Re: [PATCH v2] KVM: x86: Allow guests to see MSR_IA32_TSX_CTRL even if tsx=off

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 01/02/21 17:38, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > > >      /*
> > > >       * On TAA affected systems:
> > > >       *      - nothing to do if TSX is disabled on the host.
> > > >       *      - we emulate TSX_CTRL if present on the host.
> > > >       *      This lets the guest use VERW to clear CPU buffers.
> > > >       */
>
> it says "nothing to do..." and then clears a
> flag.  The other interpretation of "nothing to do... at runtime" is also wrong
> as KVM emulates the MSR as a nop.
>
> I guess I just find the whole comment more confusing than the code itself.

What about:


        if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_RTM)) {
                /*
                 * If RTM=0 because the kernel has disabled TSX, the 
host might
                 * have TAA_NO or TSX_CTRL.  Clear TAA_NO (the guest 
sees RTM=0
                 * and therefore knows that there cannot be TAA) but keep
                 * TSX_CTRL: some buggy userspaces leave it set on 
tsx=on hosts,
                 * and we want to allow migrating those guests to 
tsx=off hosts.
                 */
                data &= ~ARCH_CAP_TAA_NO;
        } else if (!boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_TAA)) {
                data |= ARCH_CAP_TAA_NO;
        } else {
                /*
                 * Nothing to do here; we emulate TSX_CTRL if present 
on the
                 * host so the guest can choose between disabling TSX or
                 * using VERW to clear CPU buffers.
                 */
        }

Paolo