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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/x86/entry_64.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/x86/entry_64.txt b/Documentation/x86/entry_64.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9132b8617 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/x86/entry_64.txt @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +This file documents some of the kernel entries in +arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S. A lot of this explanation is adapted from +an email from Ingo Molnar: + +http://lkml.kernel.org/r/<20110529191055.GC9835%40elte.hu> + +The x86 architecture has quite a few different ways to jump into +kernel code. Most of these entry points are registered in +arch/x86/kernel/traps.c and implemented in arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S +for 64-bit, arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S for 32-bit and finally +arch/x86/ia32/ia32entry.S which implements the 32-bit compatibility +syscall entry points and thus provides for 32-bit processes the +ability to execute syscalls when running on 64-bit kernels. + +The IDT vector assignments are listed in arch/x86/include/asm/irq_vectors.h. + +Some of these entries are: + + - system_call: syscall instruction from 64-bit code. + + - ia32_syscall: int 0x80 from 32-bit or 64-bit code; compat syscall + either way. + + - ia32_syscall, ia32_sysenter: syscall and sysenter from 32-bit + code + + - interrupt: An array of entries. Every IDT vector that doesn't + explicitly point somewhere else gets set to the corresponding + value in interrupts. These point to a whole array of + magically-generated functions that make their way to do_IRQ with + the interrupt number as a parameter. + + - APIC interrupts: Various special-purpose interrupts for things + like TLB shootdown. + + - Architecturally-defined exceptions like divide_error. + +There are a few complexities here. The different x86-64 entries +have different calling conventions. The syscall and sysenter +instructions have their own peculiar calling conventions. Some of +the IDT entries push an error code onto the stack; others don't. +IDT entries using the IST alternative stack mechanism need their own +magic to get the stack frames right. (You can find some +documentation in the AMD APM, Volume 2, Chapter 8 and the Intel SDM, +Volume 3, Chapter 6.) + +Dealing with the swapgs instruction is especially tricky. Swapgs +toggles whether gs is the kernel gs or the user gs. The swapgs +instruction is rather fragile: it must nest perfectly and only in +single depth, it should only be used if entering from user mode to +kernel mode and then when returning to user-space, and precisely +so. If we mess that up even slightly, we crash. + +So when we have a secondary entry, already in kernel mode, we *must +not* use SWAPGS blindly - nor must we forget doing a SWAPGS when it's +not switched/swapped yet. + +Now, there's a secondary complication: there's a cheap way to test +which mode the CPU is in and an expensive way. + +The cheap way is to pick this info off the entry frame on the kernel +stack, from the CS of the ptregs area of the kernel stack: + + xorl %ebx,%ebx + testl $3,CS+8(%rsp) + je error_kernelspace + SWAPGS + +The expensive (paranoid) way is to read back the MSR_GS_BASE value +(which is what SWAPGS modifies): + + movl $1,%ebx + movl $MSR_GS_BASE,%ecx + rdmsr + testl %edx,%edx + js 1f /* negative -> in kernel */ + SWAPGS + xorl %ebx,%ebx +1: ret + +If we are at an interrupt or user-trap/gate-alike boundary then we can +use the faster check: the stack will be a reliable indicator of +whether SWAPGS was already done: if we see that we are a secondary +entry interrupting kernel mode execution, then we know that the GS +base has already been switched. If it says that we interrupted +user-space execution then we must do the SWAPGS. + +But if we are in an NMI/MCE/DEBUG/whatever super-atomic entry context, +which might have triggered right after a normal entry wrote CS to the +stack but before we executed SWAPGS, then the only safe way to check +for GS is the slower method: the RDMSR. + +Therefore, super-atomic entries (except NMI, which is handled separately) +must use idtentry with paranoid=1 to handle gsbase correctly. This +triggers three main behavior changes: + + - Interrupt entry will use the slower gsbase check. + - Interrupt entry from user mode will switch off the IST stack. + - Interrupt exit to kernel mode will not attempt to reschedule. + +We try to only use IST entries and the paranoid entry code for vectors +that absolutely need the more expensive check for the GS base - and we +generate all 'normal' entry points with the regular (faster) paranoid=0 +variant. |