diff options
| author | Andy Chiu <andybnac@gmail.com> | 2025-04-08 02:08:36 +0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com> | 2025-06-05 11:09:32 -0700 |
| commit | d8ac85dad407f4cea65a970e9ba42201cb49686a (patch) | |
| tree | cfbf1173bb8a2b92ffeb137f606acfb7bc7696a0 | |
| parent | b21cdb9523e5561b97fd534dbb75d132c5c938ff (diff) | |
| download | linux-d8ac85dad407f4cea65a970e9ba42201cb49686a.tar.gz | |
riscv: Documentation: add a description about dynamic ftrace
Add a section in cmodx to describe how dynamic ftrace works on riscv,
limitations, and assumptions.
Signed-off-by: Andy Chiu <andybnac@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250407180838.42877-12-andybnac@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexandre Ghiti <alexghiti@rivosinc.com>
Signed-off-by: Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com>
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/arch/riscv/cmodx.rst | 46 |
1 files changed, 39 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/arch/riscv/cmodx.rst b/Documentation/arch/riscv/cmodx.rst index 8c48bcff3df9d2..e009873b2d17ee 100644 --- a/Documentation/arch/riscv/cmodx.rst +++ b/Documentation/arch/riscv/cmodx.rst @@ -10,13 +10,45 @@ modified by the program itself. Instruction storage and the instruction cache program must enforce its own synchronization with the unprivileged fence.i instruction. -However, the default Linux ABI prohibits the use of fence.i in userspace -applications. At any point the scheduler may migrate a task onto a new hart. If -migration occurs after the userspace synchronized the icache and instruction -storage with fence.i, the icache on the new hart will no longer be clean. This -is due to the behavior of fence.i only affecting the hart that it is called on. -Thus, the hart that the task has been migrated to may not have synchronized -instruction storage and icache. +CMODX in the Kernel Space +--------------------- + +Dynamic ftrace +--------------------- + +Essentially, dynamic ftrace directs the control flow by inserting a function +call at each patchable function entry, and patches it dynamically at runtime to +enable or disable the redirection. In the case of RISC-V, 2 instructions, +AUIPC + JALR, are required to compose a function call. However, it is impossible +to patch 2 instructions and expect that a concurrent read-side executes them +without a race condition. This series makes atmoic code patching possible in +RISC-V ftrace. Kernel preemption makes things even worse as it allows the old +state to persist across the patching process with stop_machine(). + +In order to get rid of stop_machine() and run dynamic ftrace with full kernel +preemption, we partially initialize each patchable function entry at boot-time, +setting the first instruction to AUIPC, and the second to NOP. Now, atmoic +patching is possible because the kernel only has to update one instruction. +According to Ziccif, as long as an instruction is naturally aligned, the ISA +guarantee an atomic update. + +By fixing down the first instruction, AUIPC, the range of the ftrace trampoline +is limited to +-2K from the predetermined target, ftrace_caller, due to the lack +of immediate encoding space in RISC-V. To address the issue, we introduce +CALL_OPS, where an 8B naturally align metadata is added in front of each +pacthable function. The metadata is resolved at the first trampoline, then the +execution can be derect to another custom trampoline. + +CMODX in the User Space +--------------------- + +Though fence.i is an unprivileged instruction, the default Linux ABI prohibits +the use of fence.i in userspace applications. At any point the scheduler may +migrate a task onto a new hart. If migration occurs after the userspace +synchronized the icache and instruction storage with fence.i, the icache on the +new hart will no longer be clean. This is due to the behavior of fence.i only +affecting the hart that it is called on. Thus, the hart that the task has been +migrated to may not have synchronized instruction storage and icache. There are two ways to solve this problem: use the riscv_flush_icache() syscall, or use the ``PR_RISCV_SET_ICACHE_FLUSH_CTX`` prctl() and emit fence.i in |