diff options
author | Raghavendra K T <raghavendra.kt@linux.vnet.ibm.com> | 2012-08-07 13:09:59 +0530 |
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committer | Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com> | 2012-08-13 17:39:59 -0300 |
commit | fc16123937ccfc2f2bbe98a5e41c4f6d26a22b24 (patch) | |
tree | 8f8f3965a65066d3b4cd03c413c4378928ea1fbe /Documentation/virtual/kvm | |
parent | 51d59c6b422f3f95940ae4e5b42f165595906aee (diff) |
KVM: Add documentation on hypercalls
Thanks Alex for KVM_HC_FEATURES inputs and Jan for VAPIC_POLL_IRQ,
and Peter (HPA) for suggesting hypercall ABI addition.
Signed-off-by: Raghavendra K T <raghavendra.kt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/virtual/kvm')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/virtual/kvm/hypercalls.txt | 66 |
1 files changed, 66 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/hypercalls.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/hypercalls.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..ea113b5d87a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/hypercalls.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +Linux KVM Hypercall: +=================== +X86: + KVM Hypercalls have a three-byte sequence of either the vmcall or the vmmcall + instruction. The hypervisor can replace it with instructions that are + guaranteed to be supported. + + Up to four arguments may be passed in rbx, rcx, rdx, and rsi respectively. + The hypercall number should be placed in rax and the return value will be + placed in rax. No other registers will be clobbered unless explicitly stated + by the particular hypercall. + +S390: + R2-R7 are used for parameters 1-6. In addition, R1 is used for hypercall + number. The return value is written to R2. + + S390 uses diagnose instruction as hypercall (0x500) along with hypercall + number in R1. + + PowerPC: + It uses R3-R10 and hypercall number in R11. R4-R11 are used as output registers. + Return value is placed in R3. + + KVM hypercalls uses 4 byte opcode, that are patched with 'hypercall-instructions' + property inside the device tree's /hypervisor node. + For more information refer to Documentation/virtual/kvm/ppc-pv.txt + +KVM Hypercalls Documentation +=========================== +The template for each hypercall is: +1. Hypercall name. +2. Architecture(s) +3. Status (deprecated, obsolete, active) +4. Purpose + +1. KVM_HC_VAPIC_POLL_IRQ +------------------------ +Architecture: x86 +Status: active +Purpose: Trigger guest exit so that the host can check for pending +interrupts on reentry. + +2. KVM_HC_MMU_OP +------------------------ +Architecture: x86 +Status: deprecated. +Purpose: Support MMU operations such as writing to PTE, +flushing TLB, release PT. + +3. KVM_HC_FEATURES +------------------------ +Architecture: PPC +Status: active +Purpose: Expose hypercall availability to the guest. On x86 platforms, cpuid +used to enumerate which hypercalls are available. On PPC, either device tree +based lookup ( which is also what EPAPR dictates) OR KVM specific enumeration +mechanism (which is this hypercall) can be used. + +4. KVM_HC_PPC_MAP_MAGIC_PAGE +------------------------ +Architecture: PPC +Status: active +Purpose: To enable communication between the hypervisor and guest there is a +shared page that contains parts of supervisor visible register state. +The guest can map this shared page to access its supervisor register through +memory using this hypercall. |