From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To: Sohil Mehta <sohil.mehta@intel.com>
Cc: "Chang S. Bae" <chang.seok.bae@intel.com>,
kvm@vger.kernel.org, x86@kernel.org,
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
"H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>,
Binbin Wu <binbin.wu@linux.intel.com>,
Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
Kai Huang <kai.huang@intel.com>,
Fuad Tabba <fuad.tabba@linux.dev>, Chao Gao <chao.gao@intel.com>,
Yosry Ahmed <yosry@kernel.org>,
Claudio Imbrenda <imbrenda@linux.ibm.com>,
David Matlack <dmatlack@google.com>,
Bala-Vignesh-Reddy <reddybalavignesh9979@gmail.com>,
Kishen Maloor <kishen.maloor@intel.com>,
Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 4/7] KVM: VMX: Implement LASS violation check
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:04:49 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <aqlQgQgnLDf2CHqx@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <c5076e4a-0335-4ed1-8049-a3ddf486ea03@intel.com>
On Mon, Sep 14, 2026, Sohil Mehta wrote:
> > Yes, this could be a matter of taste as taking and going to maintain the
> > code. But as a reader looking at this, the logic was not that easy to
> > capture at a high level.
> >
>
> At first look, I found it a bit hard to follow as well. But instead of
> splitting out the logic into 4 static functions (which have limited
> value to the rest of the file), how about we add a high level comment on
> top of the function?
This is a great idea!
> I'll let Sean comment whether he prefers to change anything here or
> leave it as-is.
>
> Note, some function names in the proposed diff could be misleading. For
> example, is_user_mode() checks the IMPLICIT flag in addition to the CPL
> which feels odd. And, is_lass_enforced() seems like a generic LASS check
> but in reality it only covers the supervisor data rule.
Yeah, this is my thinking as well. In most cases, I would agree that we should
make the high-level concept as easy to follow as possible. But helpers like
these, and even is_user_address() vs. is_supervisor_address(), highlight why I
think we should keep the more open-coded version in this particular case. IMO,
the control flow isn't hard to follow because of poor coding/design, it's hard
to follow because the actual behavior of the CPU is complex and subtle.
So for me, this is more of a feature, not a bug. I.e. I *want* to force readers
to slow down a bit, because while the basic gist is indeed very straightforward,
I think the resulting code is actively misleading if we bury the complexity and
subtlety in helpers.
That said, I love Sohil's idea of adding a function comment. Someting along the
lines of "The basic flow is this: <example>, but the actual behavior is far more
subtle due to many exceptions and edge cases".
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-09-15 14:04 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 25+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-06 1:15 [PATCH v4 0/7] KVM: x86: Add LASS virtualization support Sohil Mehta
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 1/7] KVM: x86: Add an emulator flag to differentiate branch targets from fetches Sohil Mehta
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 2/7] KVM: x86: Use linear_read_system() to read the TSS I/O bitmap Sohil Mehta
2026-08-19 3:19 ` Binbin Wu
2026-08-19 5:03 ` Sohil Mehta
2026-08-19 5:21 ` H. Peter Anvin
2026-08-19 5:26 ` Binbin Wu
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 3/7] KVM: x86: Add LASS violation checks during instruction emulation Sohil Mehta
2026-08-19 5:58 ` Binbin Wu
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 4/7] KVM: VMX: Implement LASS violation check Sohil Mehta
2026-08-19 8:49 ` Binbin Wu
2026-09-14 17:43 ` Chang S. Bae
2026-09-15 5:10 ` Sohil Mehta
2026-09-15 14:04 ` Sean Christopherson [this message]
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 5/7] KVM: x86: Virtualize LASS and advertise support to userspace Sohil Mehta
2026-08-19 9:01 ` Binbin Wu
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 6/7] KVM: selftests: Add coverage for LASS CPUID and CR4 handling Sohil Mehta
2026-08-20 6:01 ` Binbin Wu
2026-08-06 1:15 ` [PATCH v4 7/7] selftests/x86: Add a userspace test for LASS enforcement Sohil Mehta
2026-08-20 6:36 ` Binbin Wu
2026-09-15 3:22 ` Sohil Mehta
2026-09-14 18:21 ` Chang S. Bae
2026-09-15 3:16 ` Sohil Mehta
2026-08-26 3:50 ` [PATCH v4 0/7] KVM: x86: Add LASS virtualization support Kishen Maloor
2026-08-27 3:18 ` Chen, Farrah
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