[PATCH v2 04/20] KVM: x86/xen: Explicitly tag "shared info" page as never being dirty tracked

From: David Woodhouse

Date: Wed Nov 04 2026 - 22:02:03 EST


From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>

Explicitly mark the Xen shared info page as never being dirty tracked so
that higher-level gpc APIs can be added to automatically take care of
things like dirty tracking, without reintroducing the bug fixed by
commit 55749769fe60 ("KVM: x86: Fix wall clock writes in Xen shared_info
not to mark page dirty"). And because the code _looks_ buggy.

No functional change intended.

Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/xen.c | 2 +-
include/linux/kvm_host.h | 15 +++++++++++----
include/linux/kvm_types.h | 1 +
virt/kvm/pfncache.c | 4 +++-
4 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/xen.c b/arch/x86/kvm/xen.c
index 4517eeb24909..d3773416cd44 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/xen.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/xen.c
@@ -2485,7 +2485,7 @@ void kvm_xen_init_vm(struct kvm *kvm)
{
mutex_init(&kvm->arch.xen.xen_lock);
xa_init(&kvm->arch.xen.evtchn_ports);
- kvm_gpc_init(&kvm->arch.xen.shinfo_cache, kvm);
+ __kvm_gpc_init(&kvm->arch.xen.shinfo_cache, kvm, true);
}

void kvm_xen_destroy_vm(struct kvm *kvm)
diff --git a/include/linux/kvm_host.h b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
index e7fc94e2910a..cadd0318400e 100644
--- a/include/linux/kvm_host.h
+++ b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
@@ -1459,16 +1459,23 @@ int kvm_vcpu_write_guest(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, gpa_t gpa, const void *data,
unsigned long len);

/**
- * kvm_gpc_init - initialize gfn_to_pfn_cache.
+ * __kvm_gpc_init - initialize gfn_to_pfn_cache.
*
* @gpc: struct gfn_to_pfn_cache object.
* @kvm: pointer to kvm instance.
+ * @never_dirty: the cache never needs to mark its page dirty in its memslot.
*
* This sets up a gfn_to_pfn_cache by initializing locks and assigning the
* immutable attributes. Note, the cache must be zero-allocated (or zeroed by
- * the caller before init).
+ * the caller before init). Most callers want the kvm_gpc_init() wrapper.
*/
-void kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm);
+void __kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm,
+ bool never_dirty);
+
+static inline void kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm)
+{
+ __kvm_gpc_init(gpc, kvm, false);
+}

/**
* kvm_gpc_activate - prepare a cached kernel mapping and HPA for a given guest
@@ -1979,7 +1986,7 @@ static inline void kvm_gpc_mark_dirty_in_slot(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc)
{
lockdep_assert_held(&gpc->lock);

- if (!gpc->memslot)
+ if (!gpc->memslot || gpc->never_dirty)
return;

mark_page_dirty_in_slot(gpc->kvm, gpc->memslot, gpa_to_gfn(gpc->gpa));
diff --git a/include/linux/kvm_types.h b/include/linux/kvm_types.h
index a568d8e6f4e8..e850adc3f47e 100644
--- a/include/linux/kvm_types.h
+++ b/include/linux/kvm_types.h
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ struct gfn_to_pfn_cache {
kvm_pfn_t pfn;
bool active;
bool valid;
+ bool never_dirty;
};

#ifdef KVM_ARCH_NR_OBJS_PER_MEMORY_CACHE
diff --git a/virt/kvm/pfncache.c b/virt/kvm/pfncache.c
index 3659686b97c2..17a30da00d40 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/pfncache.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/pfncache.c
@@ -382,7 +382,8 @@ int kvm_gpc_refresh(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, unsigned long len)
return __kvm_gpc_refresh(gpc, gpc->gpa, uhva);
}

-void kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm)
+void __kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm,
+ bool never_dirty)
{
rwlock_init(&gpc->lock);
mutex_init(&gpc->refresh_lock);
@@ -392,6 +393,7 @@ void kvm_gpc_init(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, struct kvm *kvm)
gpc->gpa = INVALID_GPA;
gpc->uhva = KVM_HVA_ERR_BAD;
gpc->active = gpc->valid = false;
+ gpc->never_dirty = never_dirty;
}

static int __kvm_gpc_activate(struct gfn_to_pfn_cache *gpc, gpa_t gpa, unsigned long uhva,
--
2.43.0