Re: [PATCH RFC V3 4/9] x86/pks: Preserve the PKRS MSR on context switch

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Fri Oct 16 2020 - 07:12:47 EST


On Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 11:31:45AM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
> > +/**
> > + * It should also be noted that the underlying WRMSR(MSR_IA32_PKRS) is not
> > + * serializing but still maintains ordering properties similar to WRPKRU.
> > + * The current SDM section on PKRS needs updating but should be the same as
> > + * that of WRPKRU. So to quote from the WRPKRU text:
> > + *
> > + * WRPKRU will never execute transiently. Memory accesses
> > + * affected by PKRU register will not execute (even transiently)
> > + * until all prior executions of WRPKRU have completed execution
> > + * and updated the PKRU register.
> > + */
> > +void write_pkrs(u32 new_pkrs)
> > +{
> > + u32 *pkrs;
> > +
> > + if (!static_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_PKS))
> > + return;
> > +
> > + pkrs = get_cpu_ptr(&pkrs_cache);
> > + if (*pkrs != new_pkrs) {
> > + *pkrs = new_pkrs;
> > + wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_PKRS, new_pkrs);
> > + }
> > + put_cpu_ptr(pkrs);
> > +}
> >
>
> It bugs me a *bit* that this is being called in a preempt-disabled
> region, but we still bother with the get/put_cpu jazz. Are there other
> future call-sites for this that aren't in preempt-disabled regions?

So the previous version had a useful comment that got lost. This stuff
needs to fundamentally be preempt disabled, so it either needs to
explicitly do so, or have an assertion that preemption is indeed
disabled.