Re: [RFC PATCH v5 05/45] KVM: TDX: Drop kvm_x86_ops.link_external_spt(), use .set_external_spte() for all

[Edgecombe, Rick P]

On Tue, 2026-02-03 at 20:05 +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > And mirror_spte --> new_spte?
> 
> Hmm, ya, I made that change later, but it can probably be shifted here.

Sorry for the late comment on the tiny detail, but things seemed to have calmed
down enough to attempt to merge these discussions into the snarl.

It doesn't quite fit in this patch because the set_external_spte() op also uses
the mirror_pte name. So then you need to either expand the scope of the patch to
change "mirror" to "new" across the callchain, or creating a small mismatch
between tdx_sept_set_private_spte() and tdx_sept_link_private_spt().

The patch where it happens in this series needs to add the old_pte, forcing
mirror_spte to grow some new nomenclature. So on balance I think it fits better
there, and we should leave it alone here. We can update it in
tdx_sept_link_private_spt() in "KVM: x86/mmu: Plumb the old_spte into
kvm_x86_ops.set_external_spte()".