[PATCH v2 00/12] iio: buffer-dma: write() and new DMABUF based API

Paul Cercueil paul at crapouillou.net
Tue Mar 29 17:16:56 UTC 2022


Hi Daniel,

Le mar., mars 29 2022 at 16:10:44 +0200, Daniel Vetter 
<daniel at ffwll.ch> a écrit :
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 10:11:14AM +0100, Paul Cercueil wrote:
>>  Hi Daniel,
>> 
>>  Le mar., mars 29 2022 at 10:33:32 +0200, Daniel Vetter 
>> <daniel at ffwll.ch> a
>>  écrit :
>>  > On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 05:43:35PM +0000, Paul Cercueil wrote:
>>  > >  Hi Jonathan,
>>  > >
>>  > >  Le dim., févr. 13 2022 at 18:46:16 +0000, Jonathan Cameron
>>  > >  <jic23 at kernel.org> a écrit :
>>  > >  > On Mon,  7 Feb 2022 12:59:21 +0000
>>  > >  > Paul Cercueil <paul at crapouillou.net> wrote:
>>  > >  >
>>  > >  > >  Hi Jonathan,
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  This is the V2 of my patchset that introduces a new 
>> userspace
>>  > >  > > interface
>>  > >  > >  based on DMABUF objects to complement the fileio API, and 
>> adds
>>  > >  > > write()
>>  > >  > >  support to the existing fileio API.
>>  > >  >
>>  > >  > Hi Paul,
>>  > >  >
>>  > >  > It's been a little while. Perhaps you could summarize the 
>> various
>>  > > view
>>  > >  > points around the appropriateness of using DMABUF for this?
>>  > >  > I appreciate it is a tricky topic to distil into a brief 
>> summary
>>  > > but
>>  > >  > I know I would find it useful even if no one else does!
>>  > >
>>  > >  So we want to have a high-speed interface where buffers of 
>> samples
>>  > > are
>>  > >  passed around between IIO devices and other devices (e.g. USB 
>> or
>>  > > network),
>>  > >  or made available to userspace without copying the data.
>>  > >
>>  > >  DMABUF is, at least in theory, exactly what we need. Quoting 
>> the
>>  > >  documentation
>>  > >  
>> (https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.15/driver-api/dma-buf.html):
>>  > >  "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. This is used, for
>>  > > example, by
>>  > >  drm “prime” multi-GPU support, but is of course not 
>> limited to GPU
>>  > > use
>>  > >  cases."
>>  > >
>>  > >  The problem is that right now DMABUF is only really used by 
>> DRM,
>>  > > and to
>>  > >  quote Daniel, "dma-buf looks like something super generic and
>>  > > useful, until
>>  > >  you realize that there's a metric ton of gpu/accelerator bagage
>>  > > piled in".
>>  > >
>>  > >  Still, it seems to be the only viable option. We could add a 
>> custom
>>  > >  buffer-passing interface, but that would mean implementing the 
>> same
>>  > >  buffer-passing interface on the network and USB stacks, and 
>> before
>>  > > we know
>>  > >  it we re-invented DMABUFs.
>>  >
>>  > dma-buf also doesn't support sharing with network and usb stacks, 
>> so I'm
>>  > a
>>  > bit confused why exactly this is useful?
>> 
>>  There is an attempt to get dma-buf support in the network stack, 
>> called
>>  "zctap". Last patchset was sent last november. USB stack does not 
>> support
>>  dma-buf, but we can add it later I guess.
>> 
>>  > So yeah unless there's some sharing going on with gpu stuff (for 
>> data
>>  > processing maybe) I'm not sure this makes a lot of sense really. 
>> Or at
>>  > least some zero-copy sharing between drivers, but even that would
>>  > minimally require a dma-buf import ioctl of some sorts. Which I 
>> either
>>  > missed or doesn't exist.
>> 
>>  We do want zero-copy between drivers, the network stack, and the 
>> USB stack.
>>  It's not just about having a userspace interface.
> 
> I think in that case we need these other pieces too. And we need acks 
> from
> relevant subsystems that these other pieces are a) ready for upstream
> merging and also that the dma-buf side of things actually makes sense.

Ok...

>>  > If there's none of that then just hand-roll your buffer handling 
>> code
>>  > (xarray is cheap to use in terms of code for this), you can 
>> always add
>>  > dma-buf import/export later on when the need arises.
>>  >
>>  > Scrolling through patches you only have dma-buf export, but no
>>  > importing,
>>  > so the use-case that works is with one of the existing subsystems 
>> that
>>  > supporting dma-buf importing.
>>  >
>>  > I think minimally we need the use-case (in form of code) that 
>> needs the
>>  > buffer sharing here.
>> 
>>  I'll try with zctap and report back.
> 
> Do you have a link for this? I just checked dri-devel on lore, and 
> it's
> not there. Nor anywhere else.

The code is here: https://github.com/jlemon/zctap_kernel

I know Jonathan Lemon (Cc'd) was working on upstreaming it, I saw a few 
patchsets.

Cheers,
-Paul

> We really need all the pieces, and if block layer reaction is 
> anything to
> judge by, dma-buf wont happen for networking either. There's some 
> really
> nasty and fairly fundamental issues with locking and memory reclaim 
> that
> make this utter pain or outright impossible.
> -Daniel
> 
>> 
>>  Cheers,
>>  -Paul
>> 
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  Changes since v1:
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  - the patches that were merged in v1 have been (obviously)
>>  > > dropped
>>  > >  > > from
>>  > >  > >    this patchset;
>>  > >  > >  - the patch that was setting the write-combine cache 
>> setting
>>  > > has
>>  > >  > > been
>>  > >  > >    dropped as well, as it was simply not useful.
>>  > >  > >  - [01/12]:
>>  > >  > >      * Only remove the outgoing queue, and keep the 
>> incoming
>>  > > queue,
>>  > >  > > as we
>>  > >  > >        want the buffer to start streaming data as soon as 
>> it is
>>  > >  > > enabled.
>>  > >  > >      * Remove IIO_BLOCK_STATE_DEQUEUED, since it is now
>>  > > functionally
>>  > >  > > the
>>  > >  > >        same as IIO_BLOCK_STATE_DONE.
>>  > >  > >  - [02/12]:
>>  > >  > >      * Fix block->state not being reset in
>>  > >  > >        iio_dma_buffer_request_update() for output buffers.
>>  > >  > >      * Only update block->bytes_used once and add a comment
>>  > > about
>>  > >  > > why we
>>  > >  > >        update it.
>>  > >  > >      * Add a comment about why we're setting a different 
>> state
>>  > > for
>>  > >  > > output
>>  > >  > >        buffers in iio_dma_buffer_request_update()
>>  > >  > >      * Remove useless cast to bool (!!) in 
>> iio_dma_buffer_io()
>>  > >  > >  - [05/12]:
>>  > >  > >      Only allow the new IOCTLs on the buffer FD created 
>> with
>>  > >  > >      IIO_BUFFER_GET_FD_IOCTL().
>>  > >  > >  - [12/12]:
>>  > >  > >      * Explicitly state that the new interface is optional 
>> and
>>  > > is
>>  > >  > >        not implemented by all drivers.
>>  > >  > >      * The IOCTLs can now only be called on the buffer FD
>>  > > returned by
>>  > >  > >        IIO_BUFFER_GET_FD_IOCTL.
>>  > >  > >      * Move the page up a bit in the index since it is core
>>  > > stuff
>>  > >  > > and not
>>  > >  > >        driver-specific.
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  The patches not listed here have not been modified since 
>> v1.
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  Cheers,
>>  > >  > >  -Paul
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  Alexandru Ardelean (1):
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dma: split iio_dma_buffer_fileio_free() 
>> function
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  Paul Cercueil (11):
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dma: Get rid of outgoing queue
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dma: Enable buffer write support
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dmaengine: Support specifying buffer 
>> direction
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dmaengine: Enable write support
>>  > >  > >    iio: core: Add new DMABUF interface infrastructure
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dma: Use DMABUFs instead of custom solution
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dma: Implement new DMABUF based userspace 
>> API
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dmaengine: Support new DMABUF based 
>> userspace API
>>  > >  > >    iio: core: Add support for cyclic buffers
>>  > >  > >    iio: buffer-dmaengine: Add support for cyclic buffers
>>  > >  > >    Documentation: iio: Document high-speed DMABUF based API
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >   Documentation/driver-api/dma-buf.rst          |   2 +
>>  > >  > >   Documentation/iio/dmabuf_api.rst              |  94 +++
>>  > >  > >   Documentation/iio/index.rst                   |   2 +
>>  > >  > >   drivers/iio/adc/adi-axi-adc.c                 |   3 +-
>>  > >  > >   drivers/iio/buffer/industrialio-buffer-dma.c  | 610
>>  > >  > > ++++++++++++++----
>>  > >  > >   .../buffer/industrialio-buffer-dmaengine.c    |  42 +-
>>  > >  > >   drivers/iio/industrialio-buffer.c             |  60 ++
>>  > >  > >   include/linux/iio/buffer-dma.h                |  38 +-
>>  > >  > >   include/linux/iio/buffer-dmaengine.h          |   5 +-
>>  > >  > >   include/linux/iio/buffer_impl.h               |   8 +
>>  > >  > >   include/uapi/linux/iio/buffer.h               |  30 +
>>  > >  > >   11 files changed, 749 insertions(+), 145 deletions(-)
>>  > >  > >   create mode 100644 Documentation/iio/dmabuf_api.rst
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  >
>>  > >
>>  > >
>>  >
>>  > --
>>  > Daniel Vetter
>>  > Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
>>  > http://blog.ffwll.ch
>> 
>> 
> 
> --
> Daniel Vetter
> Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
> http://blog.ffwll.ch




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