Re: [PATCH] x86/cpufeatures: Cleanup AMD speculation feature bits

From: Tom Lendacky
Date: Fri Jan 26 2018 - 18:14:54 EST


On 1/26/2018 4:10 PM, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 09:59:44PM +0000, David Woodhouse wrote:
>> If we wanted to do this kind of thing, we'd do it the other way round.
>> Turn the *Intel* feature into both 'IBRS' and 'IBPB' CPU-visible
>> features, and have those defined in the AMD word.
>
> You lost me here: have those defined in the AMD word?
>
>> Then use virtual bits with "" for the software features, since we
>> don't want *those* to appear in /proc/cpuinfo.
>
> Whatever we do, I think it would be most consistent to have three
> strings, *both* on Intel and AMD visible in cpuinfo: "ibrs", "ibpb" and
> "stibp" so that there's no confusion what is enabled on each box.
>
> Now, those three can be the *virtual* features which get set by the
> actual CPUID features on init. And the latter, the *actual* CPUID
> features don't need to be visible in cpuinfo: people shouldn't care
> whether "spec_ctrl" on Intel and "pred_cmd" on AMD both mean "ibpb". It
> should be simply "ibpb" on both vendors in cpuinfo.
>
> Ditto for the others.
>
> This way you have one unified message of what is enabled on *any* box.

That sounds good to me.

Thanks,
Tom

>