KVM: race-free exit from KVM_RUN without POSIX signals

The purpose of the KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK API is to let userspace "kick"
a VCPU out of KVM_RUN through a POSIX signal.  A signal is attached
to a dummy signal handler; by blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN and
unblocking it inside, this possible race is closed:

          VCPU thread                     service thread
   --------------------------------------------------------------
        check flag
                                          set flag
                                          raise signal
        (signal handler does nothing)
        KVM_RUN

However, one issue with KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK is that it has to take
tsk->sighand->siglock on every KVM_RUN.  This lock is often on a
remote NUMA node, because it is on the node of a thread's creator.
Taking this lock can be very expensive if there are many userspace
exits (as is the case for SMP Windows VMs without Hyper-V reference
time counter).

As an alternative, we can put the flag directly in kvm_run so that
KVM can see it:

          VCPU thread                     service thread
   --------------------------------------------------------------
                                          raise signal
        signal handler
          set run->immediate_exit
        KVM_RUN
          check run->immediate_exit

Reviewed-by: Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
index e4f2cdcf78eb..069450938b79 100644
--- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/api.txt
@@ -3389,7 +3389,18 @@ struct kvm_run {
 Request that KVM_RUN return when it becomes possible to inject external
 interrupts into the guest.  Useful in conjunction with KVM_INTERRUPT.
 
-	__u8 padding1[7];
+	__u8 immediate_exit;
+
+This field is polled once when KVM_RUN starts; if non-zero, KVM_RUN
+exits immediately, returning -EINTR.  In the common scenario where a
+signal is used to "kick" a VCPU out of KVM_RUN, this field can be used
+to avoid usage of KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK, which has worse scalability.
+Rather than blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN, userspace can set up
+a signal handler that sets run->immediate_exit to a non-zero value.
+
+This field is ignored if KVM_CAP_IMMEDIATE_EXIT is not available.
+
+	__u8 padding1[6];
 
 	/* out */
 	__u32 exit_reason;