aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/docs
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorPeter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>2015-02-24 13:58:18 +0000
committerPeter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>2015-02-24 13:58:18 +0000
commit73104fd399c6778112f64fe0d439319f24508d9a (patch)
treec097e6a8acd33b8ad8561a2bccacc4247db76085 /docs
parent3dc10613c313a042a111e46a977733411495ea8c (diff)
parent0dc3f44aca18b1be8b425f3f4feb4b3e8d68de2e (diff)
downloadqemu-73104fd399c6778112f64fe0d439319f24508d9a.zip
qemu-73104fd399c6778112f64fe0d439319f24508d9a.tar.gz
qemu-73104fd399c6778112f64fe0d439319f24508d9a.tar.bz2
Merge remote-tracking branch 'remotes/bonzini/tags/for-upstream' into staging
- vhost-scsi: add bootindex property - RCU: fix MemoryRegion lifetime issues in PCI; document the rules; convert of AddressSpaceDispatch and RAMList - KVM: add kvm_exit reasons for aarch64 # gpg: Signature made Mon Feb 16 16:32:32 2015 GMT using RSA key ID 78C7AE83 # gpg: Good signature from "Paolo Bonzini <bonzini@gnu.org>" # gpg: aka "Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>" # gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature! # gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner. # Primary key fingerprint: 46F5 9FBD 57D6 12E7 BFD4 E2F7 7E15 100C CD36 69B1 # Subkey fingerprint: F133 3857 4B66 2389 866C 7682 BFFB D25F 78C7 AE83 * remotes/bonzini/tags/for-upstream: (21 commits) Convert ram_list to RCU exec: convert ram_list to QLIST cosmetic changes preparing for the following patches exec: protect mru_block with RCU rcu: add g_free_rcu rcu: introduce RCU-enabled QLIST exec: RCUify AddressSpaceDispatch exec: make iotlb RCU-friendly exec: introduce cpu_reload_memory_map docs: clarify memory region lifecycle pci: split shpc_cleanup and shpc_free pcie: remove mmconfig memory leak and wrap mmconfig update with transaction memory: keep the owner of the AddressSpace alive until do_address_space_destroy rcu: run RCU callbacks under the BQL rcu: do not let RCU callbacks pile up indefinitely vhost-scsi: set the bootable value of channel/target/lun vhost-scsi: add a property for booting vhost-scsi: expose the TYPE_FW_PATH_PROVIDER interface vhost-scsi: add bootindex property qdev: support to get a device firmware path directly ... Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs')
-rw-r--r--docs/memory.txt74
-rw-r--r--docs/rcu.txt11
2 files changed, 65 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/docs/memory.txt b/docs/memory.txt
index b12f1f0..2ceb348 100644
--- a/docs/memory.txt
+++ b/docs/memory.txt
@@ -73,17 +73,66 @@ stability.
Region lifecycle
----------------
-A region is created by one of the constructor functions (memory_region_init*())
-and attached to an object. It is then destroyed by object_unparent() or simply
-when the parent object dies.
+A region is created by one of the memory_region_init*() functions and
+attached to an object, which acts as its owner or parent. QEMU ensures
+that the owner object remains alive as long as the region is visible to
+the guest, or as long as the region is in use by a virtual CPU or another
+device. For example, the owner object will not die between an
+address_space_map operation and the corresponding address_space_unmap.
-In between, a region can be added to an address space
-by using memory_region_add_subregion() and removed using
-memory_region_del_subregion(). Destroying the region implicitly
-removes the region from the address space.
+After creation, a region can be added to an address space or a
+container with memory_region_add_subregion(), and removed using
+memory_region_del_subregion().
+
+Various region attributes (read-only, dirty logging, coalesced mmio,
+ioeventfd) can be changed during the region lifecycle. They take effect
+as soon as the region is made visible. This can be immediately, later,
+or never.
+
+Destruction of a memory region happens automatically when the owner
+object dies.
+
+If however the memory region is part of a dynamically allocated data
+structure, you should call object_unparent() to destroy the memory region
+before the data structure is freed. For an example see VFIOMSIXInfo
+and VFIOQuirk in hw/vfio/pci.c.
+
+You must not destroy a memory region as long as it may be in use by a
+device or CPU. In order to do this, as a general rule do not create or
+destroy memory regions dynamically during a device's lifetime, and only
+call object_unparent() in the memory region owner's instance_finalize
+callback. The dynamically allocated data structure that contains the
+memory region then should obviously be freed in the instance_finalize
+callback as well.
+
+If you break this rule, the following situation can happen:
+
+- the memory region's owner had a reference taken via memory_region_ref
+ (for example by address_space_map)
+
+- the region is unparented, and has no owner anymore
+
+- when address_space_unmap is called, the reference to the memory region's
+ owner is leaked.
+
+
+There is an exception to the above rule: it is okay to call
+object_unparent at any time for an alias or a container region. It is
+therefore also okay to create or destroy alias and container regions
+dynamically during a device's lifetime.
+
+This exceptional usage is valid because aliases and containers only help
+QEMU building the guest's memory map; they are never accessed directly.
+memory_region_ref and memory_region_unref are never called on aliases
+or containers, and the above situation then cannot happen. Exploiting
+this exception is rarely necessary, and therefore it is discouraged,
+but nevertheless it is used in a few places.
+
+For regions that "have no owner" (NULL is passed at creation time), the
+machine object is actually used as the owner. Since instance_finalize is
+never called for the machine object, you must never call object_unparent
+on regions that have no owner, unless they are aliases or containers.
-Region attributes may be changed at any point; they take effect once
-the region becomes exposed to the guest.
Overlapping regions and priority
--------------------------------
@@ -215,13 +264,6 @@ BAR containing MMIO registers is mapped after it.
Note that if the guest maps a BAR outside the PCI hole, it would not be
visible as the pci-hole alias clips it to a 0.5GB range.
-Attributes
-----------
-
-Various region attributes (read-only, dirty logging, coalesced mmio, ioeventfd)
-can be changed during the region lifecycle. They take effect once the region
-is made visible (which can be immediately, later, or never).
-
MMIO Operations
---------------
diff --git a/docs/rcu.txt b/docs/rcu.txt
index 61752b9..21ecb81 100644
--- a/docs/rcu.txt
+++ b/docs/rcu.txt
@@ -120,12 +120,15 @@ The core RCU API is small:
void call_rcu(T *p,
void (*func)(T *p),
field-name);
+ void g_free_rcu(T *p,
+ field-name);
- call_rcu1 is typically used through this macro, in the common case
- where the "struct rcu_head" is the first field in the struct. In
- the above case, one could have written simply:
+ call_rcu1 is typically used through these macro, in the common case
+ where the "struct rcu_head" is the first field in the struct. If
+ the callback function is g_free, in particular, g_free_rcu can be
+ used. In the above case, one could have written simply:
- call_rcu(foo_reclaim, g_free, rcu);
+ g_free_rcu(foo_reclaim, rcu);
typeof(*p) atomic_rcu_read(p);