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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700 |
| commit | 22098763a10d9c1340827fcf6edab66f153b27f0 (patch) | |
| tree | 3962f95a34df034652ff93686cdd156c7197f2d9 /Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-22098763a10d9c1340827fcf6edab66f153b27f0.tar.gz linux-stable-22098763a10d9c1340827fcf6edab66f153b27f0.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Don't destroy user event fields when removal fails
User event fields are destroyed before the event is removed from
visibility. But that can fail leaving the still visible event with no
fields. Move the destroying of the fields to after the event is
successfully removed from visibility.
- Initialize function graph state is fork before calling
copy_exec_state()
For non-CLONE_VM forks, copy_exec_state() allocates a new
task_exec_state. If that allocation fails, ftrace_graph_exit_task()
will free the tasks ret_stack pointer. Since that pointer is still
using the parent's ret_stack, it mistakenly frees the parent's
pointer too.
Call ftrace_graph_init() on the task first which will NULL out the
new tasks's ret_stack and if the copy fails, it will not free
anything.
- Remove FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX
The macro FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX was added but never used. Remove it.
- Save ent_size in function graph printing of nested functions
The function graph tracer needs to look at the next event to see if
the next event is the return of the current function entry. If it is,
it prints a single line:
ktime_get();
Otherwise it prints it like a nested function:
tick_nohz_irq_exit() {
ktime_get();
kcpustat_irq_exit();
}
In order to look at the next event, it must save the current event so
that it has the information to print from it. It saves the event in
the iterator descriptor called "ent". What it doesn't save is the
ent_size of the event which is now used to know if the function graph
arguments are to be printed. The peek doesn't save the size so the
size used happens to be that of the size of the last event that was
seen.
Save the entry event size in the iterator descriptor so that the
correct size is used.
- Fix several errors with freeing data in the histogram code
The histogram code had a lot of leaked or or incorrect accounting
when failures happen. Correct them.
- Fix histogram regression of .percent and .graph modifiers
Up until 6.3 histogram values could have "percent" or "graph"
modifiers that changed how they were printed. But a change that added
restricting histograms values from being strings, stack traces and
other modifiers inadvertently prevented them from using the percent
and graph modifiers, which were legal use cases for values.
Put back the percent and graph modifiers.
- Fix various typos in the comments
- Set the trace_clock before initializing a histogram with clock
argument
The histogram API allows the user to specific which trace clock to
use via a "clock=" string. The histogram is set up first before the
clock is checked. If the passed in clock is not valid, it exits
without fully fixing up the histogram leaving it on the list and a
use-after-free can trigger.
Update the clock argument first and if it fails then exit gracefully
before the histogram trigger is placed on any lists.
- Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event
The function ftrace_set_clr_event() modifies the parse string and
needs to put it back to what was passed in. It searches for ":mod:"
via a strsep() but fails to put back the first ':' in the string.
Add back the ':' in the passed in string.
- Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file
The options files are dynamically created and some tracers add their
own options. When a tracer adds their own list of options, the
trace_array holding them has an array to hold the list of options for
each tracer. This array increases in size via a krealloc(), and the
new entry gets a newly allocated array to hold the options of the new
tracer being added.
The element in each entry of the tracer's option array holds a
pointer back to the trace_array, a pointer to the tracer it is
associated to, a pointer to the flags of the option.
The issue is that these arrays are freed when the trace_array is
freed when its instance it represents is removed from the instances
directory. There's a race that an open of one of these options files
can happen when the instance is being removed.
Add a new helper function to be called by the open function of the
options file to iterate all existing trace_arrays under a lock and
find the one that has the given option element in one of it's tracer
arrays. If found, then update the associated trace_array's reference
counter to keep it from being freed. If not found, have the open call
return -ENODEV.
- Disable interrupts when acquiring the lock in rb_wake_up_waiters()
The function rb_wake_up_waiters() assumes it will be called in
interrupt context and does not disable irqs when taking
cpu_buffer->reader_lock, which can be called in hard interrupt
context. The issue is in PREEMPT_RT, this function is called in
thread context leaving this lock open to a deadlock.
Take the lock with interrupts disabled.
- Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash
The tmp_ops used in update_ftrace_direct_mod() assigns its
filter_hash field directly, but that field is annotated as __rcu and
sparse complains. Assign it with rcu_assign_pointer()
- Fix use-after-free in enable_trigger_private_data_free()
The trace_event_call is accessed through the event_trigger_data's
trace_event_file pointer to put the trace_event_call on freeing. The
issue is that the trace_event_file data may have been freed already
causing a use-after-free. Add a field to the event_trigger_data that
points directly to the trace_event_call so that it can decrement its
reference directly without needing to go through the
trace_event_file.
- Fix accounting of buffer data remote headers
trace_buffer_desc_size() and trace_remote_alloc_buffer() undercount
the number of pages is needed for the asked for size as it doesn't
take into account the meta data on each page. Add a helper function
to do the calculation properly and use that in these functions.
- Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing
The number of pages per remote ring buffer is capped by
ring_buffer_desc::nr_page_va (32 bits). A buffer_size large enough to
overflow that field would silently allocate a descriptor smaller than
what was asked for.
- Do not resize the subbuf order if any per_cpu buffer is disabled
The mmapping of ring buffers disables resizing the subbuffers, but it
is done per-cpu whereas the subbuf size change is done for all the
per_cpu buffers under the buffer->mutex. It could change the size of
some while the mapping is happening on others. Have the resize of the
subbuf order check all the per_cpu buffers under the lock to see if
any of them is disabled before starting and causing an inconsistency
between buffers that are being mapped.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: (25 commits)
ring-buffer: Check resize_disabled before publishing the new subbuf order
tracing/remotes: Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing
tracing/remotes: Account for ring buffer page header in size calculation
tracing: Don't dereference trace_event_file in deferred trigger free
ftrace: Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash
ring-buffer: Acquire the lock with irqsave in rb_wake_up_waiters()
tracing: Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file
tracing: Fix ring_buffer_read_page_size() kernel-doc
tracing: Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event()
tracing: Fix memory corruption from a "STACKTRACE" histogram key
tracing: Fix memory corruption from the histogram stacktrace modifier
tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails
tracing: Take the reference before publishing the named histogram trigger
tracing: Set the trace clock before registering the histogram trigger
tracing: Fix typo "preceeded" in comment
tracing: Fix typo "availabe" in comment
tracing: Let histogram values keep the percent and graph modifiers
tracing: Keep the entry count when the histogram stats allocation fails
tracing: Free histogram the field rejected for a bad modifier
tracing: Free histogram the var ref when its initialization fails
...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst | 377 |
1 files changed, 377 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2f36c21d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst @@ -0,0 +1,377 @@ +Buffer Sharing and Synchronization (dma-buf) +============================================ + +The dma-buf subsystem provides the framework for sharing buffers for +hardware (DMA) access across multiple device drivers and subsystems, and +for synchronizing asynchronous hardware access. + +As an example, it is used extensively by the DRM subsystem to exchange +buffers between processes, contexts, library APIs within the same +process, and also to exchange buffers with other subsystems such as +V4L2. + +This document describes the way in which kernel subsystems can use and +interact with the three main primitives offered by dma-buf: + + - dma-buf, representing a sg_table and exposed to userspace as a file + descriptor to allow passing between processes, subsystems, devices, + etc; + - dma-fence, providing a mechanism to signal when an asynchronous + hardware operation has completed; and + - dma-resv, which manages a set of dma-fences for a particular dma-buf + allowing implicit (kernel-ordered) synchronization of work to + preserve the illusion of coherent access + + +Userspace API principles and use +-------------------------------- + +For more details on how to design your subsystem's API for dma-buf use, please +see Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-alloc-exchange.rst. + + +Shared DMA Buffers +------------------ + +This document serves as a guide to device-driver writers on what is the dma-buf +buffer sharing API, how to use it for exporting and using shared buffers. + +Any device driver which wishes to be a part of DMA buffer sharing, can do so as +either the 'exporter' of buffers, or the 'user' or 'importer' of buffers. + +Say a driver A wants to use buffers created by driver B, then we call B as the +exporter, and A as buffer-user/importer. + +The exporter + + - implements and manages operations in :c:type:`struct dma_buf_ops + <dma_buf_ops>` for the buffer, + - allows other users to share the buffer by using dma_buf sharing APIs, + - manages the details of buffer allocation, wrapped in a :c:type:`struct + dma_buf <dma_buf>`, + - decides about the actual backing storage where this allocation happens, + - and takes care of any migration of scatterlist - for all (shared) users of + this buffer. + +The buffer-user + + - is one of (many) sharing users of the buffer. + - doesn't need to worry about how the buffer is allocated, or where. + - and needs a mechanism to get access to the scatterlist that makes up this + buffer in memory, mapped into its own address space, so it can access the + same area of memory. This interface is provided by :c:type:`struct + dma_buf_attachment <dma_buf_attachment>`. + +Any exporters or users of the dma-buf buffer sharing framework must have a +'select DMA_SHARED_BUFFER' in their respective Kconfigs. + +Userspace Interface Notes +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Mostly a DMA buffer file descriptor is simply an opaque object for userspace, +and hence the generic interface exposed is very minimal. There's a few things to +consider though: + +- Since kernel 3.12 the dma-buf FD supports the llseek system call, but only + with offset=0 and whence=SEEK_END|SEEK_SET. SEEK_SET is supported to allow + the usual size discover pattern size = SEEK_END(0); SEEK_SET(0). Every other + llseek operation will report -EINVAL. + + If llseek on dma-buf FDs isn't supported the kernel will report -ESPIPE for all + cases. Userspace can use this to detect support for discovering the dma-buf + size using llseek. + +- In order to avoid fd leaks on exec, the FD_CLOEXEC flag must be set + on the file descriptor. This is not just a resource leak, but a + potential security hole. It could give the newly exec'd application + access to buffers, via the leaked fd, to which it should otherwise + not be permitted access. + + The problem with doing this via a separate fcntl() call, versus doing it + atomically when the fd is created, is that this is inherently racy in a + multi-threaded app[3]. The issue is made worse when it is library code + opening/creating the file descriptor, as the application may not even be + aware of the fd's. + + To avoid this problem, userspace must have a way to request O_CLOEXEC + flag be set when the dma-buf fd is created. So any API provided by + the exporting driver to create a dmabuf fd must provide a way to let + userspace control setting of O_CLOEXEC flag passed in to dma_buf_fd(). + +- Memory mapping the contents of the DMA buffer is also supported. See the + discussion below on `CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects`_ for the full details. + +- The DMA buffer FD is also pollable, see `Implicit Fence Poll Support`_ below for + details. + +- The DMA buffer FD also supports a few dma-buf-specific ioctls, see + `DMA Buffer ioctls`_ below for details. + +Basic Operation and Device DMA Access +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c + :doc: dma buf device access + +CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c + :doc: cpu access + +Implicit Fence Poll Support +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c + :doc: implicit fence polling + +DMA Buffer ioctls +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: include/uapi/linux/dma-buf.h + +DMA-BUF locking convention +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c + :doc: locking convention + +Kernel Functions and Structures Reference +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-buf.h + :internal: + +Reservation Objects +------------------- + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-resv.c + :doc: Reservation Object Overview + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-resv.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-resv.h + :internal: + +DMA Fences +---------- + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c + :doc: DMA fences overview + +DMA Fence Cross-Driver Contract +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c + :doc: fence cross-driver contract + +DMA Fence Signalling Annotations +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c + :doc: fence signalling annotation + +DMA Fence Deadline Hints +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c + :doc: deadline hints + +DMA Fences Functions Reference +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence.h + :internal: + +DMA Fence Array +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-array.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence-array.h + :internal: + +DMA Fence Chain +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-chain.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence-chain.h + :internal: + +DMA Fence unwrap +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence-unwrap.h + :internal: + +DMA Fence Sync File +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/sync_file.c + :export: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/sync_file.h + :internal: + +DMA Fence Sync File uABI +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +.. kernel-doc:: include/uapi/linux/sync_file.h + :internal: + +Indefinite DMA Fences +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +At various times struct dma_fence with an indefinite time until dma_fence_wait() +finishes have been proposed. Examples include: + +* Future fences, used in HWC1 to signal when a buffer isn't used by the display + any longer, and created with the screen update that makes the buffer visible. + The time this fence completes is entirely under userspace's control. + +* Proxy fences, proposed to handle &drm_syncobj for which the fence has not yet + been set. Used to asynchronously delay command submission. + +* Userspace fences or gpu futexes, fine-grained locking within a command buffer + that userspace uses for synchronization across engines or with the CPU, which + are then imported as a DMA fence for integration into existing winsys + protocols. + +* Long-running compute command buffers, while still using traditional end of + batch DMA fences for memory management instead of context preemption DMA + fences which get reattached when the compute job is rescheduled. + +Common to all these schemes is that userspace controls the dependencies of these +fences and controls when they fire. Mixing indefinite fences with normal +in-kernel DMA fences does not work, even when a fallback timeout is included to +protect against malicious userspace: + +* Only the kernel knows about all DMA fence dependencies, userspace is not aware + of dependencies injected due to memory management or scheduler decisions. + +* Only userspace knows about all dependencies in indefinite fences and when + exactly they will complete, the kernel has no visibility. + +Furthermore the kernel has to be able to hold up userspace command submission +for memory management needs, which means we must support indefinite fences being +dependent upon DMA fences. If the kernel also support indefinite fences in the +kernel like a DMA fence, like any of the above proposal would, there is the +potential for deadlocks. + +.. kernel-render:: DOT + :alt: Indefinite Fencing Dependency Cycle + :caption: Indefinite Fencing Dependency Cycle + + digraph "Fencing Cycle" { + node [shape=box bgcolor=grey style=filled] + kernel [label="Kernel DMA Fences"] + userspace [label="userspace controlled fences"] + kernel -> userspace [label="memory management"] + userspace -> kernel [label="Future fence, fence proxy, ..."] + + { rank=same; kernel userspace } + } + +This means that the kernel might accidentally create deadlocks +through memory management dependencies which userspace is unaware of, which +randomly hangs workloads until the timeout kicks in. Workloads, which from +userspace's perspective, do not contain a deadlock. In such a mixed fencing +architecture there is no single entity with knowledge of all dependencies. +Therefore preventing such deadlocks from within the kernel is not possible. + +The only solution to avoid dependencies loops is by not allowing indefinite +fences in the kernel. This means: + +* No future fences, proxy fences or userspace fences imported as DMA fences, + with or without a timeout. + +* No DMA fences that signal end of batchbuffer for command submission where + userspace is allowed to use userspace fencing or long running compute + workloads. This also means no implicit fencing for shared buffers in these + cases. + +Recoverable Hardware Page Faults Implications +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Modern hardware supports recoverable page faults, which has a lot of +implications for DMA fences. + +First, a pending page fault obviously holds up the work that's running on the +accelerator and a memory allocation is usually required to resolve the fault. +But memory allocations are not allowed to gate completion of DMA fences, which +means any workload using recoverable page faults cannot use DMA fences for +synchronization. Synchronization fences controlled by userspace must be used +instead. + +On GPUs this poses a problem, because current desktop compositor protocols on +Linux rely on DMA fences, which means without an entirely new userspace stack +built on top of userspace fences, they cannot benefit from recoverable page +faults. Specifically this means implicit synchronization will not be possible. +The exception is when page faults are only used as migration hints and never to +on-demand fill a memory request. For now this means recoverable page +faults on GPUs are limited to pure compute workloads. + +Furthermore GPUs usually have shared resources between the 3D rendering and +compute side, like compute units or command submission engines. If both a 3D +job with a DMA fence and a compute workload using recoverable page faults are +pending they could deadlock: + +- The 3D workload might need to wait for the compute job to finish and release + hardware resources first. + +- The compute workload might be stuck in a page fault, because the memory + allocation is waiting for the DMA fence of the 3D workload to complete. + +There are a few options to prevent this problem, one of which drivers need to +ensure: + +- Compute workloads can always be preempted, even when a page fault is pending + and not yet repaired. Not all hardware supports this. + +- DMA fence workloads and workloads which need page fault handling have + independent hardware resources to guarantee forward progress. This could be + achieved through e.g. through dedicated engines and minimal compute unit + reservations for DMA fence workloads. + +- The reservation approach could be further refined by only reserving the + hardware resources for DMA fence workloads when they are in-flight. This must + cover the time from when the DMA fence is visible to other threads up to + moment when fence is completed through dma_fence_signal(). + +- As a last resort, if the hardware provides no useful reservation mechanics, + all workloads must be flushed from the GPU when switching between jobs + requiring DMA fences or jobs requiring page fault handling: This means all DMA + fences must complete before a compute job with page fault handling can be + inserted into the scheduler queue. And vice versa, before a DMA fence can be + made visible anywhere in the system, all compute workloads must be preempted + to guarantee all pending GPU page faults are flushed. + +- Only a fairly theoretical option would be to untangle these dependencies when + allocating memory to repair hardware page faults, either through separate + memory blocks or runtime tracking of the full dependency graph of all DMA + fences. This results very wide impact on the kernel, since resolving the page + on the CPU side can itself involve a page fault. It is much more feasible and + robust to limit the impact of handling hardware page faults to the specific + driver. + +Note that workloads that run on independent hardware like copy engines or other +GPUs do not have any impact. This allows us to keep using DMA fences internally +in the kernel even for resolving hardware page faults, e.g. by using copy +engines to clear or copy memory needed to resolve the page fault. + +In some ways this page fault problem is a special case of the `Infinite DMA +Fences` discussions: Infinite fences from compute workloads are allowed to +depend on DMA fences, but not the other way around. And not even the page fault +problem is new, because some other CPU thread in userspace might +hit a page fault which holds up a userspace fence - supporting page faults on +GPUs doesn't anything fundamentally new. |
