3a55fc0f24
When configured for interrupts (property "chardev" given), we receive the shared memory from an ivshmem server. We do so asynchronously after realize() completes, by setting up callbacks with qemu_chr_add_handlers(). Keeping server I/O out of realize() that way avoids delays due to a slow server. This is probably relevant only for hot plug. However, this funny "no shared memory, yet" state of the device also causes a raft of issues that are hard or impossible to work around: * The guest is exposed to this state: when we enter and leave it its shared memory contents is apruptly replaced, and device register IVPosition changes. This is a known issue. We document that guests should not access the shared memory after device initialization until the IVPosition register becomes non-negative. For cold plug, the funny state is unlikely to be visible in practice, because we normally receive the shared memory long before the guest gets around to mess with the device. For hot plug, the timing is tighter, but the relative slowness of PCI device configuration has a good chance to hide the funny state. In either case, guests complying with the documented procedure are safe. * Migration becomes racy. If migration completes before the shared memory setup completes on the source, shared memory contents is silently lost. Fortunately, migration is rather unlikely to win this race. If the shared memory's ramblock arrives at the destination before shared memory setup completes, migration fails. There is no known way for a management application to wait for shared memory setup to complete. All you can do is retry failed migration. You can improve your chances by leaving more time between running the destination QEMU and the migrate command. To mitigate silent memory loss, you need to ensure the server initializes shared memory exactly the same on source and destination. These issues are entirely undocumented so far. I'd expect the server to be almost always fast enough to hide these issues. But then rare catastrophic races are in a way the worst kind. This is way more trouble than I'm willing to take from any device. Kill the funny state by receiving shared memory synchronously in realize(). If your hot plug hangs, go kill your ivshmem server. For easier review, this commit only makes the receive synchronous, it doesn't add the necessary error propagation. Without that, the funny state persists. The next commit will do that, and kill it off for real. Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Marc-André Lureau <marcandre.lureau@redhat.com> Message-Id: <1458066895-20632-26-git-send-email-armbru@redhat.com>
QEMU README
===========
QEMU is a generic and open source machine & userspace emulator and
virtualizer.
QEMU is capable of emulating a complete machine in software without any
need for hardware virtualization support. By using dynamic translation,
it achieves very good performance. QEMU can also integrate with the Xen
and KVM hypervisors to provide emulated hardware while allowing the
hypervisor to manage the CPU. With hypervisor support, QEMU can achieve
near native performance for CPUs. When QEMU emulates CPUs directly it is
capable of running operating systems made for one machine (e.g. an ARMv7
board) on a different machine (e.g. an x86_64 PC board).
QEMU is also capable of providing userspace API virtualization for Linux
and BSD kernel interfaces. This allows binaries compiled against one
architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux PPC64 ABI) to be run on a host using a
different architecture ABI (e.g. the Linux x86_64 ABI). This does not
involve any hardware emulation, simply CPU and syscall emulation.
QEMU aims to fit into a variety of use cases. It can be invoked directly
by users wishing to have full control over its behaviour and settings.
It also aims to facilitate integration into higher level management
layers, by providing a stable command line interface and monitor API.
It is commonly invoked indirectly via the libvirt library when using
open source applications such as oVirt, OpenStack and virt-manager.
QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License,
version 2. For full licensing details, consult the LICENSE file.
Building
========
QEMU is multi-platform software intended to be buildable on all modern
Linux platforms, OS-X, Win32 (via the Mingw64 toolchain) and a variety
of other UNIX targets. The simple steps to build QEMU are:
mkdir build
cd build
../configure
make
Complete details of the process for building and configuring QEMU for
all supported host platforms can be found in the qemu-tech.html file.
Additional information can also be found online via the QEMU website:
http://qemu-project.org/Hosts/Linux
http://qemu-project.org/Hosts/W32
Submitting patches
==================
The QEMU source code is maintained under the GIT version control system.
git clone git://git.qemu-project.org/qemu.git
When submitting patches, the preferred approach is to use 'git
format-patch' and/or 'git send-email' to format & send the mail to the
qemu-devel@nongnu.org mailing list. All patches submitted must contain
a 'Signed-off-by' line from the author. Patches should follow the
guidelines set out in the HACKING and CODING_STYLE files.
Additional information on submitting patches can be found online via
the QEMU website
http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/SubmitAPatch
http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/TrivialPatches
Bug reporting
=============
The QEMU project uses Launchpad as its primary upstream bug tracker. Bugs
found when running code built from QEMU git or upstream released sources
should be reported via:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/
If using QEMU via an operating system vendor pre-built binary package, it
is preferable to report bugs to the vendor's own bug tracker first. If
the bug is also known to affect latest upstream code, it can also be
reported via launchpad.
For additional information on bug reporting consult:
http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/ReportABug
Contact
=======
The QEMU community can be contacted in a number of ways, with the two
main methods being email and IRC
- qemu-devel@nongnu.org
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
- #qemu on irc.oftc.net
Information on additional methods of contacting the community can be
found online via the QEMU website:
http://qemu-project.org/Contribute/StartHere
-- End