[PATCH v2 hmm 02/11] mm/hmm: Use hmm_mirror not mm as an argument for hmm_range_register

[Jason Gunthorpe]

On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 12:12:34AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 04:44:31PM -0300, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> > On Sat, Jun 08, 2019 at 01:54:25AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > FYI, I very much disagree with the direction this is moving.
> > > 
> > > struct hmm_mirror literally is a trivial duplication of the
> > > mmu_notifiers.  All these drivers should just use the mmu_notifiers
> > > directly for the mirroring part instead of building a thing wrapper
> > > that adds nothing but helping to manage the lifetime of struct hmm,
> > > which shouldn't exist to start with.
> > 
> > Christoph: What do you think about this sketch below?
> > 
> > It would replace the hmm_range/mirror/etc with a different way to
> > build the same locking scheme using some optional helpers linked to
> > the mmu notifier?
> > 
> > (just a sketch, still needs a lot more thinking)
> 
> I like the idea.  A few nitpicks: Can we avoid having to store the
> mm in struct mmu_notifier? I think we could just easily pass it as a
> parameter to the helpers.

Yes, but I think any driver that needs to use this API will have to
hold the 'struct mm_struct' and the 'struct mmu_notifier' together (ie
ODP does this in ib_ucontext_per_mm), so if we put it in the notifier
then it is trivially available everwhere it is needed, and the
mmu_notifier code takes care of the lifetime for the driver.

> The write lock case of mm_invlock_start_write_and_lock is probably
> worth factoring into separate helper? I can see cases where drivers
> want to just use it directly if they need to force getting the lock
> without the chance of a long wait.

The entire purpose of the invlock is to avoid getting the write lock
on mmap_sem as a fast path - if the driver wishes to use mmap_sem
locking only then it should just do so directly and forget about the
invlock.

Note that this patch is just an API sketch, I haven't fully checked
that the range_start/end are actually always called under mmap_sem,
and I already found that release is not. So there will need to be some
preperatory adjustments before we can use down_write(mmap_sem) as a
locking strategy here.

Thanks,
Jason