instance are holding virtio_blk
and virtiofs' refcnts.
But they don't hold virtio_pci(pci bus) or virtio(virtio bus) refcnts
even though they logically depend on
them.
So I might need to consult the driver core maintainers?(I have cc'd
them in this email.)

Thanks,
Tianci