Re: [PATCH] x86/cpu: Update cached HLE state on write to TSX_CTRL_CPUID_CLEAR

[Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 02:50:54PM -0800, Pawan Gupta wrote:
> /proc/cpuinfo currently reports Hardware Lock Elision (HLE) feature to
> be present on boot cpu even if it was disabled during the bootup. This
> is because cpuinfo_x86->x86_capability HLE bit is not updated after TSX
> state is changed via a new MSR IA32_TSX_CTRL.
> 
> Update the cached HLE bit also since it is expected to change after an
> update to CPUID_CLEAR bit in MSR IA32_TSX_CTRL.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta <pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com>
> Tested-by: Neelima Krishnan <neelima.krishnan@intel.com>
> Reviewed-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>

From the Intel TAA deep dive page [1], it says:

  "On processors that enumerate IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES[TSX_CTRL] (bit
   7)=1, HLE prefix hints are always ignored."

So if the CPU has IA32_TSX_CTRL, HLE is implicitly disabled, so why
would the HLE bit have been set in CPUID in the first place?

[1] https://software.intel.com/security-software-guidance/insights/deep-dive-intel-transactional-synchronization-extensions-intel-tsx-asynchronous-abort

-- 
Josh