Re: [PATCH] KVM: x86: Remove WARN sanity check on hypervisor timer vs. UNINITIALIZED vCPU

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Thu Aug 10 2023 - 11:33:55 EST


On Thu, Aug 10, 2023, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 8/9/23 01:20, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > /*
> > - * It should be impossible for the hypervisor timer to be in
> > - * use before KVM has ever run the vCPU.
> > + * Don't bother switching APIC timer emulation from the
> > + * hypervisor timer to the software timer, the only way for the
> > + * APIC timer to be active is if userspace stuffed vCPU state,
> > + * i.e. put the vCPU into a nonsensical state. Only an INIT
> > + * will transition the vCPU out of UNINITIALIZED (without more
> > + * state stuffing from userspace), which will reset the local
> > + * APIC and thus smother the timer anyways, i.e. the APIC timer
>
> "Cancel" is probably more understandable to non-native speakers, though
> undoubtedly less poetic.

I intentionally avoided "cancel" because there is no guaranteed the timer would
actually be canceled (if KVM switched to the software timer). I am/was trying to
call out that even if the timer expires and pends an interrupts, the interrupt
will ultimately be dropped.

Maybe "squashed"?