Root/Documentation/cachetlb.txt

1        Cache and TLB Flushing
2             Under Linux
3
4        David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
5
6This document describes the cache/tlb flushing interfaces called
7by the Linux VM subsystem. It enumerates over each interface,
8describes it's intended purpose, and what side effect is expected
9after the interface is invoked.
10
11The side effects described below are stated for a uniprocessor
12implementation, and what is to happen on that single processor. The
13SMP cases are a simple extension, in that you just extend the
14definition such that the side effect for a particular interface occurs
15on all processors in the system. Don't let this scare you into
16thinking SMP cache/tlb flushing must be so inefficient, this is in
17fact an area where many optimizations are possible. For example,
18if it can be proven that a user address space has never executed
19on a cpu (see vma->cpu_vm_mask), one need not perform a flush
20for this address space on that cpu.
21
22First, the TLB flushing interfaces, since they are the simplest. The
23"TLB" is abstracted under Linux as something the cpu uses to cache
24virtual-->physical address translations obtained from the software
25page tables. Meaning that if the software page tables change, it is
26possible for stale translations to exist in this "TLB" cache.
27Therefore when software page table changes occur, the kernel will
28invoke one of the following flush methods _after_ the page table
29changes occur:
30
311) void flush_tlb_all(void)
32
33    The most severe flush of all. After this interface runs,
34    any previous page table modification whatsoever will be
35    visible to the cpu.
36
37    This is usually invoked when the kernel page tables are
38    changed, since such translations are "global" in nature.
39
402) void flush_tlb_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
41
42    This interface flushes an entire user address space from
43    the TLB. After running, this interface must make sure that
44    any previous page table modifications for the address space
45    'mm' will be visible to the cpu. That is, after running,
46    there will be no entries in the TLB for 'mm'.
47
48    This interface is used to handle whole address space
49    page table operations such as what happens during
50    fork, and exec.
51
523) void flush_tlb_range(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
53            unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
54
55    Here we are flushing a specific range of (user) virtual
56    address translations from the TLB. After running, this
57    interface must make sure that any previous page table
58    modifications for the address space 'vma->vm_mm' in the range
59    'start' to 'end-1' will be visible to the cpu. That is, after
60    running, here will be no entries in the TLB for 'mm' for
61    virtual addresses in the range 'start' to 'end-1'.
62
63    The "vma" is the backing store being used for the region.
64    Primarily, this is used for munmap() type operations.
65
66    The interface is provided in hopes that the port can find
67    a suitably efficient method for removing multiple page
68    sized translations from the TLB, instead of having the kernel
69    call flush_tlb_page (see below) for each entry which may be
70    modified.
71
724) void flush_tlb_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long addr)
73
74    This time we need to remove the PAGE_SIZE sized translation
75    from the TLB. The 'vma' is the backing structure used by
76    Linux to keep track of mmap'd regions for a process, the
77    address space is available via vma->vm_mm. Also, one may
78    test (vma->vm_flags & VM_EXEC) to see if this region is
79    executable (and thus could be in the 'instruction TLB' in
80    split-tlb type setups).
81
82    After running, this interface must make sure that any previous
83    page table modification for address space 'vma->vm_mm' for
84    user virtual address 'addr' will be visible to the cpu. That
85    is, after running, there will be no entries in the TLB for
86    'vma->vm_mm' for virtual address 'addr'.
87
88    This is used primarily during fault processing.
89
905) void update_mmu_cache(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
91             unsigned long address, pte_t *ptep)
92
93    At the end of every page fault, this routine is invoked to
94    tell the architecture specific code that a translation
95    now exists at virtual address "address" for address space
96    "vma->vm_mm", in the software page tables.
97
98    A port may use this information in any way it so chooses.
99    For example, it could use this event to pre-load TLB
100    translations for software managed TLB configurations.
101    The sparc64 port currently does this.
102
1036) void tlb_migrate_finish(struct mm_struct *mm)
104
105    This interface is called at the end of an explicit
106    process migration. This interface provides a hook
107    to allow a platform to update TLB or context-specific
108    information for the address space.
109
110    The ia64 sn2 platform is one example of a platform
111    that uses this interface.
112
113Next, we have the cache flushing interfaces. In general, when Linux
114is changing an existing virtual-->physical mapping to a new value,
115the sequence will be in one of the following forms:
116
117    1) flush_cache_mm(mm);
118       change_all_page_tables_of(mm);
119       flush_tlb_mm(mm);
120
121    2) flush_cache_range(vma, start, end);
122       change_range_of_page_tables(mm, start, end);
123       flush_tlb_range(vma, start, end);
124
125    3) flush_cache_page(vma, addr, pfn);
126       set_pte(pte_pointer, new_pte_val);
127       flush_tlb_page(vma, addr);
128
129The cache level flush will always be first, because this allows
130us to properly handle systems whose caches are strict and require
131a virtual-->physical translation to exist for a virtual address
132when that virtual address is flushed from the cache. The HyperSparc
133cpu is one such cpu with this attribute.
134
135The cache flushing routines below need only deal with cache flushing
136to the extent that it is necessary for a particular cpu. Mostly,
137these routines must be implemented for cpus which have virtually
138indexed caches which must be flushed when virtual-->physical
139translations are changed or removed. So, for example, the physically
140indexed physically tagged caches of IA32 processors have no need to
141implement these interfaces since the caches are fully synchronized
142and have no dependency on translation information.
143
144Here are the routines, one by one:
145
1461) void flush_cache_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
147
148    This interface flushes an entire user address space from
149    the caches. That is, after running, there will be no cache
150    lines associated with 'mm'.
151
152    This interface is used to handle whole address space
153    page table operations such as what happens during exit and exec.
154
1552) void flush_cache_dup_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
156
157    This interface flushes an entire user address space from
158    the caches. That is, after running, there will be no cache
159    lines associated with 'mm'.
160
161    This interface is used to handle whole address space
162    page table operations such as what happens during fork.
163
164    This option is separate from flush_cache_mm to allow some
165    optimizations for VIPT caches.
166
1673) void flush_cache_range(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
168              unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
169
170    Here we are flushing a specific range of (user) virtual
171    addresses from the cache. After running, there will be no
172    entries in the cache for 'vma->vm_mm' for virtual addresses in
173    the range 'start' to 'end-1'.
174
175    The "vma" is the backing store being used for the region.
176    Primarily, this is used for munmap() type operations.
177
178    The interface is provided in hopes that the port can find
179    a suitably efficient method for removing multiple page
180    sized regions from the cache, instead of having the kernel
181    call flush_cache_page (see below) for each entry which may be
182    modified.
183
1844) void flush_cache_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long addr, unsigned long pfn)
185
186    This time we need to remove a PAGE_SIZE sized range
187    from the cache. The 'vma' is the backing structure used by
188    Linux to keep track of mmap'd regions for a process, the
189    address space is available via vma->vm_mm. Also, one may
190    test (vma->vm_flags & VM_EXEC) to see if this region is
191    executable (and thus could be in the 'instruction cache' in
192    "Harvard" type cache layouts).
193
194    The 'pfn' indicates the physical page frame (shift this value
195    left by PAGE_SHIFT to get the physical address) that 'addr'
196    translates to. It is this mapping which should be removed from
197    the cache.
198
199    After running, there will be no entries in the cache for
200    'vma->vm_mm' for virtual address 'addr' which translates
201    to 'pfn'.
202
203    This is used primarily during fault processing.
204
2055) void flush_cache_kmaps(void)
206
207    This routine need only be implemented if the platform utilizes
208    highmem. It will be called right before all of the kmaps
209    are invalidated.
210
211    After running, there will be no entries in the cache for
212    the kernel virtual address range PKMAP_ADDR(0) to
213    PKMAP_ADDR(LAST_PKMAP).
214
215    This routing should be implemented in asm/highmem.h
216
2176) void flush_cache_vmap(unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
218   void flush_cache_vunmap(unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
219
220    Here in these two interfaces we are flushing a specific range
221    of (kernel) virtual addresses from the cache. After running,
222    there will be no entries in the cache for the kernel address
223    space for virtual addresses in the range 'start' to 'end-1'.
224
225    The first of these two routines is invoked after map_vm_area()
226    has installed the page table entries. The second is invoked
227    before unmap_kernel_range() deletes the page table entries.
228
229There exists another whole class of cpu cache issues which currently
230require a whole different set of interfaces to handle properly.
231The biggest problem is that of virtual aliasing in the data cache
232of a processor.
233
234Is your port susceptible to virtual aliasing in it's D-cache?
235Well, if your D-cache is virtually indexed, is larger in size than
236PAGE_SIZE, and does not prevent multiple cache lines for the same
237physical address from existing at once, you have this problem.
238
239If your D-cache has this problem, first define asm/shmparam.h SHMLBA
240properly, it should essentially be the size of your virtually
241addressed D-cache (or if the size is variable, the largest possible
242size). This setting will force the SYSv IPC layer to only allow user
243processes to mmap shared memory at address which are a multiple of
244this value.
245
246NOTE: This does not fix shared mmaps, check out the sparc64 port for
247one way to solve this (in particular SPARC_FLAG_MMAPSHARED).
248
249Next, you have to solve the D-cache aliasing issue for all
250other cases. Please keep in mind that fact that, for a given page
251mapped into some user address space, there is always at least one more
252mapping, that of the kernel in it's linear mapping starting at
253PAGE_OFFSET. So immediately, once the first user maps a given
254physical page into its address space, by implication the D-cache
255aliasing problem has the potential to exist since the kernel already
256maps this page at its virtual address.
257
258  void copy_user_page(void *to, void *from, unsigned long addr, struct page *page)
259  void clear_user_page(void *to, unsigned long addr, struct page *page)
260
261    These two routines store data in user anonymous or COW
262    pages. It allows a port to efficiently avoid D-cache alias
263    issues between userspace and the kernel.
264
265    For example, a port may temporarily map 'from' and 'to' to
266    kernel virtual addresses during the copy. The virtual address
267    for these two pages is chosen in such a way that the kernel
268    load/store instructions happen to virtual addresses which are
269    of the same "color" as the user mapping of the page. Sparc64
270    for example, uses this technique.
271
272    The 'addr' parameter tells the virtual address where the
273    user will ultimately have this page mapped, and the 'page'
274    parameter gives a pointer to the struct page of the target.
275
276    If D-cache aliasing is not an issue, these two routines may
277    simply call memcpy/memset directly and do nothing more.
278
279  void flush_dcache_page(struct page *page)
280
281    Any time the kernel writes to a page cache page, _OR_
282    the kernel is about to read from a page cache page and
283    user space shared/writable mappings of this page potentially
284    exist, this routine is called.
285
286    NOTE: This routine need only be called for page cache pages
287          which can potentially ever be mapped into the address
288          space of a user process. So for example, VFS layer code
289          handling vfs symlinks in the page cache need not call
290          this interface at all.
291
292    The phrase "kernel writes to a page cache page" means,
293    specifically, that the kernel executes store instructions
294    that dirty data in that page at the page->virtual mapping
295    of that page. It is important to flush here to handle
296    D-cache aliasing, to make sure these kernel stores are
297    visible to user space mappings of that page.
298
299    The corollary case is just as important, if there are users
300    which have shared+writable mappings of this file, we must make
301    sure that kernel reads of these pages will see the most recent
302    stores done by the user.
303
304    If D-cache aliasing is not an issue, this routine may
305    simply be defined as a nop on that architecture.
306
307        There is a bit set aside in page->flags (PG_arch_1) as
308    "architecture private". The kernel guarantees that,
309    for pagecache pages, it will clear this bit when such
310    a page first enters the pagecache.
311
312    This allows these interfaces to be implemented much more
313    efficiently. It allows one to "defer" (perhaps indefinitely)
314    the actual flush if there are currently no user processes
315    mapping this page. See sparc64's flush_dcache_page and
316    update_mmu_cache implementations for an example of how to go
317    about doing this.
318
319    The idea is, first at flush_dcache_page() time, if
320    page->mapping->i_mmap is an empty tree and ->i_mmap_nonlinear
321    an empty list, just mark the architecture private page flag bit.
322    Later, in update_mmu_cache(), a check is made of this flag bit,
323    and if set the flush is done and the flag bit is cleared.
324
325    IMPORTANT NOTE: It is often important, if you defer the flush,
326            that the actual flush occurs on the same CPU
327            as did the cpu stores into the page to make it
328            dirty. Again, see sparc64 for examples of how
329            to deal with this.
330
331  void copy_to_user_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct page *page,
332                         unsigned long user_vaddr,
333                         void *dst, void *src, int len)
334  void copy_from_user_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct page *page,
335                           unsigned long user_vaddr,
336                           void *dst, void *src, int len)
337    When the kernel needs to copy arbitrary data in and out
338    of arbitrary user pages (f.e. for ptrace()) it will use
339    these two routines.
340
341    Any necessary cache flushing or other coherency operations
342    that need to occur should happen here. If the processor's
343    instruction cache does not snoop cpu stores, it is very
344    likely that you will need to flush the instruction cache
345    for copy_to_user_page().
346
347  void flush_anon_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct page *page,
348                       unsigned long vmaddr)
349      When the kernel needs to access the contents of an anonymous
350    page, it calls this function (currently only
351    get_user_pages()). Note: flush_dcache_page() deliberately
352    doesn't work for an anonymous page. The default
353    implementation is a nop (and should remain so for all coherent
354    architectures). For incoherent architectures, it should flush
355    the cache of the page at vmaddr.
356
357  void flush_kernel_dcache_page(struct page *page)
358    When the kernel needs to modify a user page is has obtained
359    with kmap, it calls this function after all modifications are
360    complete (but before kunmapping it) to bring the underlying
361    page up to date. It is assumed here that the user has no
362    incoherent cached copies (i.e. the original page was obtained
363    from a mechanism like get_user_pages()). The default
364    implementation is a nop and should remain so on all coherent
365    architectures. On incoherent architectures, this should flush
366    the kernel cache for page (using page_address(page)).
367
368
369  void flush_icache_range(unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
370      When the kernel stores into addresses that it will execute
371    out of (eg when loading modules), this function is called.
372
373    If the icache does not snoop stores then this routine will need
374    to flush it.
375
376  void flush_icache_page(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct page *page)
377    All the functionality of flush_icache_page can be implemented in
378    flush_dcache_page and update_mmu_cache. In 2.7 the hope is to
379    remove this interface completely.
380
381The final category of APIs is for I/O to deliberately aliased address
382ranges inside the kernel. Such aliases are set up by use of the
383vmap/vmalloc API. Since kernel I/O goes via physical pages, the I/O
384subsystem assumes that the user mapping and kernel offset mapping are
385the only aliases. This isn't true for vmap aliases, so anything in
386the kernel trying to do I/O to vmap areas must manually manage
387coherency. It must do this by flushing the vmap range before doing
388I/O and invalidating it after the I/O returns.
389
390  void flush_kernel_vmap_range(void *vaddr, int size)
391       flushes the kernel cache for a given virtual address range in
392       the vmap area. This is to make sure that any data the kernel
393       modified in the vmap range is made visible to the physical
394       page. The design is to make this area safe to perform I/O on.
395       Note that this API does *not* also flush the offset map alias
396       of the area.
397
398  void invalidate_kernel_vmap_range(void *vaddr, int size) invalidates
399       the cache for a given virtual address range in the vmap area
400       which prevents the processor from making the cache stale by
401       speculatively reading data while the I/O was occurring to the
402       physical pages. This is only necessary for data reads into the
403       vmap area.
404

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