[PATCH v12 09/45] KVM: guest_memfd: Stub in ability to enable in-place shared<=>private conversion

From: Ackerley Tng via B4 Relay

Date: Sun Aug 30 2026 - 20:33:43 EST


From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>

Stub in global variable to enable in-place guest_memfd private<=>shared
memory conversion, which will eventually be exposed to userspace via a
module param, and wire up the __kvm_is_private_gfn() static call to the
guest_memfd version when in-place conversion is enabled, i.e. when gmem is
the sole authority on private vs. shared memory.

Cc: Fuad Tabba <tabba@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Xiaoyao Li <xiaoyao.li@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Co-developed-by: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst | 7 +++++++
include/linux/kvm_host.h | 6 ++++++
virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
virt/kvm/kvm_main.c | 12 +++++++++++-
4 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
index e0430cc750c9e..90a29424c54c8 100644
--- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
@@ -6382,6 +6382,11 @@ KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION2, e.g. shared memory can be lazily mapped/allocated
on-demand.

When mapping a gfn into the guest, KVM selects shared vs. private, i.e consumes
+userspace_addr vs. guest_memfd, based on the state in guest_memfd, which is the
+sole authority on private vs. shared memory. See :ref:`KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD`
+to find out more about the creation-time shared/private status.
+
+If in-place conversion is disabled, KVM selects shared vs. private, i.e consumes
userspace_addr vs. guest_memfd, based on the gfn's KVM_MEMORY_ATTRIBUTE_PRIVATE
state. At VM creation time, all memory is shared, i.e. the PRIVATE attribute
is '0' for all gfns. Userspace can control whether memory is shared/private by
@@ -6429,6 +6434,8 @@ the state of a gfn/page as needed.

The "flags" field is reserved for future extensions and must be '0'.

+.. _KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD:
+
4.142 KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD
----------------------------

diff --git a/include/linux/kvm_host.h b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
index 3579feb631775..b0110143d2ff8 100644
--- a/include/linux/kvm_host.h
+++ b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
@@ -2580,6 +2580,8 @@ static inline bool kvm_vm_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn)
#endif /* CONFIG_KVM_VM_MEMORY_ATTRIBUTES */

#ifdef kvm_arch_has_private_mem
+extern bool gmem_in_place_conversion;
+
typedef bool (kvm_is_private_gfn_t)(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn);
DECLARE_STATIC_CALL(__kvm_is_private_gfn, kvm_is_private_gfn_t);

@@ -2588,6 +2590,8 @@ static inline bool kvm_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn)
return static_call(__kvm_is_private_gfn)(kvm, gfn);
}
#else
+#define gmem_in_place_conversion false
+
static inline bool kvm_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn)
{
return false;
@@ -2595,6 +2599,8 @@ static inline bool kvm_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn)
#endif /* kvm_arch_has_private_mem */

#ifdef CONFIG_KVM_GUEST_MEMFD
+bool kvm_gmem_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn);
+
int kvm_gmem_get_pfn(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_memory_slot *slot,
gfn_t gfn, kvm_pfn_t *pfn, int *max_order);
#else
diff --git a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
index ce5efcacda36e..cd966eef45b69 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
@@ -478,6 +478,32 @@ static int kvm_gmem_mmap(struct file *file, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
return 0;
}

+bool kvm_gmem_is_private_gfn(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn)
+{
+ struct kvm_memory_slot *slot = gfn_to_memslot(kvm, gfn);
+ struct inode *inode;
+
+ if (!slot)
+ return 0;
+
+ CLASS(gmem_get_file, file)(slot);
+ if (!file)
+ return 0;
+
+ inode = file_inode(file);
+
+ /*
+ * Rely on the maple tree's internal RCU lock to ensure a stable result.
+ * This result can become stale as soon as the lock is dropped, so the
+ * caller _must_ protect consumption of private vs. shared either by
+ * holding guest_memfd's invalidate lock for the entire duration, or by
+ * checking mmu_invalidate_retry_gfn() under mmu_lock to serialize
+ * against concurrent attribute updates.
+ */
+ return kvm_gmem_is_private_mem(inode, kvm_gmem_get_index(slot, gfn));
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_KVM_INTERNAL(kvm_gmem_is_private_gfn);
+
static struct file_operations kvm_gmem_fops = {
.mmap = kvm_gmem_mmap,
.open = generic_file_open,
diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index 78278730b2ae4..46d2e123448c2 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -102,6 +102,10 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_KVM_INTERNAL(halt_poll_ns_shrink);
static bool __ro_after_init allow_unsafe_mappings;
module_param(allow_unsafe_mappings, bool, 0444);

+#ifdef kvm_arch_has_private_mem
+bool __ro_after_init gmem_in_place_conversion = false;
+#endif
+
/*
* Ordering of locks:
*
@@ -2423,6 +2427,9 @@ static int kvm_vm_ioctl_clear_dirty_log(struct kvm *kvm,
static u64 kvm_supported_vm_mem_attributes(struct kvm *kvm)
{
#ifdef kvm_arch_has_private_mem
+ if (gmem_in_place_conversion)
+ return 0;
+
if (!kvm || kvm_arch_has_private_mem(kvm))
return KVM_MEMORY_ATTRIBUTE_PRIVATE;
#endif
@@ -2634,8 +2641,11 @@ EXPORT_STATIC_CALL_GPL(__kvm_is_private_gfn);

static void kvm_init_memory_attributes(void)
{
+ if (gmem_in_place_conversion)
+ static_call_update(__kvm_is_private_gfn, kvm_gmem_is_private_gfn);
#ifdef CONFIG_KVM_VM_MEMORY_ATTRIBUTES
- static_call_update(__kvm_is_private_gfn, kvm_vm_is_private_gfn);
+ else
+ static_call_update(__kvm_is_private_gfn, kvm_vm_is_private_gfn);
#endif
}
#else

--
2.55.0.897.gb25b4bd76c-goog