1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 ===================================================================
4 The Definitive KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) API Documentation
5 ===================================================================
10 The kvm API is a set of ioctls that are issued to control various aspects
11 of a virtual machine. The ioctls belong to the following classes:
13 - System ioctls: These query and set global attributes which affect the
14 whole kvm subsystem. In addition a system ioctl is used to create
17 - VM ioctls: These query and set attributes that affect an entire virtual
18 machine, for example memory layout. In addition a VM ioctl is used to
19 create virtual cpus (vcpus) and devices.
21 VM ioctls must be issued from the same process (address space) that was
22 used to create the VM.
24 - vcpu ioctls: These query and set attributes that control the operation
25 of a single virtual cpu.
27 vcpu ioctls should be issued from the same thread that was used to create
28 the vcpu, except for asynchronous vcpu ioctl that are marked as such in
29 the documentation. Otherwise, the first ioctl after switching threads
30 could see a performance impact.
32 - device ioctls: These query and set attributes that control the operation
35 device ioctls must be issued from the same process (address space) that
36 was used to create the VM.
41 The kvm API is centered around file descriptors. An initial
42 open("/dev/kvm") obtains a handle to the kvm subsystem; this handle
43 can be used to issue system ioctls. A KVM_CREATE_VM ioctl on this
44 handle will create a VM file descriptor which can be used to issue VM
45 ioctls. A KVM_CREATE_VCPU or KVM_CREATE_DEVICE ioctl on a VM fd will
46 create a virtual cpu or device and return a file descriptor pointing to
47 the new resource. Finally, ioctls on a vcpu or device fd can be used
48 to control the vcpu or device. For vcpus, this includes the important
49 task of actually running guest code.
51 In general file descriptors can be migrated among processes by means
52 of fork() and the SCM_RIGHTS facility of unix domain socket. These
53 kinds of tricks are explicitly not supported by kvm. While they will
54 not cause harm to the host, their actual behavior is not guaranteed by
55 the API. See "General description" for details on the ioctl usage
56 model that is supported by KVM.
58 It is important to note that althought VM ioctls may only be issued from
59 the process that created the VM, a VM's lifecycle is associated with its
60 file descriptor, not its creator (process). In other words, the VM and
61 its resources, *including the associated address space*, are not freed
62 until the last reference to the VM's file descriptor has been released.
63 For example, if fork() is issued after ioctl(KVM_CREATE_VM), the VM will
64 not be freed until both the parent (original) process and its child have
65 put their references to the VM's file descriptor.
67 Because a VM's resources are not freed until the last reference to its
68 file descriptor is released, creating additional references to a VM
69 via fork(), dup(), etc... without careful consideration is strongly
70 discouraged and may have unwanted side effects, e.g. memory allocated
71 by and on behalf of the VM's process may not be freed/unaccounted when
78 As of Linux 2.6.22, the KVM ABI has been stabilized: no backward
79 incompatible change are allowed. However, there is an extension
80 facility that allows backward-compatible extensions to the API to be
83 The extension mechanism is not based on the Linux version number.
84 Instead, kvm defines extension identifiers and a facility to query
85 whether a particular extension identifier is available. If it is, a
86 set of ioctls is available for application use.
92 This section describes ioctls that can be used to control kvm guests.
93 For each ioctl, the following information is provided along with a
97 which KVM extension provides this ioctl. Can be 'basic',
98 which means that is will be provided by any kernel that supports
99 API version 12 (see section 4.1), a KVM_CAP_xyz constant, which
100 means availability needs to be checked with KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
101 (see section 4.4), or 'none' which means that while not all kernels
102 support this ioctl, there's no capability bit to check its
103 availability: for kernels that don't support the ioctl,
104 the ioctl returns -ENOTTY.
107 which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
108 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
114 what parameters are accepted by the ioctl.
117 the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
118 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
121 4.1 KVM_GET_API_VERSION
122 -----------------------
128 :Returns: the constant KVM_API_VERSION (=12)
130 This identifies the API version as the stable kvm API. It is not
131 expected that this number will change. However, Linux 2.6.20 and
132 2.6.21 report earlier versions; these are not documented and not
133 supported. Applications should refuse to run if KVM_GET_API_VERSION
134 returns a value other than 12. If this check passes, all ioctls
135 described as 'basic' will be available.
144 :Parameters: machine type identifier (KVM_VM_*)
145 :Returns: a VM fd that can be used to control the new virtual machine.
147 The new VM has no virtual cpus and no memory.
148 You probably want to use 0 as machine type.
150 In order to create user controlled virtual machines on S390, check
151 KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL and use the flag KVM_VM_S390_UCONTROL as
152 privileged user (CAP_SYS_ADMIN).
154 To use hardware assisted virtualization on MIPS (VZ ASE) rather than
155 the default trap & emulate implementation (which changes the virtual
156 memory layout to fit in user mode), check KVM_CAP_MIPS_VZ and use the
160 On arm64, the physical address size for a VM (IPA Size limit) is limited
161 to 40bits by default. The limit can be configured if the host supports the
162 extension KVM_CAP_ARM_VM_IPA_SIZE. When supported, use
163 KVM_VM_TYPE_ARM_IPA_SIZE(IPA_Bits) to set the size in the machine type
164 identifier, where IPA_Bits is the maximum width of any physical
165 address used by the VM. The IPA_Bits is encoded in bits[7-0] of the
166 machine type identifier.
168 e.g, to configure a guest to use 48bit physical address size::
170 vm_fd = ioctl(dev_fd, KVM_CREATE_VM, KVM_VM_TYPE_ARM_IPA_SIZE(48));
172 The requested size (IPA_Bits) must be:
174 == =========================================================
175 0 Implies default size, 40bits (for backward compatibility)
176 N Implies N bits, where N is a positive integer such that,
177 32 <= N <= Host_IPA_Limit
178 == =========================================================
180 Host_IPA_Limit is the maximum possible value for IPA_Bits on the host and
181 is dependent on the CPU capability and the kernel configuration. The limit can
182 be retrieved using KVM_CAP_ARM_VM_IPA_SIZE of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
185 Please note that configuring the IPA size does not affect the capability
186 exposed by the guest CPUs in ID_AA64MMFR0_EL1[PARange]. It only affects
187 size of the address translated by the stage2 level (guest physical to
188 host physical address translations).
191 4.3 KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST, KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
192 ----------------------------------------------------------
194 :Capability: basic, KVM_CAP_GET_MSR_FEATURES for KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
197 :Parameters: struct kvm_msr_list (in/out)
198 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
202 ====== ============================================================
203 EFAULT the msr index list cannot be read from or written to
204 E2BIG the msr index list is to be to fit in the array specified by
206 ====== ============================================================
210 struct kvm_msr_list {
211 __u32 nmsrs; /* number of msrs in entries */
215 The user fills in the size of the indices array in nmsrs, and in return
216 kvm adjusts nmsrs to reflect the actual number of msrs and fills in the
217 indices array with their numbers.
219 KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST returns the guest msrs that are supported. The list
220 varies by kvm version and host processor, but does not change otherwise.
222 Note: if kvm indicates supports MCE (KVM_CAP_MCE), then the MCE bank MSRs are
223 not returned in the MSR list, as different vcpus can have a different number
224 of banks, as set via the KVM_X86_SETUP_MCE ioctl.
226 KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST returns the list of MSRs that can be passed
227 to the KVM_GET_MSRS system ioctl. This lets userspace probe host capabilities
228 and processor features that are exposed via MSRs (e.g., VMX capabilities).
229 This list also varies by kvm version and host processor, but does not change
233 4.4 KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
234 -----------------------
236 :Capability: basic, KVM_CAP_CHECK_EXTENSION_VM for vm ioctl
238 :Type: system ioctl, vm ioctl
239 :Parameters: extension identifier (KVM_CAP_*)
240 :Returns: 0 if unsupported; 1 (or some other positive integer) if supported
242 The API allows the application to query about extensions to the core
243 kvm API. Userspace passes an extension identifier (an integer) and
244 receives an integer that describes the extension availability.
245 Generally 0 means no and 1 means yes, but some extensions may report
246 additional information in the integer return value.
248 Based on their initialization different VMs may have different capabilities.
249 It is thus encouraged to use the vm ioctl to query for capabilities (available
250 with KVM_CAP_CHECK_EXTENSION_VM on the vm fd)
252 4.5 KVM_GET_VCPU_MMAP_SIZE
253 --------------------------
259 :Returns: size of vcpu mmap area, in bytes
261 The KVM_RUN ioctl (cf.) communicates with userspace via a shared
262 memory region. This ioctl returns the size of that region. See the
263 KVM_RUN documentation for details.
265 Besides the size of the KVM_RUN communication region, other areas of
266 the VCPU file descriptor can be mmap-ed, including:
268 - if KVM_CAP_COALESCED_MMIO is available, a page at
269 KVM_COALESCED_MMIO_PAGE_OFFSET * PAGE_SIZE; for historical reasons,
270 this page is included in the result of KVM_GET_VCPU_MMAP_SIZE.
271 KVM_CAP_COALESCED_MMIO is not documented yet.
273 - if KVM_CAP_DIRTY_LOG_RING is available, a number of pages at
274 KVM_DIRTY_LOG_PAGE_OFFSET * PAGE_SIZE. For more information on
275 KVM_CAP_DIRTY_LOG_RING, see section 8.3.
278 4.6 KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION
279 -------------------------
284 :Parameters: struct kvm_memory_region (in)
285 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
287 This ioctl is obsolete and has been removed.
296 :Parameters: vcpu id (apic id on x86)
297 :Returns: vcpu fd on success, -1 on error
299 This API adds a vcpu to a virtual machine. No more than max_vcpus may be added.
300 The vcpu id is an integer in the range [0, max_vcpu_id).
302 The recommended max_vcpus value can be retrieved using the KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS of
303 the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
304 The maximum possible value for max_vcpus can be retrieved using the
305 KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
307 If the KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpus is 4
309 If the KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpus is
310 same as the value returned from KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS.
312 The maximum possible value for max_vcpu_id can be retrieved using the
313 KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPU_ID of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
315 If the KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPU_ID does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpu_id
316 is the same as the value returned from KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS.
318 On powerpc using book3s_hv mode, the vcpus are mapped onto virtual
319 threads in one or more virtual CPU cores. (This is because the
320 hardware requires all the hardware threads in a CPU core to be in the
321 same partition.) The KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT capability indicates the number
322 of vcpus per virtual core (vcore). The vcore id is obtained by
323 dividing the vcpu id by the number of vcpus per vcore. The vcpus in a
324 given vcore will always be in the same physical core as each other
325 (though that might be a different physical core from time to time).
326 Userspace can control the threading (SMT) mode of the guest by its
327 allocation of vcpu ids. For example, if userspace wants
328 single-threaded guest vcpus, it should make all vcpu ids be a multiple
329 of the number of vcpus per vcore.
331 For virtual cpus that have been created with S390 user controlled virtual
332 machines, the resulting vcpu fd can be memory mapped at page offset
333 KVM_S390_SIE_PAGE_OFFSET in order to obtain a memory map of the virtual
334 cpu's hardware control block.
337 4.8 KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG (vm ioctl)
338 --------------------------------
343 :Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_log (in/out)
344 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
348 /* for KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG */
349 struct kvm_dirty_log {
353 void __user *dirty_bitmap; /* one bit per page */
358 Given a memory slot, return a bitmap containing any pages dirtied
359 since the last call to this ioctl. Bit 0 is the first page in the
360 memory slot. Ensure the entire structure is cleared to avoid padding
363 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 specifies
364 the address space for which you want to return the dirty bitmap.
365 They must be less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for
366 the KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability.
368 The bits in the dirty bitmap are cleared before the ioctl returns, unless
369 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 is enabled. For more information,
370 see the description of the capability.
372 4.9 KVM_SET_MEMORY_ALIAS
373 ------------------------
378 :Parameters: struct kvm_memory_alias (in)
379 :Returns: 0 (success), -1 (error)
381 This ioctl is obsolete and has been removed.
391 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
395 ======= ==============================================================
396 EINTR an unmasked signal is pending
397 ENOEXEC the vcpu hasn't been initialized or the guest tried to execute
398 instructions from device memory (arm64)
399 ENOSYS data abort outside memslots with no syndrome info and
400 KVM_CAP_ARM_NISV_TO_USER not enabled (arm64)
401 EPERM SVE feature set but not finalized (arm64)
402 ======= ==============================================================
404 This ioctl is used to run a guest virtual cpu. While there are no
405 explicit parameters, there is an implicit parameter block that can be
406 obtained by mmap()ing the vcpu fd at offset 0, with the size given by
407 KVM_GET_VCPU_MMAP_SIZE. The parameter block is formatted as a 'struct
408 kvm_run' (see below).
415 :Architectures: all except ARM, arm64
417 :Parameters: struct kvm_regs (out)
418 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
420 Reads the general purpose registers from the vcpu.
426 /* out (KVM_GET_REGS) / in (KVM_SET_REGS) */
427 __u64 rax, rbx, rcx, rdx;
428 __u64 rsi, rdi, rsp, rbp;
429 __u64 r8, r9, r10, r11;
430 __u64 r12, r13, r14, r15;
436 /* out (KVM_GET_REGS) / in (KVM_SET_REGS) */
448 :Architectures: all except ARM, arm64
450 :Parameters: struct kvm_regs (in)
451 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
453 Writes the general purpose registers into the vcpu.
455 See KVM_GET_REGS for the data structure.
462 :Architectures: x86, ppc
464 :Parameters: struct kvm_sregs (out)
465 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
467 Reads special registers from the vcpu.
473 struct kvm_segment cs, ds, es, fs, gs, ss;
474 struct kvm_segment tr, ldt;
475 struct kvm_dtable gdt, idt;
476 __u64 cr0, cr2, cr3, cr4, cr8;
479 __u64 interrupt_bitmap[(KVM_NR_INTERRUPTS + 63) / 64];
482 /* ppc -- see arch/powerpc/include/uapi/asm/kvm.h */
484 interrupt_bitmap is a bitmap of pending external interrupts. At most
485 one bit may be set. This interrupt has been acknowledged by the APIC
486 but not yet injected into the cpu core.
493 :Architectures: x86, ppc
495 :Parameters: struct kvm_sregs (in)
496 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
498 Writes special registers into the vcpu. See KVM_GET_SREGS for the
508 :Parameters: struct kvm_translation (in/out)
509 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
511 Translates a virtual address according to the vcpu's current address
516 struct kvm_translation {
518 __u64 linear_address;
521 __u64 physical_address;
533 :Architectures: x86, ppc, mips
535 :Parameters: struct kvm_interrupt (in)
536 :Returns: 0 on success, negative on failure.
538 Queues a hardware interrupt vector to be injected.
542 /* for KVM_INTERRUPT */
543 struct kvm_interrupt {
553 ========= ===================================
555 -EEXIST if an interrupt is already enqueued
556 -EINVAL the irq number is invalid
557 -ENXIO if the PIC is in the kernel
558 -EFAULT if the pointer is invalid
559 ========= ===================================
561 Note 'irq' is an interrupt vector, not an interrupt pin or line. This
562 ioctl is useful if the in-kernel PIC is not used.
567 Queues an external interrupt to be injected. This ioctl is overleaded
568 with 3 different irq values:
572 This injects an edge type external interrupt into the guest once it's ready
573 to receive interrupts. When injected, the interrupt is done.
575 b) KVM_INTERRUPT_UNSET
577 This unsets any pending interrupt.
579 Only available with KVM_CAP_PPC_UNSET_IRQ.
581 c) KVM_INTERRUPT_SET_LEVEL
583 This injects a level type external interrupt into the guest context. The
584 interrupt stays pending until a specific ioctl with KVM_INTERRUPT_UNSET
587 Only available with KVM_CAP_PPC_IRQ_LEVEL.
589 Note that any value for 'irq' other than the ones stated above is invalid
590 and incurs unexpected behavior.
592 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
597 Queues an external interrupt to be injected into the virtual CPU. A negative
598 interrupt number dequeues the interrupt.
600 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
610 :Returns: -1 on error
612 Support for this has been removed. Use KVM_SET_GUEST_DEBUG instead.
618 :Capability: basic (vcpu), KVM_CAP_GET_MSR_FEATURES (system)
620 :Type: system ioctl, vcpu ioctl
621 :Parameters: struct kvm_msrs (in/out)
622 :Returns: number of msrs successfully returned;
625 When used as a system ioctl:
626 Reads the values of MSR-based features that are available for the VM. This
627 is similar to KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID, but it returns MSR indices and values.
628 The list of msr-based features can be obtained using KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
631 When used as a vcpu ioctl:
632 Reads model-specific registers from the vcpu. Supported msr indices can
633 be obtained using KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST in a system ioctl.
638 __u32 nmsrs; /* number of msrs in entries */
641 struct kvm_msr_entry entries[0];
644 struct kvm_msr_entry {
650 Application code should set the 'nmsrs' member (which indicates the
651 size of the entries array) and the 'index' member of each array entry.
652 kvm will fill in the 'data' member.
661 :Parameters: struct kvm_msrs (in)
662 :Returns: number of msrs successfully set (see below), -1 on error
664 Writes model-specific registers to the vcpu. See KVM_GET_MSRS for the
667 Application code should set the 'nmsrs' member (which indicates the
668 size of the entries array), and the 'index' and 'data' members of each
671 It tries to set the MSRs in array entries[] one by one. If setting an MSR
672 fails, e.g., due to setting reserved bits, the MSR isn't supported/emulated
673 by KVM, etc..., it stops processing the MSR list and returns the number of
674 MSRs that have been set successfully.
683 :Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid (in)
684 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
686 Defines the vcpu responses to the cpuid instruction. Applications
687 should use the KVM_SET_CPUID2 ioctl if available.
689 Note, when this IOCTL fails, KVM gives no guarantees that previous valid CPUID
690 configuration (if there is) is not corrupted. Userspace can get a copy of the
691 resulting CPUID configuration through KVM_GET_CPUID2 in case.
695 struct kvm_cpuid_entry {
704 /* for KVM_SET_CPUID */
708 struct kvm_cpuid_entry entries[0];
712 4.21 KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK
713 ------------------------
718 :Parameters: struct kvm_signal_mask (in)
719 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
721 Defines which signals are blocked during execution of KVM_RUN. This
722 signal mask temporarily overrides the threads signal mask. Any
723 unblocked signal received (except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP, which retain
724 their traditional behaviour) will cause KVM_RUN to return with -EINTR.
726 Note the signal will only be delivered if not blocked by the original
731 /* for KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK */
732 struct kvm_signal_mask {
744 :Parameters: struct kvm_fpu (out)
745 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
747 Reads the floating point state from the vcpu.
751 /* for KVM_GET_FPU and KVM_SET_FPU */
756 __u8 ftwx; /* in fxsave format */
773 :Parameters: struct kvm_fpu (in)
774 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
776 Writes the floating point state to the vcpu.
780 /* for KVM_GET_FPU and KVM_SET_FPU */
785 __u8 ftwx; /* in fxsave format */
796 4.24 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP
797 -----------------------
799 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP, KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP (s390)
800 :Architectures: x86, ARM, arm64, s390
803 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
805 Creates an interrupt controller model in the kernel.
806 On x86, creates a virtual ioapic, a virtual PIC (two PICs, nested), and sets up
807 future vcpus to have a local APIC. IRQ routing for GSIs 0-15 is set to both
808 PIC and IOAPIC; GSI 16-23 only go to the IOAPIC.
809 On ARM/arm64, a GICv2 is created. Any other GIC versions require the usage of
810 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE, which also supports creating a GICv2. Using
811 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE is preferred over KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP for GICv2.
812 On s390, a dummy irq routing table is created.
814 Note that on s390 the KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP vm capability needs to be enabled
815 before KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP can be used.
821 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
822 :Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
824 :Parameters: struct kvm_irq_level
825 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
827 Sets the level of a GSI input to the interrupt controller model in the kernel.
828 On some architectures it is required that an interrupt controller model has
829 been previously created with KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Note that edge-triggered
830 interrupts require the level to be set to 1 and then back to 0.
832 On real hardware, interrupt pins can be active-low or active-high. This
833 does not matter for the level field of struct kvm_irq_level: 1 always
834 means active (asserted), 0 means inactive (deasserted).
836 x86 allows the operating system to program the interrupt polarity
837 (active-low/active-high) for level-triggered interrupts, and KVM used
838 to consider the polarity. However, due to bitrot in the handling of
839 active-low interrupts, the above convention is now valid on x86 too.
840 This is signaled by KVM_CAP_X86_IOAPIC_POLARITY_IGNORED. Userspace
841 should not present interrupts to the guest as active-low unless this
842 capability is present (or unless it is not using the in-kernel irqchip,
846 ARM/arm64 can signal an interrupt either at the CPU level, or at the
847 in-kernel irqchip (GIC), and for in-kernel irqchip can tell the GIC to
848 use PPIs designated for specific cpus. The irq field is interpreted
851 Â bits: | 31 ... 28 | 27 ... 24 | 23 ... 16 | 15 ... 0 |
852 field: | vcpu2_index | irq_type | vcpu_index | irq_id |
854 The irq_type field has the following values:
857 out-of-kernel GIC: irq_id 0 is IRQ, irq_id 1 is FIQ
859 in-kernel GIC: SPI, irq_id between 32 and 1019 (incl.)
860 (the vcpu_index field is ignored)
862 in-kernel GIC: PPI, irq_id between 16 and 31 (incl.)
864 (The irq_id field thus corresponds nicely to the IRQ ID in the ARM GIC specs)
866 In both cases, level is used to assert/deassert the line.
868 When KVM_CAP_ARM_IRQ_LINE_LAYOUT_2 is supported, the target vcpu is
869 identified as (256 * vcpu2_index + vcpu_index). Otherwise, vcpu2_index
872 Note that on arm/arm64, the KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP capability only conditions
873 injection of interrupts for the in-kernel irqchip. KVM_IRQ_LINE can always
874 be used for a userspace interrupt controller.
878 struct kvm_irq_level {
881 __s32 status; /* not used for KVM_IRQ_LEVEL */
883 __u32 level; /* 0 or 1 */
890 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
893 :Parameters: struct kvm_irqchip (in/out)
894 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
896 Reads the state of a kernel interrupt controller created with
897 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP into a buffer provided by the caller.
902 __u32 chip_id; /* 0 = PIC1, 1 = PIC2, 2 = IOAPIC */
905 char dummy[512]; /* reserving space */
906 struct kvm_pic_state pic;
907 struct kvm_ioapic_state ioapic;
915 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
918 :Parameters: struct kvm_irqchip (in)
919 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
921 Sets the state of a kernel interrupt controller created with
922 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP from a buffer provided by the caller.
927 __u32 chip_id; /* 0 = PIC1, 1 = PIC2, 2 = IOAPIC */
930 char dummy[512]; /* reserving space */
931 struct kvm_pic_state pic;
932 struct kvm_ioapic_state ioapic;
937 4.28 KVM_XEN_HVM_CONFIG
938 -----------------------
940 :Capability: KVM_CAP_XEN_HVM
943 :Parameters: struct kvm_xen_hvm_config (in)
944 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
946 Sets the MSR that the Xen HVM guest uses to initialize its hypercall
947 page, and provides the starting address and size of the hypercall
948 blobs in userspace. When the guest writes the MSR, kvm copies one
949 page of a blob (32- or 64-bit, depending on the vcpu mode) to guest
954 struct kvm_xen_hvm_config {
968 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK
971 :Parameters: struct kvm_clock_data (out)
972 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
974 Gets the current timestamp of kvmclock as seen by the current guest. In
975 conjunction with KVM_SET_CLOCK, it is used to ensure monotonicity on scenarios
978 When KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK is passed to KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION, it returns the
979 set of bits that KVM can return in struct kvm_clock_data's flag member.
981 The only flag defined now is KVM_CLOCK_TSC_STABLE. If set, the returned
982 value is the exact kvmclock value seen by all VCPUs at the instant
983 when KVM_GET_CLOCK was called. If clear, the returned value is simply
984 CLOCK_MONOTONIC plus a constant offset; the offset can be modified
985 with KVM_SET_CLOCK. KVM will try to make all VCPUs follow this clock,
986 but the exact value read by each VCPU could differ, because the host
991 struct kvm_clock_data {
992 __u64 clock; /* kvmclock current value */
1001 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK
1004 :Parameters: struct kvm_clock_data (in)
1005 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1007 Sets the current timestamp of kvmclock to the value specified in its parameter.
1008 In conjunction with KVM_GET_CLOCK, it is used to ensure monotonicity on scenarios
1013 struct kvm_clock_data {
1014 __u64 clock; /* kvmclock current value */
1020 4.31 KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS
1021 ------------------------
1023 :Capability: KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS
1024 :Extended by: KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW
1025 :Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
1027 :Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_event (out)
1028 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1033 Gets currently pending exceptions, interrupts, and NMIs as well as related
1038 struct kvm_vcpu_events {
1042 __u8 has_error_code;
1063 __u8 smm_inside_nmi;
1067 __u8 exception_has_payload;
1068 __u64 exception_payload;
1071 The following bits are defined in the flags field:
1073 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SHADOW may be set to signal that
1074 interrupt.shadow contains a valid state.
1076 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM may be set to signal that smi contains a
1079 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_PAYLOAD may be set to signal that the
1080 exception_has_payload, exception_payload, and exception.pending
1081 fields contain a valid state. This bit will be set whenever
1082 KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD is enabled.
1087 If the guest accesses a device that is being emulated by the host kernel in
1088 such a way that a real device would generate a physical SError, KVM may make
1089 a virtual SError pending for that VCPU. This system error interrupt remains
1090 pending until the guest takes the exception by unmasking PSTATE.A.
1092 Running the VCPU may cause it to take a pending SError, or make an access that
1093 causes an SError to become pending. The event's description is only valid while
1094 the VPCU is not running.
1096 This API provides a way to read and write the pending 'event' state that is not
1097 visible to the guest. To save, restore or migrate a VCPU the struct representing
1098 the state can be read then written using this GET/SET API, along with the other
1099 guest-visible registers. It is not possible to 'cancel' an SError that has been
1102 A device being emulated in user-space may also wish to generate an SError. To do
1103 this the events structure can be populated by user-space. The current state
1104 should be read first, to ensure no existing SError is pending. If an existing
1105 SError is pending, the architecture's 'Multiple SError interrupts' rules should
1106 be followed. (2.5.3 of DDI0587.a "ARM Reliability, Availability, and
1107 Serviceability (RAS) Specification").
1109 SError exceptions always have an ESR value. Some CPUs have the ability to
1110 specify what the virtual SError's ESR value should be. These systems will
1111 advertise KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR. In this case exception.has_esr will
1112 always have a non-zero value when read, and the agent making an SError pending
1113 should specify the ISS field in the lower 24 bits of exception.serror_esr. If
1114 the system supports KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR, but user-space sets the events
1115 with exception.has_esr as zero, KVM will choose an ESR.
1117 Specifying exception.has_esr on a system that does not support it will return
1118 -EINVAL. Setting anything other than the lower 24bits of exception.serror_esr
1119 will return -EINVAL.
1121 It is not possible to read back a pending external abort (injected via
1122 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS or otherwise) because such an exception is always delivered
1123 directly to the virtual CPU).
1127 struct kvm_vcpu_events {
1129 __u8 serror_pending;
1130 __u8 serror_has_esr;
1131 __u8 ext_dabt_pending;
1132 /* Align it to 8 bytes */
1139 4.32 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS
1140 ------------------------
1142 :Capability: KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS
1143 :Extended by: KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW
1144 :Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
1146 :Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_event (in)
1147 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1152 Set pending exceptions, interrupts, and NMIs as well as related states of the
1155 See KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS for the data structure.
1157 Fields that may be modified asynchronously by running VCPUs can be excluded
1158 from the update. These fields are nmi.pending, sipi_vector, smi.smm,
1159 smi.pending. Keep the corresponding bits in the flags field cleared to
1160 suppress overwriting the current in-kernel state. The bits are:
1162 =============================== ==================================
1163 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_NMI_PENDING transfer nmi.pending to the kernel
1164 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SIPI_VECTOR transfer sipi_vector
1165 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM transfer the smi sub-struct.
1166 =============================== ==================================
1168 If KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW is available, KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SHADOW can be set in
1169 the flags field to signal that interrupt.shadow contains a valid state and
1170 shall be written into the VCPU.
1172 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM can only be set if KVM_CAP_X86_SMM is available.
1174 If KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD is enabled, KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_PAYLOAD
1175 can be set in the flags field to signal that the
1176 exception_has_payload, exception_payload, and exception.pending fields
1177 contain a valid state and shall be written into the VCPU.
1182 User space may need to inject several types of events to the guest.
1184 Set the pending SError exception state for this VCPU. It is not possible to
1185 'cancel' an Serror that has been made pending.
1187 If the guest performed an access to I/O memory which could not be handled by
1188 userspace, for example because of missing instruction syndrome decode
1189 information or because there is no device mapped at the accessed IPA, then
1190 userspace can ask the kernel to inject an external abort using the address
1191 from the exiting fault on the VCPU. It is a programming error to set
1192 ext_dabt_pending after an exit which was not either KVM_EXIT_MMIO or
1193 KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV. This feature is only available if the system supports
1194 KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_EXT_DABT. This is a helper which provides commonality in
1195 how userspace reports accesses for the above cases to guests, across different
1196 userspace implementations. Nevertheless, userspace can still emulate all Arm
1197 exceptions by manipulating individual registers using the KVM_SET_ONE_REG API.
1199 See KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS for the data structure.
1202 4.33 KVM_GET_DEBUGREGS
1203 ----------------------
1205 :Capability: KVM_CAP_DEBUGREGS
1208 :Parameters: struct kvm_debugregs (out)
1209 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1211 Reads debug registers from the vcpu.
1215 struct kvm_debugregs {
1224 4.34 KVM_SET_DEBUGREGS
1225 ----------------------
1227 :Capability: KVM_CAP_DEBUGREGS
1230 :Parameters: struct kvm_debugregs (in)
1231 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1233 Writes debug registers into the vcpu.
1235 See KVM_GET_DEBUGREGS for the data structure. The flags field is unused
1236 yet and must be cleared on entry.
1239 4.35 KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION
1240 -------------------------------
1242 :Capability: KVM_CAP_USER_MEMORY
1245 :Parameters: struct kvm_userspace_memory_region (in)
1246 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1250 struct kvm_userspace_memory_region {
1253 __u64 guest_phys_addr;
1254 __u64 memory_size; /* bytes */
1255 __u64 userspace_addr; /* start of the userspace allocated memory */
1258 /* for kvm_memory_region::flags */
1259 #define KVM_MEM_LOG_DIRTY_PAGES (1UL << 0)
1260 #define KVM_MEM_READONLY (1UL << 1)
1262 This ioctl allows the user to create, modify or delete a guest physical
1263 memory slot. Bits 0-15 of "slot" specify the slot id and this value
1264 should be less than the maximum number of user memory slots supported per
1265 VM. The maximum allowed slots can be queried using KVM_CAP_NR_MEMSLOTS.
1266 Slots may not overlap in guest physical address space.
1268 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 of "slot"
1269 specifies the address space which is being modified. They must be
1270 less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for the
1271 KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability. Slots in separate address spaces
1272 are unrelated; the restriction on overlapping slots only applies within
1275 Deleting a slot is done by passing zero for memory_size. When changing
1276 an existing slot, it may be moved in the guest physical memory space,
1277 or its flags may be modified, but it may not be resized.
1279 Memory for the region is taken starting at the address denoted by the
1280 field userspace_addr, which must point at user addressable memory for
1281 the entire memory slot size. Any object may back this memory, including
1282 anonymous memory, ordinary files, and hugetlbfs.
1284 It is recommended that the lower 21 bits of guest_phys_addr and userspace_addr
1285 be identical. This allows large pages in the guest to be backed by large
1288 The flags field supports two flags: KVM_MEM_LOG_DIRTY_PAGES and
1289 KVM_MEM_READONLY. The former can be set to instruct KVM to keep track of
1290 writes to memory within the slot. See KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG ioctl to know how to
1291 use it. The latter can be set, if KVM_CAP_READONLY_MEM capability allows it,
1292 to make a new slot read-only. In this case, writes to this memory will be
1293 posted to userspace as KVM_EXIT_MMIO exits.
1295 When the KVM_CAP_SYNC_MMU capability is available, changes in the backing of
1296 the memory region are automatically reflected into the guest. For example, an
1297 mmap() that affects the region will be made visible immediately. Another
1298 example is madvise(MADV_DROP).
1300 It is recommended to use this API instead of the KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION ioctl.
1301 The KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION does not allow fine grained control over memory
1302 allocation and is deprecated.
1305 4.36 KVM_SET_TSS_ADDR
1306 ---------------------
1308 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_TSS_ADDR
1311 :Parameters: unsigned long tss_address (in)
1312 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1314 This ioctl defines the physical address of a three-page region in the guest
1315 physical address space. The region must be within the first 4GB of the
1316 guest physical address space and must not conflict with any memory slot
1317 or any mmio address. The guest may malfunction if it accesses this memory
1320 This ioctl is required on Intel-based hosts. This is needed on Intel hardware
1321 because of a quirk in the virtualization implementation (see the internals
1322 documentation when it pops into existence).
1328 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ENABLE_CAP
1329 :Architectures: mips, ppc, s390
1331 :Parameters: struct kvm_enable_cap (in)
1332 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1334 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ENABLE_CAP_VM
1337 :Parameters: struct kvm_enable_cap (in)
1338 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1342 Not all extensions are enabled by default. Using this ioctl the application
1343 can enable an extension, making it available to the guest.
1345 On systems that do not support this ioctl, it always fails. On systems that
1346 do support it, it only works for extensions that are supported for enablement.
1348 To check if a capability can be enabled, the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl should
1353 struct kvm_enable_cap {
1357 The capability that is supposed to get enabled.
1363 A bitfield indicating future enhancements. Has to be 0 for now.
1369 Arguments for enabling a feature. If a feature needs initial values to
1370 function properly, this is the place to put them.
1377 The vcpu ioctl should be used for vcpu-specific capabilities, the vm ioctl
1378 for vm-wide capabilities.
1380 4.38 KVM_GET_MP_STATE
1381 ---------------------
1383 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MP_STATE
1384 :Architectures: x86, s390, arm, arm64
1386 :Parameters: struct kvm_mp_state (out)
1387 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1391 struct kvm_mp_state {
1395 Returns the vcpu's current "multiprocessing state" (though also valid on
1396 uniprocessor guests).
1398 Possible values are:
1400 ========================== ===============================================
1401 KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE the vcpu is currently running [x86,arm/arm64]
1402 KVM_MP_STATE_UNINITIALIZED the vcpu is an application processor (AP)
1403 which has not yet received an INIT signal [x86]
1404 KVM_MP_STATE_INIT_RECEIVED the vcpu has received an INIT signal, and is
1405 now ready for a SIPI [x86]
1406 KVM_MP_STATE_HALTED the vcpu has executed a HLT instruction and
1407 is waiting for an interrupt [x86]
1408 KVM_MP_STATE_SIPI_RECEIVED the vcpu has just received a SIPI (vector
1409 accessible via KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS) [x86]
1410 KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED the vcpu is stopped [s390,arm/arm64]
1411 KVM_MP_STATE_CHECK_STOP the vcpu is in a special error state [s390]
1412 KVM_MP_STATE_OPERATING the vcpu is operating (running or halted)
1414 KVM_MP_STATE_LOAD the vcpu is in a special load/startup state
1416 ========================== ===============================================
1418 On x86, this ioctl is only useful after KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Without an
1419 in-kernel irqchip, the multiprocessing state must be maintained by userspace on
1420 these architectures.
1425 The only states that are valid are KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED and
1426 KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE which reflect if the vcpu is paused or not.
1428 4.39 KVM_SET_MP_STATE
1429 ---------------------
1431 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MP_STATE
1432 :Architectures: x86, s390, arm, arm64
1434 :Parameters: struct kvm_mp_state (in)
1435 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1437 Sets the vcpu's current "multiprocessing state"; see KVM_GET_MP_STATE for
1440 On x86, this ioctl is only useful after KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Without an
1441 in-kernel irqchip, the multiprocessing state must be maintained by userspace on
1442 these architectures.
1447 The only states that are valid are KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED and
1448 KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE which reflect if the vcpu should be paused or not.
1450 4.40 KVM_SET_IDENTITY_MAP_ADDR
1451 ------------------------------
1453 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_IDENTITY_MAP_ADDR
1456 :Parameters: unsigned long identity (in)
1457 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1459 This ioctl defines the physical address of a one-page region in the guest
1460 physical address space. The region must be within the first 4GB of the
1461 guest physical address space and must not conflict with any memory slot
1462 or any mmio address. The guest may malfunction if it accesses this memory
1465 Setting the address to 0 will result in resetting the address to its default
1468 This ioctl is required on Intel-based hosts. This is needed on Intel hardware
1469 because of a quirk in the virtualization implementation (see the internals
1470 documentation when it pops into existence).
1472 Fails if any VCPU has already been created.
1474 4.41 KVM_SET_BOOT_CPU_ID
1475 ------------------------
1477 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_BOOT_CPU_ID
1480 :Parameters: unsigned long vcpu_id
1481 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1483 Define which vcpu is the Bootstrap Processor (BSP). Values are the same
1484 as the vcpu id in KVM_CREATE_VCPU. If this ioctl is not called, the default
1491 :Capability: KVM_CAP_XSAVE
1494 :Parameters: struct kvm_xsave (out)
1495 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1504 This ioctl would copy current vcpu's xsave struct to the userspace.
1510 :Capability: KVM_CAP_XSAVE
1513 :Parameters: struct kvm_xsave (in)
1514 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1523 This ioctl would copy userspace's xsave struct to the kernel.
1529 :Capability: KVM_CAP_XCRS
1532 :Parameters: struct kvm_xcrs (out)
1533 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1546 struct kvm_xcr xcrs[KVM_MAX_XCRS];
1550 This ioctl would copy current vcpu's xcrs to the userspace.
1556 :Capability: KVM_CAP_XCRS
1559 :Parameters: struct kvm_xcrs (in)
1560 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1573 struct kvm_xcr xcrs[KVM_MAX_XCRS];
1577 This ioctl would set vcpu's xcr to the value userspace specified.
1580 4.46 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID
1581 ----------------------------
1583 :Capability: KVM_CAP_EXT_CPUID
1586 :Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
1587 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1594 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
1597 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX BIT(0)
1598 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC BIT(1) /* deprecated */
1599 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT BIT(2) /* deprecated */
1601 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
1612 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features which are supported by both the
1613 hardware and kvm in its default configuration. Userspace can use the
1614 information returned by this ioctl to construct cpuid information (for
1615 KVM_SET_CPUID2) that is consistent with hardware, kernel, and
1616 userspace capabilities, and with user requirements (for example, the
1617 user may wish to constrain cpuid to emulate older hardware, or for
1618 feature consistency across a cluster).
1620 Note that certain capabilities, such as KVM_CAP_X86_DISABLE_EXITS, may
1621 expose cpuid features (e.g. MONITOR) which are not supported by kvm in
1622 its default configuration. If userspace enables such capabilities, it
1623 is responsible for modifying the results of this ioctl appropriately.
1625 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2 structure
1626 with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in the variable-size
1627 array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low to describe the cpu
1628 capabilities, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the number is too high,
1629 the 'nent' field is adjusted and an error (ENOMEM) is returned. If the
1630 number is just right, the 'nent' field is adjusted to the number of valid
1631 entries in the 'entries' array, which is then filled.
1633 The entries returned are the host cpuid as returned by the cpuid instruction,
1634 with unknown or unsupported features masked out. Some features (for example,
1635 x2apic), may not be present in the host cpu, but are exposed by kvm if it can
1636 emulate them efficiently. The fields in each entry are defined as follows:
1639 the eax value used to obtain the entry
1642 the ecx value used to obtain the entry (for entries that are
1646 an OR of zero or more of the following:
1648 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX:
1649 if the index field is valid
1652 the values returned by the cpuid instruction for
1653 this function/index combination
1655 The TSC deadline timer feature (CPUID leaf 1, ecx[24]) is always returned
1656 as false, since the feature depends on KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP for local APIC
1657 support. Instead it is reported via::
1659 ioctl(KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION, KVM_CAP_TSC_DEADLINE_TIMER)
1661 if that returns true and you use KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, or if you emulate the
1662 feature in userspace, then you can enable the feature for KVM_SET_CPUID2.
1665 4.47 KVM_PPC_GET_PVINFO
1666 -----------------------
1668 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_PVINFO
1671 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_pvinfo (out)
1672 :Returns: 0 on success, !0 on error
1676 struct kvm_ppc_pvinfo {
1682 This ioctl fetches PV specific information that need to be passed to the guest
1683 using the device tree or other means from vm context.
1685 The hcall array defines 4 instructions that make up a hypercall.
1687 If any additional field gets added to this structure later on, a bit for that
1688 additional piece of information will be set in the flags bitmap.
1690 The flags bitmap is defined as::
1692 /* the host supports the ePAPR idle hcall
1693 #define KVM_PPC_PVINFO_FLAGS_EV_IDLE (1<<0)
1695 4.52 KVM_SET_GSI_ROUTING
1696 ------------------------
1698 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQ_ROUTING
1699 :Architectures: x86 s390 arm arm64
1701 :Parameters: struct kvm_irq_routing (in)
1702 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1704 Sets the GSI routing table entries, overwriting any previously set entries.
1706 On arm/arm64, GSI routing has the following limitation:
1708 - GSI routing does not apply to KVM_IRQ_LINE but only to KVM_IRQFD.
1712 struct kvm_irq_routing {
1715 struct kvm_irq_routing_entry entries[0];
1718 No flags are specified so far, the corresponding field must be set to zero.
1722 struct kvm_irq_routing_entry {
1728 struct kvm_irq_routing_irqchip irqchip;
1729 struct kvm_irq_routing_msi msi;
1730 struct kvm_irq_routing_s390_adapter adapter;
1731 struct kvm_irq_routing_hv_sint hv_sint;
1736 /* gsi routing entry types */
1737 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_IRQCHIP 1
1738 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI 2
1739 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_S390_ADAPTER 3
1740 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_HV_SINT 4
1744 - KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID: used along with KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI routing entry
1745 type, specifies that the devid field contains a valid value. The per-VM
1746 KVM_CAP_MSI_DEVID capability advertises the requirement to provide
1747 the device ID. If this capability is not available, userspace should
1748 never set the KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID flag as the ioctl might fail.
1753 struct kvm_irq_routing_irqchip {
1758 struct kvm_irq_routing_msi {
1768 If KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID is set, devid contains a unique device identifier
1769 for the device that wrote the MSI message. For PCI, this is usually a
1770 BFD identifier in the lower 16 bits.
1772 On x86, address_hi is ignored unless the KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS
1773 feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability is enabled. If it is enabled,
1774 address_hi bits 31-8 provide bits 31-8 of the destination id. Bits 7-0 of
1775 address_hi must be zero.
1779 struct kvm_irq_routing_s390_adapter {
1783 __u32 summary_offset;
1787 struct kvm_irq_routing_hv_sint {
1793 4.55 KVM_SET_TSC_KHZ
1794 --------------------
1796 :Capability: KVM_CAP_TSC_CONTROL
1799 :Parameters: virtual tsc_khz
1800 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1802 Specifies the tsc frequency for the virtual machine. The unit of the
1806 4.56 KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ
1807 --------------------
1809 :Capability: KVM_CAP_GET_TSC_KHZ
1813 :Returns: virtual tsc-khz on success, negative value on error
1815 Returns the tsc frequency of the guest. The unit of the return value is
1816 KHz. If the host has unstable tsc this ioctl returns -EIO instead as an
1823 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
1826 :Parameters: struct kvm_lapic_state (out)
1827 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1831 #define KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE 0x400
1832 struct kvm_lapic_state {
1833 char regs[KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE];
1836 Reads the Local APIC registers and copies them into the input argument. The
1837 data format and layout are the same as documented in the architecture manual.
1839 If KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API is
1840 enabled, then the format of APIC_ID register depends on the APIC mode
1841 (reported by MSR_IA32_APICBASE) of its VCPU. x2APIC stores APIC ID in
1842 the APIC_ID register (bytes 32-35). xAPIC only allows an 8-bit APIC ID
1843 which is stored in bits 31-24 of the APIC register, or equivalently in
1844 byte 35 of struct kvm_lapic_state's regs field. KVM_GET_LAPIC must then
1845 be called after MSR_IA32_APICBASE has been set with KVM_SET_MSR.
1847 If KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS feature is disabled, struct kvm_lapic_state
1848 always uses xAPIC format.
1854 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
1857 :Parameters: struct kvm_lapic_state (in)
1858 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1862 #define KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE 0x400
1863 struct kvm_lapic_state {
1864 char regs[KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE];
1867 Copies the input argument into the Local APIC registers. The data format
1868 and layout are the same as documented in the architecture manual.
1870 The format of the APIC ID register (bytes 32-35 of struct kvm_lapic_state's
1871 regs field) depends on the state of the KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability.
1872 See the note in KVM_GET_LAPIC.
1878 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IOEVENTFD
1881 :Parameters: struct kvm_ioeventfd (in)
1882 :Returns: 0 on success, !0 on error
1884 This ioctl attaches or detaches an ioeventfd to a legal pio/mmio address
1885 within the guest. A guest write in the registered address will signal the
1886 provided event instead of triggering an exit.
1890 struct kvm_ioeventfd {
1892 __u64 addr; /* legal pio/mmio address */
1893 __u32 len; /* 0, 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes */
1899 For the special case of virtio-ccw devices on s390, the ioevent is matched
1900 to a subchannel/virtqueue tuple instead.
1902 The following flags are defined::
1904 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_DATAMATCH (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_datamatch)
1905 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_PIO (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_pio)
1906 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_deassign)
1907 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_VIRTIO_CCW_NOTIFY \
1908 (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_virtio_ccw_notify)
1910 If datamatch flag is set, the event will be signaled only if the written value
1911 to the registered address is equal to datamatch in struct kvm_ioeventfd.
1913 For virtio-ccw devices, addr contains the subchannel id and datamatch the
1916 With KVM_CAP_IOEVENTFD_ANY_LENGTH, a zero length ioeventfd is allowed, and
1917 the kernel will ignore the length of guest write and may get a faster vmexit.
1918 The speedup may only apply to specific architectures, but the ioeventfd will
1924 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SW_TLB
1927 :Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_tlb (in)
1928 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1932 struct kvm_dirty_tlb {
1937 This must be called whenever userspace has changed an entry in the shared
1938 TLB, prior to calling KVM_RUN on the associated vcpu.
1940 The "bitmap" field is the userspace address of an array. This array
1941 consists of a number of bits, equal to the total number of TLB entries as
1942 determined by the last successful call to KVM_CONFIG_TLB, rounded up to the
1943 nearest multiple of 64.
1945 Each bit corresponds to one TLB entry, ordered the same as in the shared TLB
1948 The array is little-endian: the bit 0 is the least significant bit of the
1949 first byte, bit 8 is the least significant bit of the second byte, etc.
1950 This avoids any complications with differing word sizes.
1952 The "num_dirty" field is a performance hint for KVM to determine whether it
1953 should skip processing the bitmap and just invalidate everything. It must
1954 be set to the number of set bits in the bitmap.
1957 4.62 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE
1958 -------------------------
1960 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE
1961 :Architectures: powerpc
1963 :Parameters: struct kvm_create_spapr_tce (in)
1964 :Returns: file descriptor for manipulating the created TCE table
1966 This creates a virtual TCE (translation control entry) table, which
1967 is an IOMMU for PAPR-style virtual I/O. It is used to translate
1968 logical addresses used in virtual I/O into guest physical addresses,
1969 and provides a scatter/gather capability for PAPR virtual I/O.
1973 /* for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE */
1974 struct kvm_create_spapr_tce {
1979 The liobn field gives the logical IO bus number for which to create a
1980 TCE table. The window_size field specifies the size of the DMA window
1981 which this TCE table will translate - the table will contain one 64
1982 bit TCE entry for every 4kiB of the DMA window.
1984 When the guest issues an H_PUT_TCE hcall on a liobn for which a TCE
1985 table has been created using this ioctl(), the kernel will handle it
1986 in real mode, updating the TCE table. H_PUT_TCE calls for other
1987 liobns will cause a vm exit and must be handled by userspace.
1989 The return value is a file descriptor which can be passed to mmap(2)
1990 to map the created TCE table into userspace. This lets userspace read
1991 the entries written by kernel-handled H_PUT_TCE calls, and also lets
1992 userspace update the TCE table directly which is useful in some
1996 4.63 KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA
1997 ---------------------
1999 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RMA
2000 :Architectures: powerpc
2002 :Parameters: struct kvm_allocate_rma (out)
2003 :Returns: file descriptor for mapping the allocated RMA
2005 This allocates a Real Mode Area (RMA) from the pool allocated at boot
2006 time by the kernel. An RMA is a physically-contiguous, aligned region
2007 of memory used on older POWER processors to provide the memory which
2008 will be accessed by real-mode (MMU off) accesses in a KVM guest.
2009 POWER processors support a set of sizes for the RMA that usually
2010 includes 64MB, 128MB, 256MB and some larger powers of two.
2014 /* for KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA */
2015 struct kvm_allocate_rma {
2019 The return value is a file descriptor which can be passed to mmap(2)
2020 to map the allocated RMA into userspace. The mapped area can then be
2021 passed to the KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION ioctl to establish it as the
2022 RMA for a virtual machine. The size of the RMA in bytes (which is
2023 fixed at host kernel boot time) is returned in the rma_size field of
2024 the argument structure.
2026 The KVM_CAP_PPC_RMA capability is 1 or 2 if the KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA ioctl
2027 is supported; 2 if the processor requires all virtual machines to have
2028 an RMA, or 1 if the processor can use an RMA but doesn't require it,
2029 because it supports the Virtual RMA (VRMA) facility.
2035 :Capability: KVM_CAP_USER_NMI
2039 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2041 Queues an NMI on the thread's vcpu. Note this is well defined only
2042 when KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP has not been called, since this is an interface
2043 between the virtual cpu core and virtual local APIC. After KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP
2044 has been called, this interface is completely emulated within the kernel.
2046 To use this to emulate the LINT1 input with KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, use the
2047 following algorithm:
2050 - read the local APIC's state (KVM_GET_LAPIC)
2051 - check whether changing LINT1 will queue an NMI (see the LVT entry for LINT1)
2052 - if so, issue KVM_NMI
2055 Some guests configure the LINT1 NMI input to cause a panic, aiding in
2059 4.65 KVM_S390_UCAS_MAP
2060 ----------------------
2062 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
2063 :Architectures: s390
2065 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping (in)
2066 :Returns: 0 in case of success
2068 The parameter is defined like this::
2070 struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping {
2076 This ioctl maps the memory at "user_addr" with the length "length" to
2077 the vcpu's address space starting at "vcpu_addr". All parameters need to
2078 be aligned by 1 megabyte.
2081 4.66 KVM_S390_UCAS_UNMAP
2082 ------------------------
2084 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
2085 :Architectures: s390
2087 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping (in)
2088 :Returns: 0 in case of success
2090 The parameter is defined like this::
2092 struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping {
2098 This ioctl unmaps the memory in the vcpu's address space starting at
2099 "vcpu_addr" with the length "length". The field "user_addr" is ignored.
2100 All parameters need to be aligned by 1 megabyte.
2103 4.67 KVM_S390_VCPU_FAULT
2104 ------------------------
2106 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
2107 :Architectures: s390
2109 :Parameters: vcpu absolute address (in)
2110 :Returns: 0 in case of success
2112 This call creates a page table entry on the virtual cpu's address space
2113 (for user controlled virtual machines) or the virtual machine's address
2114 space (for regular virtual machines). This only works for minor faults,
2115 thus it's recommended to access subject memory page via the user page
2116 table upfront. This is useful to handle validity intercepts for user
2117 controlled virtual machines to fault in the virtual cpu's lowcore pages
2118 prior to calling the KVM_RUN ioctl.
2121 4.68 KVM_SET_ONE_REG
2122 --------------------
2124 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ONE_REG
2127 :Parameters: struct kvm_one_reg (in)
2128 :Returns: 0 on success, negative value on failure
2132 ====== ============================================================
2133 Â ENOENT Â Â no such register
2134 Â EINVAL Â Â invalid register ID, or no such register or used with VMs in
2135 protected virtualization mode on s390
2136 Â EPERM Â Â Â (arm64) register access not allowed before vcpu finalization
2137 ====== ============================================================
2139 (These error codes are indicative only: do not rely on a specific error
2140 code being returned in a specific situation.)
2144 struct kvm_one_reg {
2149 Using this ioctl, a single vcpu register can be set to a specific value
2150 defined by user space with the passed in struct kvm_one_reg, where id
2151 refers to the register identifier as described below and addr is a pointer
2152 to a variable with the respective size. There can be architecture agnostic
2153 and architecture specific registers. Each have their own range of operation
2154 and their own constants and width. To keep track of the implemented
2155 registers, find a list below:
2157 ======= =============================== ============
2158 Arch Register Width (bits)
2159 ======= =============================== ============
2160 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_HIOR 64
2161 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IAC1 64
2162 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IAC2 64
2163 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IAC3 64
2164 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IAC4 64
2165 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DAC1 64
2166 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DAC2 64
2167 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DABR 64
2168 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DSCR 64
2169 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PURR 64
2170 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SPURR 64
2171 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DAR 64
2172 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DSISR 32
2173 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_AMR 64
2174 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_UAMOR 64
2175 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR0 64
2176 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR1 64
2177 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCRA 64
2178 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR2 64
2179 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCRS 64
2180 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR3 64
2181 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SIAR 64
2182 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SDAR 64
2183 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SIER 64
2184 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SIER2 64
2185 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SIER3 64
2186 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC1 32
2187 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC2 32
2188 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC3 32
2189 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC4 32
2190 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC5 32
2191 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC6 32
2192 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC7 32
2193 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PMC8 32
2194 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_FPR0 64
2196 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_FPR31 64
2197 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VR0 128
2199 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VR31 128
2200 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VSR0 128
2202 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VSR31 128
2203 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_FPSCR 64
2204 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VSCR 32
2205 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_ADDR 64
2206 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_SLB 128
2207 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_DTL 128
2208 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_EPCR 32
2209 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_EPR 32
2210 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TCR 32
2211 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TSR 32
2212 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_OR_TSR 32
2213 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_CLEAR_TSR 32
2214 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS0 32
2215 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS1 32
2216 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS2 64
2217 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS7_3 64
2218 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS4 32
2219 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MAS6 32
2220 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_MMUCFG 32
2221 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB0CFG 32
2222 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB1CFG 32
2223 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB2CFG 32
2224 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB3CFG 32
2225 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB0PS 32
2226 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB1PS 32
2227 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB2PS 32
2228 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TLB3PS 32
2229 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_EPTCFG 32
2230 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_ICP_STATE 64
2231 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VP_STATE 128
2232 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TB_OFFSET 64
2233 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SPMC1 32
2234 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SPMC2 32
2235 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IAMR 64
2236 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TFHAR 64
2237 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TFIAR 64
2238 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TEXASR 64
2239 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_FSCR 64
2240 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PSPB 32
2241 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_EBBHR 64
2242 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_EBBRR 64
2243 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_BESCR 64
2244 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TAR 64
2245 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DPDES 64
2246 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DAWR 64
2247 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DAWRX 64
2248 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_CIABR 64
2249 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_IC 64
2250 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VTB 64
2251 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_CSIGR 64
2252 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TACR 64
2253 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TCSCR 64
2254 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PID 64
2255 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_ACOP 64
2256 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_VRSAVE 32
2257 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_LPCR 32
2258 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_LPCR_64 64
2259 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PPR 64
2260 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_ARCH_COMPAT 32
2261 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DABRX 32
2262 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_WORT 64
2263 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_SPRG9 64
2264 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DBSR 32
2265 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TIDR 64
2266 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PSSCR 64
2267 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_DEC_EXPIRY 64
2268 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_PTCR 64
2269 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_GPR0 64
2271 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_GPR31 64
2272 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSR0 128
2274 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSR63 128
2275 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_CR 64
2276 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_LR 64
2277 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_CTR 64
2278 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_FPSCR 64
2279 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_AMR 64
2280 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_PPR 64
2281 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VRSAVE 64
2282 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSCR 32
2283 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_DSCR 64
2284 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_TAR 64
2285 PPC KVM_REG_PPC_TM_XER 64
2287 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_R0 64
2289 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_R31 64
2290 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_HI 64
2291 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_LO 64
2292 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_PC 64
2293 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_INDEX 32
2294 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO0 64
2295 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO1 64
2296 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONTEXT 64
2297 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONTEXTCONFIG 32
2298 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_USERLOCAL 64
2299 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_XCONTEXTCONFIG 64
2300 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PAGEMASK 32
2301 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PAGEGRAIN 32
2302 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL0 64
2303 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL1 64
2304 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL2 64
2305 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWBASE 64
2306 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWFIELD 64
2307 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWSIZE 64
2308 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_WIRED 32
2309 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWCTL 32
2310 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_HWRENA 32
2311 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADVADDR 64
2312 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADINSTR 32
2313 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADINSTRP 32
2314 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_COUNT 32
2315 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYHI 64
2316 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_COMPARE 32
2317 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_STATUS 32
2318 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_INTCTL 32
2319 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CAUSE 32
2320 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_EPC 64
2321 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PRID 32
2322 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_EBASE 64
2323 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG 32
2324 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG1 32
2325 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG2 32
2326 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG3 32
2327 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG4 32
2328 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG5 32
2329 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG7 32
2330 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_XCONTEXT 64
2331 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ERROREPC 64
2332 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH1 64
2333 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH2 64
2334 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH3 64
2335 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH4 64
2336 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH5 64
2337 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH6 64
2338 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_MAAR(0..63) 64
2339 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_CTL 64
2340 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_RESUME 64
2341 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_HZ 64
2342 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_32(0..31) 32
2343 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_64(0..31) 64
2344 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_128(0..31) 128
2345 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_IR 32
2346 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_CSR 32
2347 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_IR 32
2348 MIPS KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_CSR 32
2349 ======= =============================== ============
2351 ARM registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of that
2352 is the register group type, or coprocessor number:
2354 ARM core registers have the following id bit patterns::
2356 0x4020 0000 0010 <index into the kvm_regs struct:16>
2358 ARM 32-bit CP15 registers have the following id bit patterns::
2360 0x4020 0000 000F <zero:1> <crn:4> <crm:4> <opc1:4> <opc2:3>
2362 ARM 64-bit CP15 registers have the following id bit patterns::
2364 0x4030 0000 000F <zero:1> <zero:4> <crm:4> <opc1:4> <zero:3>
2366 ARM CCSIDR registers are demultiplexed by CSSELR value::
2368 0x4020 0000 0011 00 <csselr:8>
2370 ARM 32-bit VFP control registers have the following id bit patterns::
2372 0x4020 0000 0012 1 <regno:12>
2374 ARM 64-bit FP registers have the following id bit patterns::
2376 0x4030 0000 0012 0 <regno:12>
2378 ARM firmware pseudo-registers have the following bit pattern::
2380 0x4030 0000 0014 <regno:16>
2383 arm64 registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of
2384 that is the register group type, or coprocessor number:
2386 arm64 core/FP-SIMD registers have the following id bit patterns. Note
2387 that the size of the access is variable, as the kvm_regs structure
2388 contains elements ranging from 32 to 128 bits. The index is a 32bit
2389 value in the kvm_regs structure seen as a 32bit array::
2391 0x60x0 0000 0010 <index into the kvm_regs struct:16>
2395 ======================= ========= ===== =======================================
2396 Encoding Register Bits kvm_regs member
2397 ======================= ========= ===== =======================================
2398 0x6030 0000 0010 0000 X0 64 regs.regs[0]
2399 0x6030 0000 0010 0002 X1 64 regs.regs[1]
2401 0x6030 0000 0010 003c X30 64 regs.regs[30]
2402 0x6030 0000 0010 003e SP 64 regs.sp
2403 0x6030 0000 0010 0040 PC 64 regs.pc
2404 0x6030 0000 0010 0042 PSTATE 64 regs.pstate
2405 0x6030 0000 0010 0044 SP_EL1 64 sp_el1
2406 0x6030 0000 0010 0046 ELR_EL1 64 elr_el1
2407 0x6030 0000 0010 0048 SPSR_EL1 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_EL1] (alias SPSR_SVC)
2408 0x6030 0000 0010 004a SPSR_ABT 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_ABT]
2409 0x6030 0000 0010 004c SPSR_UND 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_UND]
2410 0x6030 0000 0010 004e SPSR_IRQ 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_IRQ]
2411 0x6060 0000 0010 0050 SPSR_FIQ 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_FIQ]
2412 0x6040 0000 0010 0054 V0 128 fp_regs.vregs[0] [1]_
2413 0x6040 0000 0010 0058 V1 128 fp_regs.vregs[1] [1]_
2415 0x6040 0000 0010 00d0 V31 128 fp_regs.vregs[31] [1]_
2416 0x6020 0000 0010 00d4 FPSR 32 fp_regs.fpsr
2417 0x6020 0000 0010 00d5 FPCR 32 fp_regs.fpcr
2418 ======================= ========= ===== =======================================
2420 .. [1] These encodings are not accepted for SVE-enabled vcpus. See
2423 The equivalent register content can be accessed via bits [127:0] of
2424 the corresponding SVE Zn registers instead for vcpus that have SVE
2425 enabled (see below).
2427 arm64 CCSIDR registers are demultiplexed by CSSELR value::
2429 0x6020 0000 0011 00 <csselr:8>
2431 arm64 system registers have the following id bit patterns::
2433 0x6030 0000 0013 <op0:2> <op1:3> <crn:4> <crm:4> <op2:3>
2437 Two system register IDs do not follow the specified pattern. These
2438 are KVM_REG_ARM_TIMER_CVAL and KVM_REG_ARM_TIMER_CNT, which map to
2439 system registers CNTV_CVAL_EL0 and CNTVCT_EL0 respectively. These
2440 two had their values accidentally swapped, which means TIMER_CVAL is
2441 derived from the register encoding for CNTVCT_EL0 and TIMER_CNT is
2442 derived from the register encoding for CNTV_CVAL_EL0. As this is
2443 API, it must remain this way.
2445 arm64 firmware pseudo-registers have the following bit pattern::
2447 0x6030 0000 0014 <regno:16>
2449 arm64 SVE registers have the following bit patterns::
2451 0x6080 0000 0015 00 <n:5> <slice:5> Zn bits[2048*slice + 2047 : 2048*slice]
2452 0x6050 0000 0015 04 <n:4> <slice:5> Pn bits[256*slice + 255 : 256*slice]
2453 0x6050 0000 0015 060 <slice:5> FFR bits[256*slice + 255 : 256*slice]
2454 0x6060 0000 0015 ffff KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS pseudo-register
2456 Access to register IDs where 2048 * slice >= 128 * max_vq will fail with
2457 ENOENT. max_vq is the vcpu's maximum supported vector length in 128-bit
2458 quadwords: see [2]_ below.
2460 These registers are only accessible on vcpus for which SVE is enabled.
2461 See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT for details.
2463 In addition, except for KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS, these registers are not
2464 accessible until the vcpu's SVE configuration has been finalized
2465 using KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE). See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT
2466 and KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE for more information about this procedure.
2468 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS is a pseudo-register that allows the set of vector
2469 lengths supported by the vcpu to be discovered and configured by
2470 userspace. When transferred to or from user memory via KVM_GET_ONE_REG
2471 or KVM_SET_ONE_REG, the value of this register is of type
2472 __u64[KVM_ARM64_SVE_VLS_WORDS], and encodes the set of vector lengths as
2475 __u64 vector_lengths[KVM_ARM64_SVE_VLS_WORDS];
2477 if (vq >= SVE_VQ_MIN && vq <= SVE_VQ_MAX &&
2478 ((vector_lengths[(vq - KVM_ARM64_SVE_VQ_MIN) / 64] >>
2479 ((vq - KVM_ARM64_SVE_VQ_MIN) % 64)) & 1))
2480 /* Vector length vq * 16 bytes supported */
2482 /* Vector length vq * 16 bytes not supported */
2484 .. [2] The maximum value vq for which the above condition is true is
2485 max_vq. This is the maximum vector length available to the guest on
2486 this vcpu, and determines which register slices are visible through
2487 this ioctl interface.
2489 (See Documentation/arm64/sve.rst for an explanation of the "vq"
2492 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS is only accessible after KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT.
2493 KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT initialises it to the best set of vector lengths that
2496 Userspace may subsequently modify it if desired until the vcpu's SVE
2497 configuration is finalized using KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE).
2499 Apart from simply removing all vector lengths from the host set that
2500 exceed some value, support for arbitrarily chosen sets of vector lengths
2501 is hardware-dependent and may not be available. Attempting to configure
2502 an invalid set of vector lengths via KVM_SET_ONE_REG will fail with
2505 After the vcpu's SVE configuration is finalized, further attempts to
2506 write this register will fail with EPERM.
2509 MIPS registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of that is
2510 the register group type:
2512 MIPS core registers (see above) have the following id bit patterns::
2514 0x7030 0000 0000 <reg:16>
2516 MIPS CP0 registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_* above) have the following id bit
2517 patterns depending on whether they're 32-bit or 64-bit registers::
2519 0x7020 0000 0001 00 <reg:5> <sel:3> (32-bit)
2520 0x7030 0000 0001 00 <reg:5> <sel:3> (64-bit)
2522 Note: KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO0 and KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO1 are the MIPS64
2523 versions of the EntryLo registers regardless of the word size of the host
2524 hardware, host kernel, guest, and whether XPA is present in the guest, i.e.
2525 with the RI and XI bits (if they exist) in bits 63 and 62 respectively, and
2526 the PFNX field starting at bit 30.
2528 MIPS MAARs (see KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_MAAR(*) above) have the following id bit
2531 0x7030 0000 0001 01 <reg:8>
2533 MIPS KVM control registers (see above) have the following id bit patterns::
2535 0x7030 0000 0002 <reg:16>
2537 MIPS FPU registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_{32,64}() above) have the following
2538 id bit patterns depending on the size of the register being accessed. They are
2539 always accessed according to the current guest FPU mode (Status.FR and
2540 Config5.FRE), i.e. as the guest would see them, and they become unpredictable
2541 if the guest FPU mode is changed. MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA) vector
2542 registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_128() above) have similar patterns as they
2543 overlap the FPU registers::
2545 0x7020 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (32-bit FPU registers)
2546 0x7030 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (64-bit FPU registers)
2547 0x7040 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (128-bit MSA vector registers)
2549 MIPS FPU control registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_{IR,CSR} above) have the
2550 following id bit patterns::
2552 0x7020 0000 0003 01 <0:3> <reg:5>
2554 MIPS MSA control registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_{IR,CSR} above) have the
2555 following id bit patterns::
2557 0x7020 0000 0003 02 <0:3> <reg:5>
2560 4.69 KVM_GET_ONE_REG
2561 --------------------
2563 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ONE_REG
2566 :Parameters: struct kvm_one_reg (in and out)
2567 :Returns: 0 on success, negative value on failure
2571 ======== ============================================================
2572 Â ENOENT Â Â no such register
2573 Â EINVAL Â Â invalid register ID, or no such register or used with VMs in
2574 protected virtualization mode on s390
2575 Â EPERM Â Â Â (arm64) register access not allowed before vcpu finalization
2576 ======== ============================================================
2578 (These error codes are indicative only: do not rely on a specific error
2579 code being returned in a specific situation.)
2581 This ioctl allows to receive the value of a single register implemented
2582 in a vcpu. The register to read is indicated by the "id" field of the
2583 kvm_one_reg struct passed in. On success, the register value can be found
2584 at the memory location pointed to by "addr".
2586 The list of registers accessible using this interface is identical to the
2590 4.70 KVM_KVMCLOCK_CTRL
2591 ----------------------
2593 :Capability: KVM_CAP_KVMCLOCK_CTRL
2594 :Architectures: Any that implement pvclocks (currently x86 only)
2597 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2599 This ioctl sets a flag accessible to the guest indicating that the specified
2600 vCPU has been paused by the host userspace.
2602 The host will set a flag in the pvclock structure that is checked from the
2603 soft lockup watchdog. The flag is part of the pvclock structure that is
2604 shared between guest and host, specifically the second bit of the flags
2605 field of the pvclock_vcpu_time_info structure. It will be set exclusively by
2606 the host and read/cleared exclusively by the guest. The guest operation of
2607 checking and clearing the flag must be an atomic operation so
2608 load-link/store-conditional, or equivalent must be used. There are two cases
2609 where the guest will clear the flag: when the soft lockup watchdog timer resets
2610 itself or when a soft lockup is detected. This ioctl can be called any time
2611 after pausing the vcpu, but before it is resumed.
2617 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SIGNAL_MSI
2618 :Architectures: x86 arm arm64
2620 :Parameters: struct kvm_msi (in)
2621 :Returns: >0 on delivery, 0 if guest blocked the MSI, and -1 on error
2623 Directly inject a MSI message. Only valid with in-kernel irqchip that handles
2638 KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID: devid contains a valid value. The per-VM
2639 KVM_CAP_MSI_DEVID capability advertises the requirement to provide
2640 the device ID. If this capability is not available, userspace
2641 should never set the KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID flag as the ioctl might fail.
2643 If KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID is set, devid contains a unique device identifier
2644 for the device that wrote the MSI message. For PCI, this is usually a
2645 BFD identifier in the lower 16 bits.
2647 On x86, address_hi is ignored unless the KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS
2648 feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability is enabled. If it is enabled,
2649 address_hi bits 31-8 provide bits 31-8 of the destination id. Bits 7-0 of
2650 address_hi must be zero.
2653 4.71 KVM_CREATE_PIT2
2654 --------------------
2656 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT2
2659 :Parameters: struct kvm_pit_config (in)
2660 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2662 Creates an in-kernel device model for the i8254 PIT. This call is only valid
2663 after enabling in-kernel irqchip support via KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. The following
2664 parameters have to be passed::
2666 struct kvm_pit_config {
2673 #define KVM_PIT_SPEAKER_DUMMY 1 /* emulate speaker port stub */
2675 PIT timer interrupts may use a per-VM kernel thread for injection. If it
2676 exists, this thread will have a name of the following pattern::
2678 kvm-pit/<owner-process-pid>
2680 When running a guest with elevated priorities, the scheduling parameters of
2681 this thread may have to be adjusted accordingly.
2683 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_CREATE_PIT.
2689 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT_STATE2
2692 :Parameters: struct kvm_pit_state2 (out)
2693 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2695 Retrieves the state of the in-kernel PIT model. Only valid after
2696 KVM_CREATE_PIT2. The state is returned in the following structure::
2698 struct kvm_pit_state2 {
2699 struct kvm_pit_channel_state channels[3];
2706 /* disable PIT in HPET legacy mode */
2707 #define KVM_PIT_FLAGS_HPET_LEGACY 0x00000001
2709 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_GET_PIT.
2715 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT_STATE2
2718 :Parameters: struct kvm_pit_state2 (in)
2719 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2721 Sets the state of the in-kernel PIT model. Only valid after KVM_CREATE_PIT2.
2722 See KVM_GET_PIT2 for details on struct kvm_pit_state2.
2724 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_SET_PIT.
2727 4.74 KVM_PPC_GET_SMMU_INFO
2728 --------------------------
2730 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_SMMU_INFO
2731 :Architectures: powerpc
2734 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2736 This populates and returns a structure describing the features of
2737 the "Server" class MMU emulation supported by KVM.
2738 This can in turn be used by userspace to generate the appropriate
2739 device-tree properties for the guest operating system.
2741 The structure contains some global information, followed by an
2742 array of supported segment page sizes::
2744 struct kvm_ppc_smmu_info {
2748 struct kvm_ppc_one_seg_page_size sps[KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_MAX_SZ];
2751 The supported flags are:
2753 - KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_REAL:
2754 When that flag is set, guest page sizes must "fit" the backing
2755 store page sizes. When not set, any page size in the list can
2756 be used regardless of how they are backed by userspace.
2758 - KVM_PPC_1T_SEGMENTS
2759 The emulated MMU supports 1T segments in addition to the
2763 This flag indicates that HPT guests are not supported by KVM,
2764 thus all guests must use radix MMU mode.
2766 The "slb_size" field indicates how many SLB entries are supported
2768 The "sps" array contains 8 entries indicating the supported base
2769 page sizes for a segment in increasing order. Each entry is defined
2772 struct kvm_ppc_one_seg_page_size {
2773 __u32 page_shift; /* Base page shift of segment (or 0) */
2774 __u32 slb_enc; /* SLB encoding for BookS */
2775 struct kvm_ppc_one_page_size enc[KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_MAX_SZ];
2778 An entry with a "page_shift" of 0 is unused. Because the array is
2779 organized in increasing order, a lookup can stop when encoutering
2782 The "slb_enc" field provides the encoding to use in the SLB for the
2783 page size. The bits are in positions such as the value can directly
2784 be OR'ed into the "vsid" argument of the slbmte instruction.
2786 The "enc" array is a list which for each of those segment base page
2787 size provides the list of supported actual page sizes (which can be
2788 only larger or equal to the base page size), along with the
2789 corresponding encoding in the hash PTE. Similarly, the array is
2790 8 entries sorted by increasing sizes and an entry with a "0" shift
2791 is an empty entry and a terminator::
2793 struct kvm_ppc_one_page_size {
2794 __u32 page_shift; /* Page shift (or 0) */
2795 __u32 pte_enc; /* Encoding in the HPTE (>>12) */
2798 The "pte_enc" field provides a value that can OR'ed into the hash
2799 PTE's RPN field (ie, it needs to be shifted left by 12 to OR it
2800 into the hash PTE second double word).
2805 :Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQFD
2806 :Architectures: x86 s390 arm arm64
2808 :Parameters: struct kvm_irqfd (in)
2809 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2811 Allows setting an eventfd to directly trigger a guest interrupt.
2812 kvm_irqfd.fd specifies the file descriptor to use as the eventfd and
2813 kvm_irqfd.gsi specifies the irqchip pin toggled by this event. When
2814 an event is triggered on the eventfd, an interrupt is injected into
2815 the guest using the specified gsi pin. The irqfd is removed using
2816 the KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN flag, specifying both kvm_irqfd.fd
2819 With KVM_CAP_IRQFD_RESAMPLE, KVM_IRQFD supports a de-assert and notify
2820 mechanism allowing emulation of level-triggered, irqfd-based
2821 interrupts. When KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_RESAMPLE is set the user must pass an
2822 additional eventfd in the kvm_irqfd.resamplefd field. When operating
2823 in resample mode, posting of an interrupt through kvm_irq.fd asserts
2824 the specified gsi in the irqchip. When the irqchip is resampled, such
2825 as from an EOI, the gsi is de-asserted and the user is notified via
2826 kvm_irqfd.resamplefd. It is the user's responsibility to re-queue
2827 the interrupt if the device making use of it still requires service.
2828 Note that closing the resamplefd is not sufficient to disable the
2829 irqfd. The KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_RESAMPLE is only necessary on assignment
2830 and need not be specified with KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN.
2832 On arm/arm64, gsi routing being supported, the following can happen:
2834 - in case no routing entry is associated to this gsi, injection fails
2835 - in case the gsi is associated to an irqchip routing entry,
2836 irqchip.pin + 32 corresponds to the injected SPI ID.
2837 - in case the gsi is associated to an MSI routing entry, the MSI
2838 message and device ID are translated into an LPI (support restricted
2839 to GICv3 ITS in-kernel emulation).
2841 4.76 KVM_PPC_ALLOCATE_HTAB
2842 --------------------------
2844 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_ALLOC_HTAB
2845 :Architectures: powerpc
2847 :Parameters: Pointer to u32 containing hash table order (in/out)
2848 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2850 This requests the host kernel to allocate an MMU hash table for a
2851 guest using the PAPR paravirtualization interface. This only does
2852 anything if the kernel is configured to use the Book 3S HV style of
2853 virtualization. Otherwise the capability doesn't exist and the ioctl
2854 returns an ENOTTY error. The rest of this description assumes Book 3S
2857 There must be no vcpus running when this ioctl is called; if there
2858 are, it will do nothing and return an EBUSY error.
2860 The parameter is a pointer to a 32-bit unsigned integer variable
2861 containing the order (log base 2) of the desired size of the hash
2862 table, which must be between 18 and 46. On successful return from the
2863 ioctl, the value will not be changed by the kernel.
2865 If no hash table has been allocated when any vcpu is asked to run
2866 (with the KVM_RUN ioctl), the host kernel will allocate a
2867 default-sized hash table (16 MB).
2869 If this ioctl is called when a hash table has already been allocated,
2870 with a different order from the existing hash table, the existing hash
2871 table will be freed and a new one allocated. If this is ioctl is
2872 called when a hash table has already been allocated of the same order
2873 as specified, the kernel will clear out the existing hash table (zero
2874 all HPTEs). In either case, if the guest is using the virtualized
2875 real-mode area (VRMA) facility, the kernel will re-create the VMRA
2876 HPTEs on the next KVM_RUN of any vcpu.
2878 4.77 KVM_S390_INTERRUPT
2879 -----------------------
2882 :Architectures: s390
2883 :Type: vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
2884 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_interrupt (in)
2885 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2887 Allows to inject an interrupt to the guest. Interrupts can be floating
2888 (vm ioctl) or per cpu (vcpu ioctl), depending on the interrupt type.
2890 Interrupt parameters are passed via kvm_s390_interrupt::
2892 struct kvm_s390_interrupt {
2898 type can be one of the following:
2900 KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP (vcpu)
2901 - sigp stop; optional flags in parm
2902 KVM_S390_PROGRAM_INT (vcpu)
2903 - program check; code in parm
2904 KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX (vcpu)
2905 - sigp set prefix; prefix address in parm
2906 KVM_S390_RESTART (vcpu)
2908 KVM_S390_INT_CLOCK_COMP (vcpu)
2909 - clock comparator interrupt
2910 KVM_S390_INT_CPU_TIMER (vcpu)
2911 - CPU timer interrupt
2912 KVM_S390_INT_VIRTIO (vm)
2913 - virtio external interrupt; external interrupt
2914 parameters in parm and parm64
2915 KVM_S390_INT_SERVICE (vm)
2916 - sclp external interrupt; sclp parameter in parm
2917 KVM_S390_INT_EMERGENCY (vcpu)
2918 - sigp emergency; source cpu in parm
2919 KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL (vcpu)
2920 - sigp external call; source cpu in parm
2921 KVM_S390_INT_IO(ai,cssid,ssid,schid) (vm)
2922 - compound value to indicate an
2923 I/O interrupt (ai - adapter interrupt; cssid,ssid,schid - subchannel);
2924 I/O interruption parameters in parm (subchannel) and parm64 (intparm,
2925 interruption subclass)
2926 KVM_S390_MCHK (vm, vcpu)
2927 - machine check interrupt; cr 14 bits in parm, machine check interrupt
2928 code in parm64 (note that machine checks needing further payload are not
2929 supported by this ioctl)
2931 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
2933 4.78 KVM_PPC_GET_HTAB_FD
2934 ------------------------
2936 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_HTAB_FD
2937 :Architectures: powerpc
2939 :Parameters: Pointer to struct kvm_get_htab_fd (in)
2940 :Returns: file descriptor number (>= 0) on success, -1 on error
2942 This returns a file descriptor that can be used either to read out the
2943 entries in the guest's hashed page table (HPT), or to write entries to
2944 initialize the HPT. The returned fd can only be written to if the
2945 KVM_GET_HTAB_WRITE bit is set in the flags field of the argument, and
2946 can only be read if that bit is clear. The argument struct looks like
2949 /* For KVM_PPC_GET_HTAB_FD */
2950 struct kvm_get_htab_fd {
2956 /* Values for kvm_get_htab_fd.flags */
2957 #define KVM_GET_HTAB_BOLTED_ONLY ((__u64)0x1)
2958 #define KVM_GET_HTAB_WRITE ((__u64)0x2)
2960 The 'start_index' field gives the index in the HPT of the entry at
2961 which to start reading. It is ignored when writing.
2963 Reads on the fd will initially supply information about all
2964 "interesting" HPT entries. Interesting entries are those with the
2965 bolted bit set, if the KVM_GET_HTAB_BOLTED_ONLY bit is set, otherwise
2966 all entries. When the end of the HPT is reached, the read() will
2967 return. If read() is called again on the fd, it will start again from
2968 the beginning of the HPT, but will only return HPT entries that have
2969 changed since they were last read.
2971 Data read or written is structured as a header (8 bytes) followed by a
2972 series of valid HPT entries (16 bytes) each. The header indicates how
2973 many valid HPT entries there are and how many invalid entries follow
2974 the valid entries. The invalid entries are not represented explicitly
2975 in the stream. The header format is::
2977 struct kvm_get_htab_header {
2983 Writes to the fd create HPT entries starting at the index given in the
2984 header; first 'n_valid' valid entries with contents from the data
2985 written, then 'n_invalid' invalid entries, invalidating any previously
2986 valid entries found.
2988 4.79 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE
2989 ----------------------
2991 :Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL
2993 :Parameters: struct kvm_create_device (in/out)
2994 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2998 ====== =======================================================
2999 ENODEV The device type is unknown or unsupported
3000 EEXIST Device already created, and this type of device may not
3001 be instantiated multiple times
3002 ====== =======================================================
3004 Other error conditions may be defined by individual device types or
3005 have their standard meanings.
3007 Creates an emulated device in the kernel. The file descriptor returned
3008 in fd can be used with KVM_SET/GET/HAS_DEVICE_ATTR.
3010 If the KVM_CREATE_DEVICE_TEST flag is set, only test whether the
3011 device type is supported (not necessarily whether it can be created
3014 Individual devices should not define flags. Attributes should be used
3015 for specifying any behavior that is not implied by the device type
3020 struct kvm_create_device {
3021 __u32 type; /* in: KVM_DEV_TYPE_xxx */
3022 __u32 fd; /* out: device handle */
3023 __u32 flags; /* in: KVM_CREATE_DEVICE_xxx */
3026 4.80 KVM_SET_DEVICE_ATTR/KVM_GET_DEVICE_ATTR
3027 --------------------------------------------
3029 :Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL, KVM_CAP_VM_ATTRIBUTES for vm device,
3030 KVM_CAP_VCPU_ATTRIBUTES for vcpu device
3031 :Type: device ioctl, vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
3032 :Parameters: struct kvm_device_attr
3033 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3037 ===== =============================================================
3038 ENXIO The group or attribute is unknown/unsupported for this device
3039 or hardware support is missing.
3040 EPERM The attribute cannot (currently) be accessed this way
3041 (e.g. read-only attribute, or attribute that only makes
3042 sense when the device is in a different state)
3043 ===== =============================================================
3045 Other error conditions may be defined by individual device types.
3047 Gets/sets a specified piece of device configuration and/or state. The
3048 semantics are device-specific. See individual device documentation in
3049 the "devices" directory. As with ONE_REG, the size of the data
3050 transferred is defined by the particular attribute.
3054 struct kvm_device_attr {
3055 __u32 flags; /* no flags currently defined */
3056 __u32 group; /* device-defined */
3057 __u64 attr; /* group-defined */
3058 __u64 addr; /* userspace address of attr data */
3061 4.81 KVM_HAS_DEVICE_ATTR
3062 ------------------------
3064 :Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL, KVM_CAP_VM_ATTRIBUTES for vm device,
3065 KVM_CAP_VCPU_ATTRIBUTES for vcpu device
3066 :Type: device ioctl, vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
3067 :Parameters: struct kvm_device_attr
3068 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3072 ===== =============================================================
3073 ENXIO The group or attribute is unknown/unsupported for this device
3074 or hardware support is missing.
3075 ===== =============================================================
3077 Tests whether a device supports a particular attribute. A successful
3078 return indicates the attribute is implemented. It does not necessarily
3079 indicate that the attribute can be read or written in the device's
3080 current state. "addr" is ignored.
3082 4.82 KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT
3083 ----------------------
3086 :Architectures: arm, arm64
3088 :Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_init (in)
3089 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3093 ====== =================================================================
3094 Â EINVAL Â Â Â the target is unknown, or the combination of features is invalid.
3095 Â ENOENT Â Â Â a features bit specified is unknown.
3096 ====== =================================================================
3098 This tells KVM what type of CPU to present to the guest, and what
3099 optional features it should have. Â This will cause a reset of the cpu
3100 registers to their initial values. Â If this is not called, KVM_RUN will
3101 return ENOEXEC for that vcpu.
3103 Note that because some registers reflect machine topology, all vcpus
3104 should be created before this ioctl is invoked.
3106 Userspace can call this function multiple times for a given vcpu, including
3107 after the vcpu has been run. This will reset the vcpu to its initial
3108 state. All calls to this function after the initial call must use the same
3109 target and same set of feature flags, otherwise EINVAL will be returned.
3113 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_POWER_OFF: Starts the CPU in a power-off state.
3114 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PSCI. If not set, the CPU will be powered on
3115 and execute guest code when KVM_RUN is called.
3116 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_EL1_32BIT: Starts the CPU in a 32bit mode.
3117 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_EL1_32BIT (arm64 only).
3118 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PSCI_0_2: Emulate PSCI v0.2 (or a future revision
3119 backward compatible with v0.2) for the CPU.
3120 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PSCI_0_2.
3121 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3: Emulate PMUv3 for the CPU.
3122 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PMU_V3.
3124 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS: Enables Address Pointer authentication
3126 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS.
3127 If KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC are
3128 both present, then both KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and
3129 KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC must be requested or neither must be
3132 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC: Enables Generic Pointer authentication
3134 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC.
3135 If KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC are
3136 both present, then both KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and
3137 KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC must be requested or neither must be
3140 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE: Enables SVE for the CPU (arm64 only).
3141 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_SVE.
3142 Requires KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
3144 * After KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT:
3146 - KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS may be read using KVM_GET_ONE_REG: the
3147 initial value of this pseudo-register indicates the best set of
3148 vector lengths possible for a vcpu on this host.
3150 * Before KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
3152 - KVM_RUN and KVM_GET_REG_LIST are not available;
3154 - KVM_GET_ONE_REG and KVM_SET_ONE_REG cannot be used to access
3155 the scalable archietctural SVE registers
3156 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_ZREG(), KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_PREG() or
3157 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_FFR;
3159 - KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS may optionally be written using
3160 KVM_SET_ONE_REG, to modify the set of vector lengths available
3163 * After KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
3165 - the KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS pseudo-register is immutable, and can
3166 no longer be written using KVM_SET_ONE_REG.
3168 4.83 KVM_ARM_PREFERRED_TARGET
3169 -----------------------------
3172 :Architectures: arm, arm64
3174 :Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_init (out)
3175 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3179 ====== ==========================================
3180 ENODEV no preferred target available for the host
3181 ====== ==========================================
3183 This queries KVM for preferred CPU target type which can be emulated
3184 by KVM on underlying host.
3186 The ioctl returns struct kvm_vcpu_init instance containing information
3187 about preferred CPU target type and recommended features for it. The
3188 kvm_vcpu_init->features bitmap returned will have feature bits set if
3189 the preferred target recommends setting these features, but this is
3192 The information returned by this ioctl can be used to prepare an instance
3193 of struct kvm_vcpu_init for KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT ioctl which will result in
3194 VCPU matching underlying host.
3197 4.84 KVM_GET_REG_LIST
3198 ---------------------
3201 :Architectures: arm, arm64, mips
3203 :Parameters: struct kvm_reg_list (in/out)
3204 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3208 ===== ==============================================================
3209 Â E2BIG Â Â Â Â the reg index list is too big to fit in the array specified by
3210 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the user (the number required will be written into n).
3211 ===== ==============================================================
3215 struct kvm_reg_list {
3216 __u64 n; /* number of registers in reg[] */
3220 This ioctl returns the guest registers that are supported for the
3221 KVM_GET_ONE_REG/KVM_SET_ONE_REG calls.
3224 4.85 KVM_ARM_SET_DEVICE_ADDR (deprecated)
3225 -----------------------------------------
3227 :Capability: KVM_CAP_ARM_SET_DEVICE_ADDR
3228 :Architectures: arm, arm64
3230 :Parameters: struct kvm_arm_device_address (in)
3231 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3235 ====== ============================================
3236 ENODEV The device id is unknown
3237 ENXIO Device not supported on current system
3238 EEXIST Address already set
3239 E2BIG Address outside guest physical address space
3240 EBUSY Address overlaps with other device range
3241 ====== ============================================
3245 struct kvm_arm_device_addr {
3250 Specify a device address in the guest's physical address space where guests
3251 can access emulated or directly exposed devices, which the host kernel needs
3252 to know about. The id field is an architecture specific identifier for a
3255 ARM/arm64 divides the id field into two parts, a device id and an
3256 address type id specific to the individual device::
3258 Â bits: | 63 ... 32 | 31 ... 16 | 15 ... 0 |
3259 field: | 0x00000000 | device id | addr type id |
3261 ARM/arm64 currently only require this when using the in-kernel GIC
3262 support for the hardware VGIC features, using KVM_ARM_DEVICE_VGIC_V2
3263 as the device id. When setting the base address for the guest's
3264 mapping of the VGIC virtual CPU and distributor interface, the ioctl
3265 must be called after calling KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, but before calling
3266 KVM_RUN on any of the VCPUs. Calling this ioctl twice for any of the
3267 base addresses will return -EEXIST.
3269 Note, this IOCTL is deprecated and the more flexible SET/GET_DEVICE_ATTR API
3270 should be used instead.
3273 4.86 KVM_PPC_RTAS_DEFINE_TOKEN
3274 ------------------------------
3276 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RTAS
3279 :Parameters: struct kvm_rtas_token_args
3280 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3282 Defines a token value for a RTAS (Run Time Abstraction Services)
3283 service in order to allow it to be handled in the kernel. The
3284 argument struct gives the name of the service, which must be the name
3285 of a service that has a kernel-side implementation. If the token
3286 value is non-zero, it will be associated with that service, and
3287 subsequent RTAS calls by the guest specifying that token will be
3288 handled by the kernel. If the token value is 0, then any token
3289 associated with the service will be forgotten, and subsequent RTAS
3290 calls by the guest for that service will be passed to userspace to be
3293 4.87 KVM_SET_GUEST_DEBUG
3294 ------------------------
3296 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_GUEST_DEBUG
3297 :Architectures: x86, s390, ppc, arm64
3299 :Parameters: struct kvm_guest_debug (in)
3300 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3304 struct kvm_guest_debug {
3307 struct kvm_guest_debug_arch arch;
3310 Set up the processor specific debug registers and configure vcpu for
3311 handling guest debug events. There are two parts to the structure, the
3312 first a control bitfield indicates the type of debug events to handle
3313 when running. Common control bits are:
3315 - KVM_GUESTDBG_ENABLE: guest debugging is enabled
3316 - KVM_GUESTDBG_SINGLESTEP: the next run should single-step
3318 The top 16 bits of the control field are architecture specific control
3319 flags which can include the following:
3321 - KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_SW_BP: using software breakpoints [x86, arm64]
3322 - KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_HW_BP: using hardware breakpoints [x86, s390, arm64]
3323 - KVM_GUESTDBG_INJECT_DB: inject DB type exception [x86]
3324 - KVM_GUESTDBG_INJECT_BP: inject BP type exception [x86]
3325 - KVM_GUESTDBG_EXIT_PENDING: trigger an immediate guest exit [s390]
3327 For example KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_SW_BP indicates that software breakpoints
3328 are enabled in memory so we need to ensure breakpoint exceptions are
3329 correctly trapped and the KVM run loop exits at the breakpoint and not
3330 running off into the normal guest vector. For KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_HW_BP
3331 we need to ensure the guest vCPUs architecture specific registers are
3332 updated to the correct (supplied) values.
3334 The second part of the structure is architecture specific and
3335 typically contains a set of debug registers.
3337 For arm64 the number of debug registers is implementation defined and
3338 can be determined by querying the KVM_CAP_GUEST_DEBUG_HW_BPS and
3339 KVM_CAP_GUEST_DEBUG_HW_WPS capabilities which return a positive number
3340 indicating the number of supported registers.
3342 For ppc, the KVM_CAP_PPC_GUEST_DEBUG_SSTEP capability indicates whether
3343 the single-step debug event (KVM_GUESTDBG_SINGLESTEP) is supported.
3345 When debug events exit the main run loop with the reason
3346 KVM_EXIT_DEBUG with the kvm_debug_exit_arch part of the kvm_run
3347 structure containing architecture specific debug information.
3349 4.88 KVM_GET_EMULATED_CPUID
3350 ---------------------------
3352 :Capability: KVM_CAP_EXT_EMUL_CPUID
3355 :Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
3356 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3363 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
3366 The member 'flags' is used for passing flags from userspace.
3370 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX BIT(0)
3371 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC BIT(1) /* deprecated */
3372 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT BIT(2) /* deprecated */
3374 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
3385 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features which are emulated by
3386 kvm.Userspace can use the information returned by this ioctl to query
3387 which features are emulated by kvm instead of being present natively.
3389 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_EMULATED_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2
3390 structure with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in
3391 the variable-size array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low
3392 to describe the cpu capabilities, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the
3393 number is too high, the 'nent' field is adjusted and an error (ENOMEM)
3394 is returned. If the number is just right, the 'nent' field is adjusted
3395 to the number of valid entries in the 'entries' array, which is then
3398 The entries returned are the set CPUID bits of the respective features
3399 which kvm emulates, as returned by the CPUID instruction, with unknown
3400 or unsupported feature bits cleared.
3402 Features like x2apic, for example, may not be present in the host cpu
3403 but are exposed by kvm in KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID because they can be
3404 emulated efficiently and thus not included here.
3406 The fields in each entry are defined as follows:
3409 the eax value used to obtain the entry
3411 the ecx value used to obtain the entry (for entries that are
3414 an OR of zero or more of the following:
3416 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX:
3417 if the index field is valid
3421 the values returned by the cpuid instruction for
3422 this function/index combination
3424 4.89 KVM_S390_MEM_OP
3425 --------------------
3427 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_MEM_OP
3428 :Architectures: s390
3430 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_mem_op (in)
3431 :Returns: = 0 on success,
3432 < 0 on generic error (e.g. -EFAULT or -ENOMEM),
3433 > 0 if an exception occurred while walking the page tables
3435 Read or write data from/to the logical (virtual) memory of a VCPU.
3437 Parameters are specified via the following structure::
3439 struct kvm_s390_mem_op {
3440 __u64 gaddr; /* the guest address */
3441 __u64 flags; /* flags */
3442 __u32 size; /* amount of bytes */
3443 __u32 op; /* type of operation */
3444 __u64 buf; /* buffer in userspace */
3445 __u8 ar; /* the access register number */
3446 __u8 reserved[31]; /* should be set to 0 */
3449 The type of operation is specified in the "op" field. It is either
3450 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_READ for reading from logical memory space or
3451 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_WRITE for writing to logical memory space. The
3452 KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_CHECK_ONLY flag can be set in the "flags" field to check
3453 whether the corresponding memory access would create an access exception
3454 (without touching the data in the memory at the destination). In case an
3455 access exception occurred while walking the MMU tables of the guest, the
3456 ioctl returns a positive error number to indicate the type of exception.
3457 This exception is also raised directly at the corresponding VCPU if the
3458 flag KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_INJECT_EXCEPTION is set in the "flags" field.
3460 The start address of the memory region has to be specified in the "gaddr"
3461 field, and the length of the region in the "size" field (which must not
3462 be 0). The maximum value for "size" can be obtained by checking the
3463 KVM_CAP_S390_MEM_OP capability. "buf" is the buffer supplied by the
3464 userspace application where the read data should be written to for
3465 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_READ, or where the data that should be written is
3466 stored for a KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_WRITE. When KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_CHECK_ONLY
3467 is specified, "buf" is unused and can be NULL. "ar" designates the access
3468 register number to be used; the valid range is 0..15.
3470 The "reserved" field is meant for future extensions. It is not used by
3471 KVM with the currently defined set of flags.
3473 4.90 KVM_S390_GET_SKEYS
3474 -----------------------
3476 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_SKEYS
3477 :Architectures: s390
3479 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_skeys
3480 :Returns: 0 on success, KVM_S390_GET_KEYS_NONE if guest is not using storage
3481 keys, negative value on error
3483 This ioctl is used to get guest storage key values on the s390
3484 architecture. The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_skeys struct::
3486 struct kvm_s390_skeys {
3489 __u64 skeydata_addr;
3494 The start_gfn field is the number of the first guest frame whose storage keys
3497 The count field is the number of consecutive frames (starting from start_gfn)
3498 whose storage keys to get. The count field must be at least 1 and the maximum
3499 allowed value is defined as KVM_S390_SKEYS_ALLOC_MAX. Values outside this range
3500 will cause the ioctl to return -EINVAL.
3502 The skeydata_addr field is the address to a buffer large enough to hold count
3503 bytes. This buffer will be filled with storage key data by the ioctl.
3505 4.91 KVM_S390_SET_SKEYS
3506 -----------------------
3508 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_SKEYS
3509 :Architectures: s390
3511 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_skeys
3512 :Returns: 0 on success, negative value on error
3514 This ioctl is used to set guest storage key values on the s390
3515 architecture. The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_skeys struct.
3516 See section on KVM_S390_GET_SKEYS for struct definition.
3518 The start_gfn field is the number of the first guest frame whose storage keys
3521 The count field is the number of consecutive frames (starting from start_gfn)
3522 whose storage keys to get. The count field must be at least 1 and the maximum
3523 allowed value is defined as KVM_S390_SKEYS_ALLOC_MAX. Values outside this range
3524 will cause the ioctl to return -EINVAL.
3526 The skeydata_addr field is the address to a buffer containing count bytes of
3527 storage keys. Each byte in the buffer will be set as the storage key for a
3528 single frame starting at start_gfn for count frames.
3530 Note: If any architecturally invalid key value is found in the given data then
3531 the ioctl will return -EINVAL.
3536 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_INJECT_IRQ
3537 :Architectures: s390
3539 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq (in)
3540 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3545 ====== =================================================================
3546 EINVAL interrupt type is invalid
3547 type is KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP and flag parameter is invalid value,
3548 type is KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL and code is bigger
3549 than the maximum of VCPUs
3550 EBUSY type is KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX and vcpu is not stopped,
3551 type is KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP and a stop irq is already pending,
3552 type is KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL and an external call interrupt
3554 ====== =================================================================
3556 Allows to inject an interrupt to the guest.
3558 Using struct kvm_s390_irq as a parameter allows
3559 to inject additional payload which is not
3560 possible via KVM_S390_INTERRUPT.
3562 Interrupt parameters are passed via kvm_s390_irq::
3564 struct kvm_s390_irq {
3567 struct kvm_s390_io_info io;
3568 struct kvm_s390_ext_info ext;
3569 struct kvm_s390_pgm_info pgm;
3570 struct kvm_s390_emerg_info emerg;
3571 struct kvm_s390_extcall_info extcall;
3572 struct kvm_s390_prefix_info prefix;
3573 struct kvm_s390_stop_info stop;
3574 struct kvm_s390_mchk_info mchk;
3579 type can be one of the following:
3581 - KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP - sigp stop; parameter in .stop
3582 - KVM_S390_PROGRAM_INT - program check; parameters in .pgm
3583 - KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX - sigp set prefix; parameters in .prefix
3584 - KVM_S390_RESTART - restart; no parameters
3585 - KVM_S390_INT_CLOCK_COMP - clock comparator interrupt; no parameters
3586 - KVM_S390_INT_CPU_TIMER - CPU timer interrupt; no parameters
3587 - KVM_S390_INT_EMERGENCY - sigp emergency; parameters in .emerg
3588 - KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL - sigp external call; parameters in .extcall
3589 - KVM_S390_MCHK - machine check interrupt; parameters in .mchk
3591 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
3593 4.94 KVM_S390_GET_IRQ_STATE
3594 ---------------------------
3596 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_IRQ_STATE
3597 :Architectures: s390
3599 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq_state (out)
3600 :Returns: >= number of bytes copied into buffer,
3601 -EINVAL if buffer size is 0,
3602 -ENOBUFS if buffer size is too small to fit all pending interrupts,
3603 -EFAULT if the buffer address was invalid
3605 This ioctl allows userspace to retrieve the complete state of all currently
3606 pending interrupts in a single buffer. Use cases include migration
3607 and introspection. The parameter structure contains the address of a
3608 userspace buffer and its length::
3610 struct kvm_s390_irq_state {
3612 __u32 flags; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3614 __u32 reserved[4]; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3617 Userspace passes in the above struct and for each pending interrupt a
3618 struct kvm_s390_irq is copied to the provided buffer.
3620 The structure contains a flags and a reserved field for future extensions. As
3621 the kernel never checked for flags == 0 and QEMU never pre-zeroed flags and
3622 reserved, these fields can not be used in the future without breaking
3625 If -ENOBUFS is returned the buffer provided was too small and userspace
3626 may retry with a bigger buffer.
3628 4.95 KVM_S390_SET_IRQ_STATE
3629 ---------------------------
3631 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_IRQ_STATE
3632 :Architectures: s390
3634 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq_state (in)
3635 :Returns: 0 on success,
3636 -EFAULT if the buffer address was invalid,
3637 -EINVAL for an invalid buffer length (see below),
3638 -EBUSY if there were already interrupts pending,
3639 errors occurring when actually injecting the
3640 interrupt. See KVM_S390_IRQ.
3642 This ioctl allows userspace to set the complete state of all cpu-local
3643 interrupts currently pending for the vcpu. It is intended for restoring
3644 interrupt state after a migration. The input parameter is a userspace buffer
3645 containing a struct kvm_s390_irq_state::
3647 struct kvm_s390_irq_state {
3649 __u32 flags; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3651 __u32 reserved[4]; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3654 The restrictions for flags and reserved apply as well.
3655 (see KVM_S390_GET_IRQ_STATE)
3657 The userspace memory referenced by buf contains a struct kvm_s390_irq
3658 for each interrupt to be injected into the guest.
3659 If one of the interrupts could not be injected for some reason the
3662 len must be a multiple of sizeof(struct kvm_s390_irq). It must be > 0
3663 and it must not exceed (max_vcpus + 32) * sizeof(struct kvm_s390_irq),
3664 which is the maximum number of possibly pending cpu-local interrupts.
3669 :Capability: KVM_CAP_X86_SMM
3673 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3675 Queues an SMI on the thread's vcpu.
3677 4.97 KVM_CAP_PPC_MULTITCE
3678 -------------------------
3680 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_MULTITCE
3684 This capability means the kernel is capable of handling hypercalls
3685 H_PUT_TCE_INDIRECT and H_STUFF_TCE without passing those into the user
3686 space. This significantly accelerates DMA operations for PPC KVM guests.
3687 User space should expect that its handlers for these hypercalls
3688 are not going to be called if user space previously registered LIOBN
3689 in KVM (via KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE or similar calls).
3691 In order to enable H_PUT_TCE_INDIRECT and H_STUFF_TCE use in the guest,
3692 user space might have to advertise it for the guest. For example,
3693 IBM pSeries (sPAPR) guest starts using them if "hcall-multi-tce" is
3694 present in the "ibm,hypertas-functions" device-tree property.
3696 The hypercalls mentioned above may or may not be processed successfully
3697 in the kernel based fast path. If they can not be handled by the kernel,
3698 they will get passed on to user space. So user space still has to have
3699 an implementation for these despite the in kernel acceleration.
3701 This capability is always enabled.
3703 4.98 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE_64
3704 ----------------------------
3706 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE_64
3707 :Architectures: powerpc
3709 :Parameters: struct kvm_create_spapr_tce_64 (in)
3710 :Returns: file descriptor for manipulating the created TCE table
3712 This is an extension for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE which only supports 32bit
3713 windows, described in 4.62 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE
3715 This capability uses extended struct in ioctl interface::
3717 /* for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE_64 */
3718 struct kvm_create_spapr_tce_64 {
3722 __u64 offset; /* in pages */
3723 __u64 size; /* in pages */
3726 The aim of extension is to support an additional bigger DMA window with
3727 a variable page size.
3728 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE_64 receives a 64bit window size, an IOMMU page shift and
3729 a bus offset of the corresponding DMA window, @size and @offset are numbers
3732 @flags are not used at the moment.
3734 The rest of functionality is identical to KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE.
3736 4.99 KVM_REINJECT_CONTROL
3737 -------------------------
3739 :Capability: KVM_CAP_REINJECT_CONTROL
3742 :Parameters: struct kvm_reinject_control (in)
3743 :Returns: 0 on success,
3744 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3745 -ENXIO if KVM_CREATE_PIT or KVM_CREATE_PIT2 didn't succeed earlier.
3747 i8254 (PIT) has two modes, reinject and !reinject. The default is reinject,
3748 where KVM queues elapsed i8254 ticks and monitors completion of interrupt from
3749 vector(s) that i8254 injects. Reinject mode dequeues a tick and injects its
3750 interrupt whenever there isn't a pending interrupt from i8254.
3751 !reinject mode injects an interrupt as soon as a tick arrives.
3755 struct kvm_reinject_control {
3760 pit_reinject = 0 (!reinject mode) is recommended, unless running an old
3761 operating system that uses the PIT for timing (e.g. Linux 2.4.x).
3763 4.100 KVM_PPC_CONFIGURE_V3_MMU
3764 ------------------------------
3766 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU or KVM_CAP_PPC_HASH_MMU_V3
3769 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg (in)
3770 :Returns: 0 on success,
3771 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg cannot be read,
3772 -EINVAL if the configuration is invalid
3774 This ioctl controls whether the guest will use radix or HPT (hashed
3775 page table) translation, and sets the pointer to the process table for
3780 struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg {
3782 __u64 process_table;
3785 There are two bits that can be set in flags; KVM_PPC_MMUV3_RADIX and
3786 KVM_PPC_MMUV3_GTSE. KVM_PPC_MMUV3_RADIX, if set, configures the guest
3787 to use radix tree translation, and if clear, to use HPT translation.
3788 KVM_PPC_MMUV3_GTSE, if set and if KVM permits it, configures the guest
3789 to be able to use the global TLB and SLB invalidation instructions;
3790 if clear, the guest may not use these instructions.
3792 The process_table field specifies the address and size of the guest
3793 process table, which is in the guest's space. This field is formatted
3794 as the second doubleword of the partition table entry, as defined in
3795 the Power ISA V3.00, Book III section 5.7.6.1.
3797 4.101 KVM_PPC_GET_RMMU_INFO
3798 ---------------------------
3800 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU
3803 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info (out)
3804 :Returns: 0 on success,
3805 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info cannot be written,
3806 -EINVAL if no useful information can be returned
3808 This ioctl returns a structure containing two things: (a) a list
3809 containing supported radix tree geometries, and (b) a list that maps
3810 page sizes to put in the "AP" (actual page size) field for the tlbie
3811 (TLB invalidate entry) instruction.
3815 struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info {
3816 struct kvm_ppc_radix_geom {
3821 __u32 ap_encodings[8];
3824 The geometries[] field gives up to 8 supported geometries for the
3825 radix page table, in terms of the log base 2 of the smallest page
3826 size, and the number of bits indexed at each level of the tree, from
3827 the PTE level up to the PGD level in that order. Any unused entries
3828 will have 0 in the page_shift field.
3830 The ap_encodings gives the supported page sizes and their AP field
3831 encodings, encoded with the AP value in the top 3 bits and the log
3832 base 2 of the page size in the bottom 6 bits.
3834 4.102 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE
3835 --------------------------------
3837 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_RESIZE_HPT
3838 :Architectures: powerpc
3840 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt (in)
3841 :Returns: 0 on successful completion,
3842 >0 if a new HPT is being prepared, the value is an estimated
3843 number of milliseconds until preparation is complete,
3844 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3845 -EINVAL if the supplied shift or flags are invalid,
3846 -ENOMEM if unable to allocate the new HPT,
3847 -ENOSPC if there was a hash collision
3851 struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info {
3852 struct kvm_ppc_radix_geom {
3857 __u32 ap_encodings[8];
3860 The geometries[] field gives up to 8 supported geometries for the
3861 radix page table, in terms of the log base 2 of the smallest page
3862 size, and the number of bits indexed at each level of the tree, from
3863 the PTE level up to the PGD level in that order. Any unused entries
3864 will have 0 in the page_shift field.
3866 The ap_encodings gives the supported page sizes and their AP field
3867 encodings, encoded with the AP value in the top 3 bits and the log
3868 base 2 of the page size in the bottom 6 bits.
3870 4.102 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE
3871 --------------------------------
3873 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_RESIZE_HPT
3874 :Architectures: powerpc
3876 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt (in)
3877 :Returns: 0 on successful completion,
3878 >0 if a new HPT is being prepared, the value is an estimated
3879 number of milliseconds until preparation is complete,
3880 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3881 -EINVAL if the supplied shift or flags are invalid,when moving existing
3882 HPT entries to the new HPT,
3883 -EIO on other error conditions
3885 Used to implement the PAPR extension for runtime resizing of a guest's
3886 Hashed Page Table (HPT). Specifically this starts, stops or monitors
3887 the preparation of a new potential HPT for the guest, essentially
3888 implementing the H_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE hypercall.
3890 If called with shift > 0 when there is no pending HPT for the guest,
3891 this begins preparation of a new pending HPT of size 2^(shift) bytes.
3892 It then returns a positive integer with the estimated number of
3893 milliseconds until preparation is complete.
3895 If called when there is a pending HPT whose size does not match that
3896 requested in the parameters, discards the existing pending HPT and
3897 creates a new one as above.
3899 If called when there is a pending HPT of the size requested, will:
3901 * If preparation of the pending HPT is already complete, return 0
3902 * If preparation of the pending HPT has failed, return an error
3903 code, then discard the pending HPT.
3904 * If preparation of the pending HPT is still in progress, return an
3905 estimated number of milliseconds until preparation is complete.
3907 If called with shift == 0, discards any currently pending HPT and
3908 returns 0 (i.e. cancels any in-progress preparation).
3910 flags is reserved for future expansion, currently setting any bits in
3911 flags will result in an -EINVAL.
3913 Normally this will be called repeatedly with the same parameters until
3914 it returns <= 0. The first call will initiate preparation, subsequent
3915 ones will monitor preparation until it completes or fails.
3919 struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt {
3925 4.103 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT
3926 -------------------------------
3928 :Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_RESIZE_HPT
3929 :Architectures: powerpc
3931 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt (in)
3932 :Returns: 0 on successful completion,
3933 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3934 -EINVAL if the supplied shift or flags are invalid,
3935 -ENXIO is there is no pending HPT, or the pending HPT doesn't
3936 have the requested size,
3937 -EBUSY if the pending HPT is not fully prepared,
3938 -ENOSPC if there was a hash collision when moving existing
3939 HPT entries to the new HPT,
3940 -EIO on other error conditions
3942 Used to implement the PAPR extension for runtime resizing of a guest's
3943 Hashed Page Table (HPT). Specifically this requests that the guest be
3944 transferred to working with the new HPT, essentially implementing the
3945 H_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT hypercall.
3947 This should only be called after KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE has
3948 returned 0 with the same parameters. In other cases
3949 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT will return an error (usually -ENXIO or
3950 -EBUSY, though others may be possible if the preparation was started,
3953 This will have undefined effects on the guest if it has not already
3954 placed itself in a quiescent state where no vcpu will make MMU enabled
3957 On succsful completion, the pending HPT will become the guest's active
3958 HPT and the previous HPT will be discarded.
3960 On failure, the guest will still be operating on its previous HPT.
3964 struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt {
3970 4.104 KVM_X86_GET_MCE_CAP_SUPPORTED
3971 -----------------------------------
3973 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
3976 :Parameters: u64 mce_cap (out)
3977 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3979 Returns supported MCE capabilities. The u64 mce_cap parameter
3980 has the same format as the MSR_IA32_MCG_CAP register. Supported
3981 capabilities will have the corresponding bits set.
3983 4.105 KVM_X86_SETUP_MCE
3984 -----------------------
3986 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
3989 :Parameters: u64 mcg_cap (in)
3990 :Returns: 0 on success,
3991 -EFAULT if u64 mcg_cap cannot be read,
3992 -EINVAL if the requested number of banks is invalid,
3993 -EINVAL if requested MCE capability is not supported.
3995 Initializes MCE support for use. The u64 mcg_cap parameter
3996 has the same format as the MSR_IA32_MCG_CAP register and
3997 specifies which capabilities should be enabled. The maximum
3998 supported number of error-reporting banks can be retrieved when
3999 checking for KVM_CAP_MCE. The supported capabilities can be
4000 retrieved with KVM_X86_GET_MCE_CAP_SUPPORTED.
4002 4.106 KVM_X86_SET_MCE
4003 ---------------------
4005 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
4008 :Parameters: struct kvm_x86_mce (in)
4009 :Returns: 0 on success,
4010 -EFAULT if struct kvm_x86_mce cannot be read,
4011 -EINVAL if the bank number is invalid,
4012 -EINVAL if VAL bit is not set in status field.
4014 Inject a machine check error (MCE) into the guest. The input
4017 struct kvm_x86_mce {
4027 If the MCE being reported is an uncorrected error, KVM will
4028 inject it as an MCE exception into the guest. If the guest
4029 MCG_STATUS register reports that an MCE is in progress, KVM
4030 causes an KVM_EXIT_SHUTDOWN vmexit.
4032 Otherwise, if the MCE is a corrected error, KVM will just
4033 store it in the corresponding bank (provided this bank is
4034 not holding a previously reported uncorrected error).
4036 4.107 KVM_S390_GET_CMMA_BITS
4037 ----------------------------
4039 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_CMMA_MIGRATION
4040 :Architectures: s390
4042 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_cmma_log (in, out)
4043 :Returns: 0 on success, a negative value on error
4045 This ioctl is used to get the values of the CMMA bits on the s390
4046 architecture. It is meant to be used in two scenarios:
4048 - During live migration to save the CMMA values. Live migration needs
4049 to be enabled via the KVM_REQ_START_MIGRATION VM property.
4050 - To non-destructively peek at the CMMA values, with the flag
4051 KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK set.
4053 The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_cmma_log struct. The desired
4054 values are written to a buffer whose location is indicated via the "values"
4055 member in the kvm_s390_cmma_log struct. The values in the input struct are
4056 also updated as needed.
4058 Each CMMA value takes up one byte.
4062 struct kvm_s390_cmma_log {
4073 start_gfn is the number of the first guest frame whose CMMA values are
4076 count is the length of the buffer in bytes,
4078 values points to the buffer where the result will be written to.
4080 If count is greater than KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX, then it is considered to be
4081 KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX. KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX is re-used for consistency with
4084 The result is written in the buffer pointed to by the field values, and
4085 the values of the input parameter are updated as follows.
4087 Depending on the flags, different actions are performed. The only
4088 supported flag so far is KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK.
4090 The default behaviour if KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is not set is:
4091 start_gfn will indicate the first page frame whose CMMA bits were dirty.
4092 It is not necessarily the same as the one passed as input, as clean pages
4095 count will indicate the number of bytes actually written in the buffer.
4096 It can (and very often will) be smaller than the input value, since the
4097 buffer is only filled until 16 bytes of clean values are found (which
4098 are then not copied in the buffer). Since a CMMA migration block needs
4099 the base address and the length, for a total of 16 bytes, we will send
4100 back some clean data if there is some dirty data afterwards, as long as
4101 the size of the clean data does not exceed the size of the header. This
4102 allows to minimize the amount of data to be saved or transferred over
4103 the network at the expense of more roundtrips to userspace. The next
4104 invocation of the ioctl will skip over all the clean values, saving
4105 potentially more than just the 16 bytes we found.
4107 If KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is set:
4108 the existing storage attributes are read even when not in migration
4109 mode, and no other action is performed;
4111 the output start_gfn will be equal to the input start_gfn,
4113 the output count will be equal to the input count, except if the end of
4114 memory has been reached.
4117 the field "remaining" will indicate the total number of dirty CMMA values
4118 still remaining, or 0 if KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is set and migration mode is
4123 values points to the userspace buffer where the result will be stored.
4125 This ioctl can fail with -ENOMEM if not enough memory can be allocated to
4126 complete the task, with -ENXIO if CMMA is not enabled, with -EINVAL if
4127 KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is not set but migration mode was not enabled, with
4128 -EFAULT if the userspace address is invalid or if no page table is
4129 present for the addresses (e.g. when using hugepages).
4131 4.108 KVM_S390_SET_CMMA_BITS
4132 ----------------------------
4134 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_CMMA_MIGRATION
4135 :Architectures: s390
4137 :Parameters: struct kvm_s390_cmma_log (in)
4138 :Returns: 0 on success, a negative value on error
4140 This ioctl is used to set the values of the CMMA bits on the s390
4141 architecture. It is meant to be used during live migration to restore
4142 the CMMA values, but there are no restrictions on its use.
4143 The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_cmma_values struct.
4144 Each CMMA value takes up one byte.
4148 struct kvm_s390_cmma_log {
4159 start_gfn indicates the starting guest frame number,
4161 count indicates how many values are to be considered in the buffer,
4163 flags is not used and must be 0.
4165 mask indicates which PGSTE bits are to be considered.
4167 remaining is not used.
4169 values points to the buffer in userspace where to store the values.
4171 This ioctl can fail with -ENOMEM if not enough memory can be allocated to
4172 complete the task, with -ENXIO if CMMA is not enabled, with -EINVAL if
4173 the count field is too large (e.g. more than KVM_S390_CMMA_SIZE_MAX) or
4174 if the flags field was not 0, with -EFAULT if the userspace address is
4175 invalid, if invalid pages are written to (e.g. after the end of memory)
4176 or if no page table is present for the addresses (e.g. when using
4179 4.109 KVM_PPC_GET_CPU_CHAR
4180 --------------------------
4182 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_CPU_CHAR
4183 :Architectures: powerpc
4185 :Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char (out)
4186 :Returns: 0 on successful completion,
4187 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char cannot be written
4189 This ioctl gives userspace information about certain characteristics
4190 of the CPU relating to speculative execution of instructions and
4191 possible information leakage resulting from speculative execution (see
4192 CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5754). The information is
4193 returned in struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char, which looks like this::
4195 struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char {
4196 __u64 character; /* characteristics of the CPU */
4197 __u64 behaviour; /* recommended software behaviour */
4198 __u64 character_mask; /* valid bits in character */
4199 __u64 behaviour_mask; /* valid bits in behaviour */
4202 For extensibility, the character_mask and behaviour_mask fields
4203 indicate which bits of character and behaviour have been filled in by
4204 the kernel. If the set of defined bits is extended in future then
4205 userspace will be able to tell whether it is running on a kernel that
4206 knows about the new bits.
4208 The character field describes attributes of the CPU which can help
4209 with preventing inadvertent information disclosure - specifically,
4210 whether there is an instruction to flash-invalidate the L1 data cache
4211 (ori 30,30,0 or mtspr SPRN_TRIG2,rN), whether the L1 data cache is set
4212 to a mode where entries can only be used by the thread that created
4213 them, whether the bcctr[l] instruction prevents speculation, and
4214 whether a speculation barrier instruction (ori 31,31,0) is provided.
4216 The behaviour field describes actions that software should take to
4217 prevent inadvertent information disclosure, and thus describes which
4218 vulnerabilities the hardware is subject to; specifically whether the
4219 L1 data cache should be flushed when returning to user mode from the
4220 kernel, and whether a speculation barrier should be placed between an
4221 array bounds check and the array access.
4223 These fields use the same bit definitions as the new
4224 H_GET_CPU_CHARACTERISTICS hypercall.
4226 4.110 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_OP
4227 ---------------------------
4232 :Parameters: an opaque platform specific structure (in/out)
4233 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4235 If the platform supports creating encrypted VMs then this ioctl can be used
4236 for issuing platform-specific memory encryption commands to manage those
4239 Currently, this ioctl is used for issuing Secure Encrypted Virtualization
4240 (SEV) commands on AMD Processors. The SEV commands are defined in
4241 Documentation/virt/kvm/amd-memory-encryption.rst.
4243 4.111 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_REG_REGION
4244 -----------------------------------
4249 :Parameters: struct kvm_enc_region (in)
4250 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4252 This ioctl can be used to register a guest memory region which may
4253 contain encrypted data (e.g. guest RAM, SMRAM etc).
4255 It is used in the SEV-enabled guest. When encryption is enabled, a guest
4256 memory region may contain encrypted data. The SEV memory encryption
4257 engine uses a tweak such that two identical plaintext pages, each at
4258 different locations will have differing ciphertexts. So swapping or
4259 moving ciphertext of those pages will not result in plaintext being
4260 swapped. So relocating (or migrating) physical backing pages for the SEV
4261 guest will require some additional steps.
4263 Note: The current SEV key management spec does not provide commands to
4264 swap or migrate (move) ciphertext pages. Hence, for now we pin the guest
4265 memory region registered with the ioctl.
4267 4.112 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_UNREG_REGION
4268 -------------------------------------
4273 :Parameters: struct kvm_enc_region (in)
4274 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4276 This ioctl can be used to unregister the guest memory region registered
4277 with KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_REG_REGION ioctl above.
4279 4.113 KVM_HYPERV_EVENTFD
4280 ------------------------
4282 :Capability: KVM_CAP_HYPERV_EVENTFD
4285 :Parameters: struct kvm_hyperv_eventfd (in)
4287 This ioctl (un)registers an eventfd to receive notifications from the guest on
4288 the specified Hyper-V connection id through the SIGNAL_EVENT hypercall, without
4289 causing a user exit. SIGNAL_EVENT hypercall with non-zero event flag number
4290 (bits 24-31) still triggers a KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_HCALL user exit.
4294 struct kvm_hyperv_eventfd {
4301 The conn_id field should fit within 24 bits::
4303 #define KVM_HYPERV_CONN_ID_MASK 0x00ffffff
4305 The acceptable values for the flags field are::
4307 #define KVM_HYPERV_EVENTFD_DEASSIGN (1 << 0)
4309 :Returns: 0 on success,
4310 -EINVAL if conn_id or flags is outside the allowed range,
4311 -ENOENT on deassign if the conn_id isn't registered,
4312 -EEXIST on assign if the conn_id is already registered
4314 4.114 KVM_GET_NESTED_STATE
4315 --------------------------
4317 :Capability: KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
4320 :Parameters: struct kvm_nested_state (in/out)
4321 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4325 ===== =============================================================
4326 E2BIG the total state size exceeds the value of 'size' specified by
4327 the user; the size required will be written into size.
4328 ===== =============================================================
4332 struct kvm_nested_state {
4338 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_hdr vmx;
4339 struct kvm_svm_nested_state_hdr svm;
4341 /* Pad the header to 128 bytes. */
4346 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_data vmx[0];
4347 struct kvm_svm_nested_state_data svm[0];
4351 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_GUEST_MODE 0x00000001
4352 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_RUN_PENDING 0x00000002
4353 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_EVMCS 0x00000004
4355 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_FORMAT_VMX 0
4356 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_FORMAT_SVM 1
4358 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE 0x1000
4360 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_SMM_GUEST_MODE 0x00000001
4361 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_SMM_VMXON 0x00000002
4363 #define KVM_STATE_VMX_PREEMPTION_TIMER_DEADLINE 0x00000001
4365 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_hdr {
4374 __u64 preemption_timer_deadline;
4377 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_data {
4378 __u8 vmcs12[KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE];
4379 __u8 shadow_vmcs12[KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE];
4382 This ioctl copies the vcpu's nested virtualization state from the kernel to
4385 The maximum size of the state can be retrieved by passing KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
4386 to the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl().
4388 4.115 KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE
4389 --------------------------
4391 :Capability: KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
4394 :Parameters: struct kvm_nested_state (in)
4395 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4397 This copies the vcpu's kvm_nested_state struct from userspace to the kernel.
4398 For the definition of struct kvm_nested_state, see KVM_GET_NESTED_STATE.
4400 4.116 KVM_(UN)REGISTER_COALESCED_MMIO
4401 -------------------------------------
4403 :Capability: KVM_CAP_COALESCED_MMIO (for coalesced mmio)
4404 KVM_CAP_COALESCED_PIO (for coalesced pio)
4407 :Parameters: struct kvm_coalesced_mmio_zone
4408 :Returns: 0 on success, < 0 on error
4410 Coalesced I/O is a performance optimization that defers hardware
4411 register write emulation so that userspace exits are avoided. It is
4412 typically used to reduce the overhead of emulating frequently accessed
4415 When a hardware register is configured for coalesced I/O, write accesses
4416 do not exit to userspace and their value is recorded in a ring buffer
4417 that is shared between kernel and userspace.
4419 Coalesced I/O is used if one or more write accesses to a hardware
4420 register can be deferred until a read or a write to another hardware
4421 register on the same device. This last access will cause a vmexit and
4422 userspace will process accesses from the ring buffer before emulating
4423 it. That will avoid exiting to userspace on repeated writes.
4425 Coalesced pio is based on coalesced mmio. There is little difference
4426 between coalesced mmio and pio except that coalesced pio records accesses
4429 4.117 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG (vm ioctl)
4430 ------------------------------------
4432 :Capability: KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
4433 :Architectures: x86, arm, arm64, mips
4435 :Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_log (in)
4436 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4440 /* for KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG */
4441 struct kvm_clear_dirty_log {
4446 void __user *dirty_bitmap; /* one bit per page */
4451 The ioctl clears the dirty status of pages in a memory slot, according to
4452 the bitmap that is passed in struct kvm_clear_dirty_log's dirty_bitmap
4453 field. Bit 0 of the bitmap corresponds to page "first_page" in the
4454 memory slot, and num_pages is the size in bits of the input bitmap.
4455 first_page must be a multiple of 64; num_pages must also be a multiple of
4456 64 unless first_page + num_pages is the size of the memory slot. For each
4457 bit that is set in the input bitmap, the corresponding page is marked "clean"
4458 in KVM's dirty bitmap, and dirty tracking is re-enabled for that page
4459 (for example via write-protection, or by clearing the dirty bit in
4460 a page table entry).
4462 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 specifies
4463 the address space for which you want to return the dirty bitmap.
4464 They must be less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for
4465 the KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability.
4467 This ioctl is mostly useful when KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
4468 is enabled; for more information, see the description of the capability.
4469 However, it can always be used as long as KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION confirms
4470 that KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 is present.
4472 4.118 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_HV_CPUID
4473 --------------------------------
4475 :Capability: KVM_CAP_HYPERV_CPUID (vcpu), KVM_CAP_SYS_HYPERV_CPUID (system)
4477 :Type: system ioctl, vcpu ioctl
4478 :Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
4479 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4486 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
4489 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
4500 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features leaves related to Hyper-V emulation in
4501 KVM. Userspace can use the information returned by this ioctl to construct
4502 cpuid information presented to guests consuming Hyper-V enlightenments (e.g.
4503 Windows or Hyper-V guests).
4505 CPUID feature leaves returned by this ioctl are defined by Hyper-V Top Level
4506 Functional Specification (TLFS). These leaves can't be obtained with
4507 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID ioctl because some of them intersect with KVM feature
4508 leaves (0x40000000, 0x40000001).
4510 Currently, the following list of CPUID leaves are returned:
4511 - HYPERV_CPUID_VENDOR_AND_MAX_FUNCTIONS
4512 - HYPERV_CPUID_INTERFACE
4513 - HYPERV_CPUID_VERSION
4514 - HYPERV_CPUID_FEATURES
4515 - HYPERV_CPUID_ENLIGHTMENT_INFO
4516 - HYPERV_CPUID_IMPLEMENT_LIMITS
4517 - HYPERV_CPUID_NESTED_FEATURES
4518 - HYPERV_CPUID_SYNDBG_VENDOR_AND_MAX_FUNCTIONS
4519 - HYPERV_CPUID_SYNDBG_INTERFACE
4520 - HYPERV_CPUID_SYNDBG_PLATFORM_CAPABILITIES
4522 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_HV_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2 structure
4523 with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in the variable-size
4524 array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low to describe all Hyper-V
4525 feature leaves, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the number is more or equal
4526 to the number of Hyper-V feature leaves, the 'nent' field is adjusted to the
4527 number of valid entries in the 'entries' array, which is then filled.
4529 'index' and 'flags' fields in 'struct kvm_cpuid_entry2' are currently reserved,
4530 userspace should not expect to get any particular value there.
4532 Note, vcpu version of KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_HV_CPUID is currently deprecated. Unlike
4533 system ioctl which exposes all supported feature bits unconditionally, vcpu
4534 version has the following quirks:
4535 - HYPERV_CPUID_NESTED_FEATURES leaf and HV_X64_ENLIGHTENED_VMCS_RECOMMENDED
4536 feature bit are only exposed when Enlightened VMCS was previously enabled
4537 on the corresponding vCPU (KVM_CAP_HYPERV_ENLIGHTENED_VMCS).
4538 - HV_STIMER_DIRECT_MODE_AVAILABLE bit is only exposed with in-kernel LAPIC.
4539 (presumes KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP has already been called).
4541 4.119 KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE
4542 ---------------------------
4544 :Architectures: arm, arm64
4546 :Parameters: int feature (in)
4547 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4551 ====== ==============================================================
4552 EPERM feature not enabled, needs configuration, or already finalized
4553 EINVAL feature unknown or not present
4554 ====== ==============================================================
4556 Recognised values for feature:
4558 ===== ===========================================
4559 arm64 KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE (requires KVM_CAP_ARM_SVE)
4560 ===== ===========================================
4562 Finalizes the configuration of the specified vcpu feature.
4564 The vcpu must already have been initialised, enabling the affected feature, by
4565 means of a successful KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT call with the appropriate flag set in
4568 For affected vcpu features, this is a mandatory step that must be performed
4569 before the vcpu is fully usable.
4571 Between KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT and KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE, the feature may be
4572 configured by use of ioctls such as KVM_SET_ONE_REG. The exact configuration
4573 that should be performaned and how to do it are feature-dependent.
4575 Other calls that depend on a particular feature being finalized, such as
4576 KVM_RUN, KVM_GET_REG_LIST, KVM_GET_ONE_REG and KVM_SET_ONE_REG, will fail with
4577 -EPERM unless the feature has already been finalized by means of a
4578 KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE call.
4580 See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT for details of vcpu features that require finalization
4583 4.120 KVM_SET_PMU_EVENT_FILTER
4584 ------------------------------
4586 :Capability: KVM_CAP_PMU_EVENT_FILTER
4589 :Parameters: struct kvm_pmu_event_filter (in)
4590 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4594 struct kvm_pmu_event_filter {
4597 __u32 fixed_counter_bitmap;
4603 This ioctl restricts the set of PMU events that the guest can program.
4604 The argument holds a list of events which will be allowed or denied.
4605 The eventsel+umask of each event the guest attempts to program is compared
4606 against the events field to determine whether the guest should have access.
4607 The events field only controls general purpose counters; fixed purpose
4608 counters are controlled by the fixed_counter_bitmap.
4610 No flags are defined yet, the field must be zero.
4612 Valid values for 'action'::
4614 #define KVM_PMU_EVENT_ALLOW 0
4615 #define KVM_PMU_EVENT_DENY 1
4617 4.121 KVM_PPC_SVM_OFF
4618 ---------------------
4621 :Architectures: powerpc
4624 :Returns: 0 on successful completion,
4628 ====== ================================================================
4629 EINVAL if ultravisor failed to terminate the secure guest
4630 ENOMEM if hypervisor failed to allocate new radix page tables for guest
4631 ====== ================================================================
4633 This ioctl is used to turn off the secure mode of the guest or transition
4634 the guest from secure mode to normal mode. This is invoked when the guest
4635 is reset. This has no effect if called for a normal guest.
4637 This ioctl issues an ultravisor call to terminate the secure guest,
4638 unpins the VPA pages and releases all the device pages that are used to
4639 track the secure pages by hypervisor.
4641 4.122 KVM_S390_NORMAL_RESET
4642 ---------------------------
4644 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_VCPU_RESETS
4645 :Architectures: s390
4650 This ioctl resets VCPU registers and control structures according to
4651 the cpu reset definition in the POP (Principles Of Operation).
4653 4.123 KVM_S390_INITIAL_RESET
4654 ----------------------------
4657 :Architectures: s390
4662 This ioctl resets VCPU registers and control structures according to
4663 the initial cpu reset definition in the POP. However, the cpu is not
4664 put into ESA mode. This reset is a superset of the normal reset.
4666 4.124 KVM_S390_CLEAR_RESET
4667 --------------------------
4669 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_VCPU_RESETS
4670 :Architectures: s390
4675 This ioctl resets VCPU registers and control structures according to
4676 the clear cpu reset definition in the POP. However, the cpu is not put
4677 into ESA mode. This reset is a superset of the initial reset.
4680 4.125 KVM_S390_PV_COMMAND
4681 -------------------------
4683 :Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_PROTECTED
4684 :Architectures: s390
4686 :Parameters: struct kvm_pv_cmd
4687 :Returns: 0 on success, < 0 on error
4692 __u32 cmd; /* Command to be executed */
4693 __u16 rc; /* Ultravisor return code */
4694 __u16 rrc; /* Ultravisor return reason code */
4695 __u64 data; /* Data or address */
4696 __u32 flags; /* flags for future extensions. Must be 0 for now */
4703 Allocate memory and register the VM with the Ultravisor, thereby
4704 donating memory to the Ultravisor that will become inaccessible to
4705 KVM. All existing CPUs are converted to protected ones. After this
4706 command has succeeded, any CPU added via hotplug will become
4707 protected during its creation as well.
4711 ===== =============================
4712 EINTR an unmasked signal is pending
4713 ===== =============================
4717 Deregister the VM from the Ultravisor and reclaim the memory that
4718 had been donated to the Ultravisor, making it usable by the kernel
4719 again. All registered VCPUs are converted back to non-protected
4722 KVM_PV_VM_SET_SEC_PARMS
4723 Pass the image header from VM memory to the Ultravisor in
4724 preparation of image unpacking and verification.
4727 Unpack (protect and decrypt) a page of the encrypted boot image.
4730 Verify the integrity of the unpacked image. Only if this succeeds,
4731 KVM is allowed to start protected VCPUs.
4733 4.126 KVM_X86_SET_MSR_FILTER
4734 ----------------------------
4736 :Capability: KVM_X86_SET_MSR_FILTER
4739 :Parameters: struct kvm_msr_filter
4740 :Returns: 0 on success, < 0 on error
4744 struct kvm_msr_filter_range {
4745 #define KVM_MSR_FILTER_READ (1 << 0)
4746 #define KVM_MSR_FILTER_WRITE (1 << 1)
4748 __u32 nmsrs; /* number of msrs in bitmap */
4749 __u32 base; /* MSR index the bitmap starts at */
4750 __u8 *bitmap; /* a 1 bit allows the operations in flags, 0 denies */
4753 #define KVM_MSR_FILTER_MAX_RANGES 16
4754 struct kvm_msr_filter {
4755 #define KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_ALLOW (0 << 0)
4756 #define KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_DENY (1 << 0)
4758 struct kvm_msr_filter_range ranges[KVM_MSR_FILTER_MAX_RANGES];
4761 flags values for ``struct kvm_msr_filter_range``:
4763 ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_READ``
4765 Filter read accesses to MSRs using the given bitmap. A 0 in the bitmap
4766 indicates that a read should immediately fail, while a 1 indicates that
4767 a read for a particular MSR should be handled regardless of the default
4770 ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_WRITE``
4772 Filter write accesses to MSRs using the given bitmap. A 0 in the bitmap
4773 indicates that a write should immediately fail, while a 1 indicates that
4774 a write for a particular MSR should be handled regardless of the default
4777 ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_READ | KVM_MSR_FILTER_WRITE``
4779 Filter both read and write accesses to MSRs using the given bitmap. A 0
4780 in the bitmap indicates that both reads and writes should immediately fail,
4781 while a 1 indicates that reads and writes for a particular MSR are not
4782 filtered by this range.
4784 flags values for ``struct kvm_msr_filter``:
4786 ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_ALLOW``
4788 If no filter range matches an MSR index that is getting accessed, KVM will
4789 fall back to allowing access to the MSR.
4791 ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_DENY``
4793 If no filter range matches an MSR index that is getting accessed, KVM will
4794 fall back to rejecting access to the MSR. In this mode, all MSRs that should
4795 be processed by KVM need to explicitly be marked as allowed in the bitmaps.
4797 This ioctl allows user space to define up to 16 bitmaps of MSR ranges to
4798 specify whether a certain MSR access should be explicitly filtered for or not.
4800 If this ioctl has never been invoked, MSR accesses are not guarded and the
4801 default KVM in-kernel emulation behavior is fully preserved.
4803 Calling this ioctl with an empty set of ranges (all nmsrs == 0) disables MSR
4804 filtering. In that mode, ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_DENY`` is invalid and causes
4807 As soon as the filtering is in place, every MSR access is processed through
4808 the filtering except for accesses to the x2APIC MSRs (from 0x800 to 0x8ff);
4809 x2APIC MSRs are always allowed, independent of the ``default_allow`` setting,
4810 and their behavior depends on the ``X2APIC_ENABLE`` bit of the APIC base
4813 If a bit is within one of the defined ranges, read and write accesses are
4814 guarded by the bitmap's value for the MSR index if the kind of access
4815 is included in the ``struct kvm_msr_filter_range`` flags. If no range
4816 cover this particular access, the behavior is determined by the flags
4817 field in the kvm_msr_filter struct: ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_ALLOW``
4818 and ``KVM_MSR_FILTER_DEFAULT_DENY``.
4820 Each bitmap range specifies a range of MSRs to potentially allow access on.
4821 The range goes from MSR index [base .. base+nmsrs]. The flags field
4822 indicates whether reads, writes or both reads and writes are filtered
4823 by setting a 1 bit in the bitmap for the corresponding MSR index.
4825 If an MSR access is not permitted through the filtering, it generates a
4826 #GP inside the guest. When combined with KVM_CAP_X86_USER_SPACE_MSR, that
4827 allows user space to deflect and potentially handle various MSR accesses
4830 If a vCPU is in running state while this ioctl is invoked, the vCPU may
4831 experience inconsistent filtering behavior on MSR accesses.
4834 5. The kvm_run structure
4835 ========================
4837 Application code obtains a pointer to the kvm_run structure by
4838 mmap()ing a vcpu fd. From that point, application code can control
4839 execution by changing fields in kvm_run prior to calling the KVM_RUN
4840 ioctl, and obtain information about the reason KVM_RUN returned by
4841 looking up structure members.
4847 __u8 request_interrupt_window;
4849 Request that KVM_RUN return when it becomes possible to inject external
4850 interrupts into the guest. Useful in conjunction with KVM_INTERRUPT.
4854 __u8 immediate_exit;
4856 This field is polled once when KVM_RUN starts; if non-zero, KVM_RUN
4857 exits immediately, returning -EINTR. In the common scenario where a
4858 signal is used to "kick" a VCPU out of KVM_RUN, this field can be used
4859 to avoid usage of KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK, which has worse scalability.
4860 Rather than blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN, userspace can set up
4861 a signal handler that sets run->immediate_exit to a non-zero value.
4863 This field is ignored if KVM_CAP_IMMEDIATE_EXIT is not available.
4872 When KVM_RUN has returned successfully (return value 0), this informs
4873 application code why KVM_RUN has returned. Allowable values for this
4874 field are detailed below.
4878 __u8 ready_for_interrupt_injection;
4880 If request_interrupt_window has been specified, this field indicates
4881 an interrupt can be injected now with KVM_INTERRUPT.
4887 The value of the current interrupt flag. Only valid if in-kernel
4888 local APIC is not used.
4894 More architecture-specific flags detailing state of the VCPU that may
4895 affect the device's behavior. The only currently defined flag is
4896 KVM_RUN_X86_SMM, which is valid on x86 machines and is set if the
4897 VCPU is in system management mode.
4901 /* in (pre_kvm_run), out (post_kvm_run) */
4904 The value of the cr8 register. Only valid if in-kernel local APIC is
4905 not used. Both input and output.
4911 The value of the APIC BASE msr. Only valid if in-kernel local
4912 APIC is not used. Both input and output.
4917 /* KVM_EXIT_UNKNOWN */
4919 __u64 hardware_exit_reason;
4922 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_UNKNOWN, the vcpu has exited due to unknown
4923 reasons. Further architecture-specific information is available in
4924 hardware_exit_reason.
4928 /* KVM_EXIT_FAIL_ENTRY */
4930 __u64 hardware_entry_failure_reason;
4931 __u32 cpu; /* if KVM_LAST_CPU */
4934 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_FAIL_ENTRY, the vcpu could not be run due
4935 to unknown reasons. Further architecture-specific information is
4936 available in hardware_entry_failure_reason.
4940 /* KVM_EXIT_EXCEPTION */
4952 #define KVM_EXIT_IO_IN 0
4953 #define KVM_EXIT_IO_OUT 1
4955 __u8 size; /* bytes */
4958 __u64 data_offset; /* relative to kvm_run start */
4961 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_IO, then the vcpu has
4962 executed a port I/O instruction which could not be satisfied by kvm.
4963 data_offset describes where the data is located (KVM_EXIT_IO_OUT) or
4964 where kvm expects application code to place the data for the next
4965 KVM_RUN invocation (KVM_EXIT_IO_IN). Data format is a packed array.
4969 /* KVM_EXIT_DEBUG */
4971 struct kvm_debug_exit_arch arch;
4974 If the exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_DEBUG, then a vcpu is processing a debug event
4975 for which architecture specific information is returned.
4987 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_MMIO, then the vcpu has
4988 executed a memory-mapped I/O instruction which could not be satisfied
4989 by kvm. The 'data' member contains the written data if 'is_write' is
4990 true, and should be filled by application code otherwise.
4992 The 'data' member contains, in its first 'len' bytes, the value as it would
4993 appear if the VCPU performed a load or store of the appropriate width directly
4998 For KVM_EXIT_IO, KVM_EXIT_MMIO, KVM_EXIT_OSI, KVM_EXIT_PAPR,
4999 KVM_EXIT_EPR, KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR and KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR the corresponding
5000 operations are complete (and guest state is consistent) only after userspace
5001 has re-entered the kernel with KVM_RUN. The kernel side will first finish
5002 incomplete operations and then check for pending signals. Userspace
5003 can re-enter the guest with an unmasked signal pending to complete
5008 /* KVM_EXIT_HYPERCALL */
5017 Unused. This was once used for 'hypercall to userspace'. To implement
5018 such functionality, use KVM_EXIT_IO (x86) or KVM_EXIT_MMIO (all except s390).
5020 .. note:: KVM_EXIT_IO is significantly faster than KVM_EXIT_MMIO.
5024 /* KVM_EXIT_TPR_ACCESS */
5031 To be documented (KVM_TPR_ACCESS_REPORTING).
5035 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_SIEIC */
5038 __u64 mask; /* psw upper half */
5039 __u64 addr; /* psw lower half */
5048 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_RESET */
5049 #define KVM_S390_RESET_POR 1
5050 #define KVM_S390_RESET_CLEAR 2
5051 #define KVM_S390_RESET_SUBSYSTEM 4
5052 #define KVM_S390_RESET_CPU_INIT 8
5053 #define KVM_S390_RESET_IPL 16
5054 __u64 s390_reset_flags;
5060 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_UCONTROL */
5062 __u64 trans_exc_code;
5066 s390 specific. A page fault has occurred for a user controlled virtual
5067 machine (KVM_VM_S390_UNCONTROL) on it's host page table that cannot be
5068 resolved by the kernel.
5069 The program code and the translation exception code that were placed
5070 in the cpu's lowcore are presented here as defined by the z Architecture
5071 Principles of Operation Book in the Chapter for Dynamic Address Translation
5083 Deprecated - was used for 440 KVM.
5092 MOL uses a special hypercall interface it calls 'OSI'. To enable it, we catch
5093 hypercalls and exit with this exit struct that contains all the guest gprs.
5095 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_OSI, then the vcpu has triggered such a hypercall.
5096 Userspace can now handle the hypercall and when it's done modify the gprs as
5097 necessary. Upon guest entry all guest GPRs will then be replaced by the values
5102 /* KVM_EXIT_PAPR_HCALL */
5109 This is used on 64-bit PowerPC when emulating a pSeries partition,
5110 e.g. with the 'pseries' machine type in qemu. It occurs when the
5111 guest does a hypercall using the 'sc 1' instruction. The 'nr' field
5112 contains the hypercall number (from the guest R3), and 'args' contains
5113 the arguments (from the guest R4 - R12). Userspace should put the
5114 return code in 'ret' and any extra returned values in args[].
5115 The possible hypercalls are defined in the Power Architecture Platform
5116 Requirements (PAPR) document available from www.power.org (free
5117 developer registration required to access it).
5121 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_TSCH */
5123 __u16 subchannel_id;
5124 __u16 subchannel_nr;
5131 s390 specific. This exit occurs when KVM_CAP_S390_CSS_SUPPORT has been enabled
5132 and TEST SUBCHANNEL was intercepted. If dequeued is set, a pending I/O
5133 interrupt for the target subchannel has been dequeued and subchannel_id,
5134 subchannel_nr, io_int_parm and io_int_word contain the parameters for that
5135 interrupt. ipb is needed for instruction parameter decoding.
5144 On FSL BookE PowerPC chips, the interrupt controller has a fast patch
5145 interrupt acknowledge path to the core. When the core successfully
5146 delivers an interrupt, it automatically populates the EPR register with
5147 the interrupt vector number and acknowledges the interrupt inside
5148 the interrupt controller.
5150 In case the interrupt controller lives in user space, we need to do
5151 the interrupt acknowledge cycle through it to fetch the next to be
5152 delivered interrupt vector using this exit.
5154 It gets triggered whenever both KVM_CAP_PPC_EPR are enabled and an
5155 external interrupt has just been delivered into the guest. User space
5156 should put the acknowledged interrupt vector into the 'epr' field.
5160 /* KVM_EXIT_SYSTEM_EVENT */
5162 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_SHUTDOWN 1
5163 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_RESET 2
5164 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_CRASH 3
5169 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_SYSTEM_EVENT then the vcpu has triggered
5170 a system-level event using some architecture specific mechanism (hypercall
5171 or some special instruction). In case of ARM/ARM64, this is triggered using
5172 HVC instruction based PSCI call from the vcpu. The 'type' field describes
5173 the system-level event type. The 'flags' field describes architecture
5174 specific flags for the system-level event.
5176 Valid values for 'type' are:
5178 - KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_SHUTDOWN -- the guest has requested a shutdown of the
5179 VM. Userspace is not obliged to honour this, and if it does honour
5180 this does not need to destroy the VM synchronously (ie it may call
5181 KVM_RUN again before shutdown finally occurs).
5182 - KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_RESET -- the guest has requested a reset of the VM.
5183 As with SHUTDOWN, userspace can choose to ignore the request, or
5184 to schedule the reset to occur in the future and may call KVM_RUN again.
5185 - KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_CRASH -- the guest crash occurred and the guest
5186 has requested a crash condition maintenance. Userspace can choose
5187 to ignore the request, or to gather VM memory core dump and/or
5188 reset/shutdown of the VM.
5192 /* KVM_EXIT_IOAPIC_EOI */
5197 Indicates that the VCPU's in-kernel local APIC received an EOI for a
5198 level-triggered IOAPIC interrupt. This exit only triggers when the
5199 IOAPIC is implemented in userspace (i.e. KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP is enabled);
5200 the userspace IOAPIC should process the EOI and retrigger the interrupt if
5201 it is still asserted. Vector is the LAPIC interrupt vector for which the
5206 struct kvm_hyperv_exit {
5207 #define KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNIC 1
5208 #define KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_HCALL 2
5209 #define KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNDBG 3
5236 /* KVM_EXIT_HYPERV */
5237 struct kvm_hyperv_exit hyperv;
5239 Indicates that the VCPU exits into userspace to process some tasks
5240 related to Hyper-V emulation.
5242 Valid values for 'type' are:
5244 - KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNIC -- synchronously notify user-space about
5246 Hyper-V SynIC state change. Notification is used to remap SynIC
5247 event/message pages and to enable/disable SynIC messages/events processing
5250 - KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNDBG -- synchronously notify user-space about
5252 Hyper-V Synthetic debugger state change. Notification is used to either update
5253 the pending_page location or to send a control command (send the buffer located
5254 in send_page or recv a buffer to recv_page).
5258 /* KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV */
5264 Used on arm and arm64 systems. If a guest accesses memory not in a memslot,
5265 KVM will typically return to userspace and ask it to do MMIO emulation on its
5266 behalf. However, for certain classes of instructions, no instruction decode
5267 (direction, length of memory access) is provided, and fetching and decoding
5268 the instruction from the VM is overly complicated to live in the kernel.
5270 Historically, when this situation occurred, KVM would print a warning and kill
5271 the VM. KVM assumed that if the guest accessed non-memslot memory, it was
5272 trying to do I/O, which just couldn't be emulated, and the warning message was
5273 phrased accordingly. However, what happened more often was that a guest bug
5274 caused access outside the guest memory areas which should lead to a more
5275 meaningful warning message and an external abort in the guest, if the access
5276 did not fall within an I/O window.
5278 Userspace implementations can query for KVM_CAP_ARM_NISV_TO_USER, and enable
5279 this capability at VM creation. Once this is done, these types of errors will
5280 instead return to userspace with KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV, with the valid bits from
5281 the HSR (arm) and ESR_EL2 (arm64) in the esr_iss field, and the faulting IPA
5282 in the fault_ipa field. Userspace can either fix up the access if it's
5283 actually an I/O access by decoding the instruction from guest memory (if it's
5284 very brave) and continue executing the guest, or it can decide to suspend,
5285 dump, or restart the guest.
5287 Note that KVM does not skip the faulting instruction as it does for
5288 KVM_EXIT_MMIO, but userspace has to emulate any change to the processing state
5289 if it decides to decode and emulate the instruction.
5293 /* KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR / KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR */
5295 __u8 error; /* user -> kernel */
5297 __u32 reason; /* kernel -> user */
5298 __u32 index; /* kernel -> user */
5299 __u64 data; /* kernel <-> user */
5302 Used on x86 systems. When the VM capability KVM_CAP_X86_USER_SPACE_MSR is
5303 enabled, MSR accesses to registers that would invoke a #GP by KVM kernel code
5304 will instead trigger a KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR exit for reads and KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR
5307 The "reason" field specifies why the MSR trap occurred. User space will only
5308 receive MSR exit traps when a particular reason was requested during through
5309 ENABLE_CAP. Currently valid exit reasons are:
5311 KVM_MSR_EXIT_REASON_UNKNOWN - access to MSR that is unknown to KVM
5312 KVM_MSR_EXIT_REASON_INVAL - access to invalid MSRs or reserved bits
5313 KVM_MSR_EXIT_REASON_FILTER - access blocked by KVM_X86_SET_MSR_FILTER
5315 For KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR, the "index" field tells user space which MSR the guest
5316 wants to read. To respond to this request with a successful read, user space
5317 writes the respective data into the "data" field and must continue guest
5318 execution to ensure the read data is transferred into guest register state.
5320 If the RDMSR request was unsuccessful, user space indicates that with a "1" in
5321 the "error" field. This will inject a #GP into the guest when the VCPU is
5324 For KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR, the "index" field tells user space which MSR the guest
5325 wants to write. Once finished processing the event, user space must continue
5326 vCPU execution. If the MSR write was unsuccessful, user space also sets the
5327 "error" field to "1".
5331 /* Fix the size of the union. */
5336 * shared registers between kvm and userspace.
5337 * kvm_valid_regs specifies the register classes set by the host
5338 * kvm_dirty_regs specified the register classes dirtied by userspace
5339 * struct kvm_sync_regs is architecture specific, as well as the
5340 * bits for kvm_valid_regs and kvm_dirty_regs
5342 __u64 kvm_valid_regs;
5343 __u64 kvm_dirty_regs;
5345 struct kvm_sync_regs regs;
5346 char padding[SYNC_REGS_SIZE_BYTES];
5349 If KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS is defined, these fields allow userspace to access
5350 certain guest registers without having to call SET/GET_*REGS. Thus we can
5351 avoid some system call overhead if userspace has to handle the exit.
5352 Userspace can query the validity of the structure by checking
5353 kvm_valid_regs for specific bits. These bits are architecture specific
5354 and usually define the validity of a groups of registers. (e.g. one bit
5355 for general purpose registers)
5357 Please note that the kernel is allowed to use the kvm_run structure as the
5358 primary storage for certain register types. Therefore, the kernel may use the
5359 values in kvm_run even if the corresponding bit in kvm_dirty_regs is not set.
5367 6. Capabilities that can be enabled on vCPUs
5368 ============================================
5370 There are certain capabilities that change the behavior of the virtual CPU or
5371 the virtual machine when enabled. To enable them, please see section 4.37.
5372 Below you can find a list of capabilities and what their effect on the vCPU or
5373 the virtual machine is when enabling them.
5375 The following information is provided along with the description:
5378 which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
5379 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
5382 whether this is a per-vcpu or per-vm capability.
5385 what parameters are accepted by the capability.
5388 the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
5389 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
5398 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
5400 This capability enables interception of OSI hypercalls that otherwise would
5401 be treated as normal system calls to be injected into the guest. OSI hypercalls
5402 were invented by Mac-on-Linux to have a standardized communication mechanism
5403 between the guest and the host.
5405 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_OSI can occur.
5408 6.2 KVM_CAP_PPC_PAPR
5409 --------------------
5414 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
5416 This capability enables interception of PAPR hypercalls. PAPR hypercalls are
5417 done using the hypercall instruction "sc 1".
5419 It also sets the guest privilege level to "supervisor" mode. Usually the guest
5420 runs in "hypervisor" privilege mode with a few missing features.
5422 In addition to the above, it changes the semantics of SDR1. In this mode, the
5423 HTAB address part of SDR1 contains an HVA instead of a GPA, as PAPR keeps the
5424 HTAB invisible to the guest.
5426 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_PAPR_HCALL can occur.
5434 :Parameters: args[0] is the address of a struct kvm_config_tlb
5435 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
5439 struct kvm_config_tlb {
5446 Configures the virtual CPU's TLB array, establishing a shared memory area
5447 between userspace and KVM. The "params" and "array" fields are userspace
5448 addresses of mmu-type-specific data structures. The "array_len" field is an
5449 safety mechanism, and should be set to the size in bytes of the memory that
5450 userspace has reserved for the array. It must be at least the size dictated
5451 by "mmu_type" and "params".
5453 While KVM_RUN is active, the shared region is under control of KVM. Its
5454 contents are undefined, and any modification by userspace results in
5455 boundedly undefined behavior.
5457 On return from KVM_RUN, the shared region will reflect the current state of
5458 the guest's TLB. If userspace makes any changes, it must call KVM_DIRTY_TLB
5459 to tell KVM which entries have been changed, prior to calling KVM_RUN again
5462 For mmu types KVM_MMU_FSL_BOOKE_NOHV and KVM_MMU_FSL_BOOKE_HV:
5464 - The "params" field is of type "struct kvm_book3e_206_tlb_params".
5465 - The "array" field points to an array of type "struct
5466 kvm_book3e_206_tlb_entry".
5467 - The array consists of all entries in the first TLB, followed by all
5468 entries in the second TLB.
5469 - Within a TLB, entries are ordered first by increasing set number. Within a
5470 set, entries are ordered by way (increasing ESEL).
5471 - The hash for determining set number in TLB0 is: (MAS2 >> 12) & (num_sets - 1)
5472 where "num_sets" is the tlb_sizes[] value divided by the tlb_ways[] value.
5473 - The tsize field of mas1 shall be set to 4K on TLB0, even though the
5474 hardware ignores this value for TLB0.
5476 6.4 KVM_CAP_S390_CSS_SUPPORT
5477 ----------------------------
5479 :Architectures: s390
5482 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
5484 This capability enables support for handling of channel I/O instructions.
5486 TEST PENDING INTERRUPTION and the interrupt portion of TEST SUBCHANNEL are
5487 handled in-kernel, while the other I/O instructions are passed to userspace.
5489 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_S390_TSCH will occur on TEST
5490 SUBCHANNEL intercepts.
5492 Note that even though this capability is enabled per-vcpu, the complete
5493 virtual machine is affected.
5500 :Parameters: args[0] defines whether the proxy facility is active
5501 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
5503 This capability enables or disables the delivery of interrupts through the
5504 external proxy facility.
5506 When enabled (args[0] != 0), every time the guest gets an external interrupt
5507 delivered, it automatically exits into user space with a KVM_EXIT_EPR exit
5508 to receive the topmost interrupt vector.
5510 When disabled (args[0] == 0), behavior is as if this facility is unsupported.
5512 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_EPR can occur.
5514 6.6 KVM_CAP_IRQ_MPIC
5515 --------------------
5518 :Parameters: args[0] is the MPIC device fd;
5519 args[1] is the MPIC CPU number for this vcpu
5521 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel MPIC device.
5523 6.7 KVM_CAP_IRQ_XICS
5524 --------------------
5528 :Parameters: args[0] is the XICS device fd;
5529 args[1] is the XICS CPU number (server ID) for this vcpu
5531 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel XICS device.
5533 6.8 KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP
5534 ------------------------
5536 :Architectures: s390
5540 This capability enables the in-kernel irqchip for s390. Please refer to
5541 "4.24 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP" for details.
5543 6.9 KVM_CAP_MIPS_FPU
5544 --------------------
5546 :Architectures: mips
5548 :Parameters: args[0] is reserved for future use (should be 0).
5550 This capability allows the use of the host Floating Point Unit by the guest. It
5551 allows the Config1.FP bit to be set to enable the FPU in the guest. Once this is
5552 done the ``KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_*`` and ``KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_*`` registers can be
5553 accessed (depending on the current guest FPU register mode), and the Status.FR,
5554 Config5.FRE bits are accessible via the KVM API and also from the guest,
5555 depending on them being supported by the FPU.
5557 6.10 KVM_CAP_MIPS_MSA
5558 ---------------------
5560 :Architectures: mips
5562 :Parameters: args[0] is reserved for future use (should be 0).
5564 This capability allows the use of the MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA) by the guest.
5565 It allows the Config3.MSAP bit to be set to enable the use of MSA by the guest.
5566 Once this is done the ``KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_*`` and ``KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_*``
5567 registers can be accessed, and the Config5.MSAEn bit is accessible via the
5568 KVM API and also from the guest.
5570 6.74 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS
5571 ----------------------
5573 :Architectures: s390, x86
5574 :Target: s390: always enabled, x86: vcpu
5576 :Returns: x86: KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns a bit-array indicating which register
5578 (bitfields defined in arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm.h).
5580 As described above in the kvm_sync_regs struct info in section 5 (kvm_run):
5581 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS "allow[s] userspace to access certain guest registers
5582 without having to call SET/GET_*REGS". This reduces overhead by eliminating
5583 repeated ioctl calls for setting and/or getting register values. This is
5584 particularly important when userspace is making synchronous guest state
5585 modifications, e.g. when emulating and/or intercepting instructions in
5588 For s390 specifics, please refer to the source code.
5592 - the register sets to be copied out to kvm_run are selectable
5593 by userspace (rather that all sets being copied out for every exit).
5594 - vcpu_events are available in addition to regs and sregs.
5596 For x86, the 'kvm_valid_regs' field of struct kvm_run is overloaded to
5597 function as an input bit-array field set by userspace to indicate the
5598 specific register sets to be copied out on the next exit.
5600 To indicate when userspace has modified values that should be copied into
5601 the vCPU, the all architecture bitarray field, 'kvm_dirty_regs' must be set.
5602 This is done using the same bitflags as for the 'kvm_valid_regs' field.
5603 If the dirty bit is not set, then the register set values will not be copied
5604 into the vCPU even if they've been modified.
5606 Unused bitfields in the bitarrays must be set to zero.
5610 struct kvm_sync_regs {
5611 struct kvm_regs regs;
5612 struct kvm_sregs sregs;
5613 struct kvm_vcpu_events events;
5616 6.75 KVM_CAP_PPC_IRQ_XIVE
5617 -------------------------
5621 :Parameters: args[0] is the XIVE device fd;
5622 args[1] is the XIVE CPU number (server ID) for this vcpu
5624 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel XIVE device.
5626 7. Capabilities that can be enabled on VMs
5627 ==========================================
5629 There are certain capabilities that change the behavior of the virtual
5630 machine when enabled. To enable them, please see section 4.37. Below
5631 you can find a list of capabilities and what their effect on the VM
5632 is when enabling them.
5634 The following information is provided along with the description:
5637 which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
5638 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
5641 what parameters are accepted by the capability.
5644 the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
5645 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
5648 7.1 KVM_CAP_PPC_ENABLE_HCALL
5649 ----------------------------
5652 :Parameters: args[0] is the sPAPR hcall number;
5653 args[1] is 0 to disable, 1 to enable in-kernel handling
5655 This capability controls whether individual sPAPR hypercalls (hcalls)
5656 get handled by the kernel or not. Enabling or disabling in-kernel
5657 handling of an hcall is effective across the VM. On creation, an
5658 initial set of hcalls are enabled for in-kernel handling, which
5659 consists of those hcalls for which in-kernel handlers were implemented
5660 before this capability was implemented. If disabled, the kernel will
5661 not to attempt to handle the hcall, but will always exit to userspace
5662 to handle it. Note that it may not make sense to enable some and
5663 disable others of a group of related hcalls, but KVM does not prevent
5664 userspace from doing that.
5666 If the hcall number specified is not one that has an in-kernel
5667 implementation, the KVM_ENABLE_CAP ioctl will fail with an EINVAL
5670 7.2 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_SIGP
5671 --------------------------
5673 :Architectures: s390
5676 This capability controls which SIGP orders will be handled completely in user
5677 space. With this capability enabled, all fast orders will be handled completely
5684 - CONDITIONAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL
5686 All other orders will be handled completely in user space.
5688 Only privileged operation exceptions will be checked for in the kernel (or even
5689 in the hardware prior to interception). If this capability is not enabled, the
5690 old way of handling SIGP orders is used (partially in kernel and user space).
5692 7.3 KVM_CAP_S390_VECTOR_REGISTERS
5693 ---------------------------------
5695 :Architectures: s390
5697 :Returns: 0 on success, negative value on error
5699 Allows use of the vector registers introduced with z13 processor, and
5700 provides for the synchronization between host and user space. Will
5701 return -EINVAL if the machine does not support vectors.
5703 7.4 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_STSI
5704 --------------------------
5706 :Architectures: s390
5709 This capability allows post-handlers for the STSI instruction. After
5710 initial handling in the kernel, KVM exits to user space with
5711 KVM_EXIT_S390_STSI to allow user space to insert further data.
5713 Before exiting to userspace, kvm handlers should fill in s390_stsi field of
5725 @addr - guest address of STSI SYSIB
5729 @ar - access register number
5731 KVM handlers should exit to userspace with rc = -EREMOTE.
5733 7.5 KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP
5734 -------------------------
5737 :Parameters: args[0] - number of routes reserved for userspace IOAPICs
5738 :Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
5740 Create a local apic for each processor in the kernel. This can be used
5741 instead of KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP if the userspace VMM wishes to emulate the
5742 IOAPIC and PIC (and also the PIT, even though this has to be enabled
5745 This capability also enables in kernel routing of interrupt requests;
5746 when KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP only routes of KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI type are
5747 used in the IRQ routing table. The first args[0] MSI routes are reserved
5748 for the IOAPIC pins. Whenever the LAPIC receives an EOI for these routes,
5749 a KVM_EXIT_IOAPIC_EOI vmexit will be reported to userspace.
5751 Fails if VCPU has already been created, or if the irqchip is already in the
5752 kernel (i.e. KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP has already been called).
5757 :Architectures: s390
5760 Allows use of runtime-instrumentation introduced with zEC12 processor.
5761 Will return -EINVAL if the machine does not support runtime-instrumentation.
5762 Will return -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
5764 7.7 KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API
5765 ----------------------
5768 :Parameters: args[0] - features that should be enabled
5769 :Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when args[0] contains invalid features
5771 Valid feature flags in args[0] are::
5773 #define KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS (1ULL << 0)
5774 #define KVM_X2APIC_API_DISABLE_BROADCAST_QUIRK (1ULL << 1)
5776 Enabling KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS changes the behavior of
5777 KVM_SET_GSI_ROUTING, KVM_SIGNAL_MSI, KVM_SET_LAPIC, and KVM_GET_LAPIC,
5778 allowing the use of 32-bit APIC IDs. See KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API in their
5779 respective sections.
5781 KVM_X2APIC_API_DISABLE_BROADCAST_QUIRK must be enabled for x2APIC to work
5782 in logical mode or with more than 255 VCPUs. Otherwise, KVM treats 0xff
5783 as a broadcast even in x2APIC mode in order to support physical x2APIC
5784 without interrupt remapping. This is undesirable in logical mode,
5785 where 0xff represents CPUs 0-7 in cluster 0.
5787 7.8 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_INSTR0
5788 ----------------------------
5790 :Architectures: s390
5793 With this capability enabled, all illegal instructions 0x0000 (2 bytes) will
5794 be intercepted and forwarded to user space. User space can use this
5795 mechanism e.g. to realize 2-byte software breakpoints. The kernel will
5796 not inject an operating exception for these instructions, user space has
5797 to take care of that.
5799 This capability can be enabled dynamically even if VCPUs were already
5800 created and are running.
5805 :Architectures: s390
5807 :Returns: 0 on success; -EINVAL if the machine does not support
5808 guarded storage; -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
5810 Allows use of guarded storage for the KVM guest.
5812 7.10 KVM_CAP_S390_AIS
5813 ---------------------
5815 :Architectures: s390
5818 Allow use of adapter-interruption suppression.
5819 :Returns: 0 on success; -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
5821 7.11 KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT
5822 --------------------
5825 :Parameters: vsmt_mode, flags
5827 Enabling this capability on a VM provides userspace with a way to set
5828 the desired virtual SMT mode (i.e. the number of virtual CPUs per
5829 virtual core). The virtual SMT mode, vsmt_mode, must be a power of 2
5830 between 1 and 8. On POWER8, vsmt_mode must also be no greater than
5831 the number of threads per subcore for the host. Currently flags must
5832 be 0. A successful call to enable this capability will result in
5833 vsmt_mode being returned when the KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT capability is
5834 subsequently queried for the VM. This capability is only supported by
5835 HV KVM, and can only be set before any VCPUs have been created.
5836 The KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT_POSSIBLE capability indicates which virtual SMT
5837 modes are available.
5839 7.12 KVM_CAP_PPC_FWNMI
5840 ----------------------
5845 With this capability a machine check exception in the guest address
5846 space will cause KVM to exit the guest with NMI exit reason. This
5847 enables QEMU to build error log and branch to guest kernel registered
5848 machine check handling routine. Without this capability KVM will
5849 branch to guests' 0x200 interrupt vector.
5851 7.13 KVM_CAP_X86_DISABLE_EXITS
5852 ------------------------------
5855 :Parameters: args[0] defines which exits are disabled
5856 :Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when args[0] contains invalid exits
5858 Valid bits in args[0] are::
5860 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_MWAIT (1 << 0)
5861 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_HLT (1 << 1)
5862 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_PAUSE (1 << 2)
5863 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_CSTATE (1 << 3)
5865 Enabling this capability on a VM provides userspace with a way to no
5866 longer intercept some instructions for improved latency in some
5867 workloads, and is suggested when vCPUs are associated to dedicated
5868 physical CPUs. More bits can be added in the future; userspace can
5869 just pass the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION result to KVM_ENABLE_CAP to disable
5872 Do not enable KVM_FEATURE_PV_UNHALT if you disable HLT exits.
5874 7.14 KVM_CAP_S390_HPAGE_1M
5875 --------------------------
5877 :Architectures: s390
5879 :Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL if hpage module parameter was not set
5880 or cmma is enabled, or the VM has the KVM_VM_S390_UCONTROL
5883 With this capability the KVM support for memory backing with 1m pages
5884 through hugetlbfs can be enabled for a VM. After the capability is
5885 enabled, cmma can't be enabled anymore and pfmfi and the storage key
5886 interpretation are disabled. If cmma has already been enabled or the
5887 hpage module parameter is not set to 1, -EINVAL is returned.
5889 While it is generally possible to create a huge page backed VM without
5890 this capability, the VM will not be able to run.
5892 7.15 KVM_CAP_MSR_PLATFORM_INFO
5893 ------------------------------
5896 :Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5898 With this capability, a guest may read the MSR_PLATFORM_INFO MSR. Otherwise,
5899 a #GP would be raised when the guest tries to access. Currently, this
5900 capability does not enable write permissions of this MSR for the guest.
5902 7.16 KVM_CAP_PPC_NESTED_HV
5903 --------------------------
5907 :Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when the implementation doesn't support
5908 nested-HV virtualization.
5910 HV-KVM on POWER9 and later systems allows for "nested-HV"
5911 virtualization, which provides a way for a guest VM to run guests that
5912 can run using the CPU's supervisor mode (privileged non-hypervisor
5913 state). Enabling this capability on a VM depends on the CPU having
5914 the necessary functionality and on the facility being enabled with a
5915 kvm-hv module parameter.
5917 7.17 KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD
5918 ------------------------------
5921 :Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5923 With this capability enabled, CR2 will not be modified prior to the
5924 emulated VM-exit when L1 intercepts a #PF exception that occurs in
5925 L2. Similarly, for kvm-intel only, DR6 will not be modified prior to
5926 the emulated VM-exit when L1 intercepts a #DB exception that occurs in
5927 L2. As a result, when KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS reports a pending #PF (or
5928 #DB) exception for L2, exception.has_payload will be set and the
5929 faulting address (or the new DR6 bits*) will be reported in the
5930 exception_payload field. Similarly, when userspace injects a #PF (or
5931 #DB) into L2 using KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS, it is expected to set
5932 exception.has_payload and to put the faulting address - or the new DR6
5933 bits\ [#]_ - in the exception_payload field.
5935 This capability also enables exception.pending in struct
5936 kvm_vcpu_events, which allows userspace to distinguish between pending
5937 and injected exceptions.
5940 .. [#] For the new DR6 bits, note that bit 16 is set iff the #DB exception
5943 7.18 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
5945 :Architectures: x86, arm, arm64, mips
5946 :Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5950 #define KVM_DIRTY_LOG_MANUAL_PROTECT_ENABLE (1 << 0)
5951 #define KVM_DIRTY_LOG_INITIALLY_SET (1 << 1)
5953 With KVM_DIRTY_LOG_MANUAL_PROTECT_ENABLE is set, KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG will not
5954 automatically clear and write-protect all pages that are returned as dirty.
5955 Rather, userspace will have to do this operation separately using
5956 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG.
5958 At the cost of a slightly more complicated operation, this provides better
5959 scalability and responsiveness for two reasons. First,
5960 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG ioctl can operate on a 64-page granularity rather
5961 than requiring to sync a full memslot; this ensures that KVM does not
5962 take spinlocks for an extended period of time. Second, in some cases a
5963 large amount of time can pass between a call to KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG and
5964 userspace actually using the data in the page. Pages can be modified
5965 during this time, which is inefficient for both the guest and userspace:
5966 the guest will incur a higher penalty due to write protection faults,
5967 while userspace can see false reports of dirty pages. Manual reprotection
5968 helps reducing this time, improving guest performance and reducing the
5969 number of dirty log false positives.
5971 With KVM_DIRTY_LOG_INITIALLY_SET set, all the bits of the dirty bitmap
5972 will be initialized to 1 when created. This also improves performance because
5973 dirty logging can be enabled gradually in small chunks on the first call
5974 to KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG. KVM_DIRTY_LOG_INITIALLY_SET depends on
5975 KVM_DIRTY_LOG_MANUAL_PROTECT_ENABLE (it is also only available on
5976 x86 and arm64 for now).
5978 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 was previously available under the name
5979 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT, but the implementation had bugs that make
5980 it hard or impossible to use it correctly. The availability of
5981 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 signals that those bugs are fixed.
5982 Userspace should not try to use KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT.
5984 7.19 KVM_CAP_PPC_SECURE_GUEST
5985 ------------------------------
5989 This capability indicates that KVM is running on a host that has
5990 ultravisor firmware and thus can support a secure guest. On such a
5991 system, a guest can ask the ultravisor to make it a secure guest,
5992 one whose memory is inaccessible to the host except for pages which
5993 are explicitly requested to be shared with the host. The ultravisor
5994 notifies KVM when a guest requests to become a secure guest, and KVM
5995 has the opportunity to veto the transition.
5997 If present, this capability can be enabled for a VM, meaning that KVM
5998 will allow the transition to secure guest mode. Otherwise KVM will
5999 veto the transition.
6001 7.20 KVM_CAP_HALT_POLL
6002 ----------------------
6006 :Parameters: args[0] is the maximum poll time in nanoseconds
6007 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
6009 This capability overrides the kvm module parameter halt_poll_ns for the
6012 VCPU polling allows a VCPU to poll for wakeup events instead of immediately
6013 scheduling during guest halts. The maximum time a VCPU can spend polling is
6014 controlled by the kvm module parameter halt_poll_ns. This capability allows
6015 the maximum halt time to specified on a per-VM basis, effectively overriding
6016 the module parameter for the target VM.
6018 7.21 KVM_CAP_X86_USER_SPACE_MSR
6019 -------------------------------
6023 :Parameters: args[0] contains the mask of KVM_MSR_EXIT_REASON_* events to report
6024 :Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
6026 This capability enables trapping of #GP invoking RDMSR and WRMSR instructions
6029 When a guest requests to read or write an MSR, KVM may not implement all MSRs
6030 that are relevant to a respective system. It also does not differentiate by
6033 To allow more fine grained control over MSR handling, user space may enable
6034 this capability. With it enabled, MSR accesses that match the mask specified in
6035 args[0] and trigger a #GP event inside the guest by KVM will instead trigger
6036 KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR and KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR exit notifications which user space
6037 can then handle to implement model specific MSR handling and/or user notifications
6038 to inform a user that an MSR was not handled.
6040 8. Other capabilities.
6041 ======================
6043 This section lists capabilities that give information about other
6044 features of the KVM implementation.
6046 8.1 KVM_CAP_PPC_HWRNG
6047 ---------------------
6051 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
6052 available, means that the kernel has an implementation of the
6053 H_RANDOM hypercall backed by a hardware random-number generator.
6054 If present, the kernel H_RANDOM handler can be enabled for guest use
6055 with the KVM_CAP_PPC_ENABLE_HCALL capability.
6057 8.2 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC
6058 ------------------------
6062 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
6063 available, means that the kernel has an implementation of the
6064 Hyper-V Synthetic interrupt controller(SynIC). Hyper-V SynIC is
6065 used to support Windows Hyper-V based guest paravirt drivers(VMBus).
6067 In order to use SynIC, it has to be activated by setting this
6068 capability via KVM_ENABLE_CAP ioctl on the vcpu fd. Note that this
6069 will disable the use of APIC hardware virtualization even if supported
6070 by the CPU, as it's incompatible with SynIC auto-EOI behavior.
6072 8.3 KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU
6073 -------------------------
6077 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
6078 available, means that the kernel can support guests using the
6079 radix MMU defined in Power ISA V3.00 (as implemented in the POWER9
6082 8.4 KVM_CAP_PPC_HASH_MMU_V3
6083 ---------------------------
6087 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
6088 available, means that the kernel can support guests using the
6089 hashed page table MMU defined in Power ISA V3.00 (as implemented in
6090 the POWER9 processor), including in-memory segment tables.
6095 :Architectures: mips
6097 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on the main kvm handle indicates that
6098 it is available, means that full hardware assisted virtualization capabilities
6099 of the hardware are available for use through KVM. An appropriate
6100 KVM_VM_MIPS_* type must be passed to KVM_CREATE_VM to create a VM which
6103 If KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a kvm VM handle indicates that this capability is
6104 available, it means that the VM is using full hardware assisted virtualization
6105 capabilities of the hardware. This is useful to check after creating a VM with
6106 KVM_VM_MIPS_DEFAULT.
6108 The value returned by KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION should be compared against known
6109 values (see below). All other values are reserved. This is to allow for the
6110 possibility of other hardware assisted virtualization implementations which
6111 may be incompatible with the MIPS VZ ASE.
6113 == ==========================================================================
6114 0 The trap & emulate implementation is in use to run guest code in user
6115 mode. Guest virtual memory segments are rearranged to fit the guest in the
6116 user mode address space.
6118 1 The MIPS VZ ASE is in use, providing full hardware assisted
6119 virtualization, including standard guest virtual memory segments.
6120 == ==========================================================================
6125 :Architectures: mips
6127 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on the main kvm handle indicates that
6128 it is available, means that the trap & emulate implementation is available to
6129 run guest code in user mode, even if KVM_CAP_MIPS_VZ indicates that hardware
6130 assisted virtualisation is also available. KVM_VM_MIPS_TE (0) must be passed
6131 to KVM_CREATE_VM to create a VM which utilises it.
6133 If KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a kvm VM handle indicates that this capability is
6134 available, it means that the VM is using trap & emulate.
6136 8.7 KVM_CAP_MIPS_64BIT
6137 ----------------------
6139 :Architectures: mips
6141 This capability indicates the supported architecture type of the guest, i.e. the
6142 supported register and address width.
6144 The values returned when this capability is checked by KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a
6145 kvm VM handle correspond roughly to the CP0_Config.AT register field, and should
6146 be checked specifically against known values (see below). All other values are
6149 == ========================================================================
6150 0 MIPS32 or microMIPS32.
6151 Both registers and addresses are 32-bits wide.
6152 It will only be possible to run 32-bit guest code.
6154 1 MIPS64 or microMIPS64 with access only to 32-bit compatibility segments.
6155 Registers are 64-bits wide, but addresses are 32-bits wide.
6156 64-bit guest code may run but cannot access MIPS64 memory segments.
6157 It will also be possible to run 32-bit guest code.
6159 2 MIPS64 or microMIPS64 with access to all address segments.
6160 Both registers and addresses are 64-bits wide.
6161 It will be possible to run 64-bit or 32-bit guest code.
6162 == ========================================================================
6164 8.9 KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ
6165 ------------------------
6167 :Architectures: arm, arm64
6169 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is available, means
6170 that if userspace creates a VM without an in-kernel interrupt controller, it
6171 will be notified of changes to the output level of in-kernel emulated devices,
6172 which can generate virtual interrupts, presented to the VM.
6173 For such VMs, on every return to userspace, the kernel
6174 updates the vcpu's run->s.regs.device_irq_level field to represent the actual
6175 output level of the device.
6177 Whenever kvm detects a change in the device output level, kvm guarantees at
6178 least one return to userspace before running the VM. This exit could either
6179 be a KVM_EXIT_INTR or any other exit event, like KVM_EXIT_MMIO. This way,
6180 userspace can always sample the device output level and re-compute the state of
6181 the userspace interrupt controller. Userspace should always check the state
6182 of run->s.regs.device_irq_level on every kvm exit.
6183 The value in run->s.regs.device_irq_level can represent both level and edge
6184 triggered interrupt signals, depending on the device. Edge triggered interrupt
6185 signals will exit to userspace with the bit in run->s.regs.device_irq_level
6186 set exactly once per edge signal.
6188 The field run->s.regs.device_irq_level is available independent of
6189 run->kvm_valid_regs or run->kvm_dirty_regs bits.
6191 If KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ is supported, the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl returns a
6192 number larger than 0 indicating the version of this capability is implemented
6193 and thereby which bits in run->s.regs.device_irq_level can signal values.
6195 Currently the following bits are defined for the device_irq_level bitmap::
6197 KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ >= 1:
6199 KVM_ARM_DEV_EL1_VTIMER - EL1 virtual timer
6200 KVM_ARM_DEV_EL1_PTIMER - EL1 physical timer
6201 KVM_ARM_DEV_PMU - ARM PMU overflow interrupt signal
6203 Future versions of kvm may implement additional events. These will get
6204 indicated by returning a higher number from KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION and will be
6207 8.10 KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT_POSSIBLE
6208 -----------------------------
6212 Querying this capability returns a bitmap indicating the possible
6213 virtual SMT modes that can be set using KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT. If bit N
6214 (counting from the right) is set, then a virtual SMT mode of 2^N is
6217 8.11 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC2
6218 --------------------------
6222 This capability enables a newer version of Hyper-V Synthetic interrupt
6223 controller (SynIC). The only difference with KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC is that KVM
6224 doesn't clear SynIC message and event flags pages when they are enabled by
6225 writing to the respective MSRs.
6227 8.12 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_VP_INDEX
6228 ----------------------------
6232 This capability indicates that userspace can load HV_X64_MSR_VP_INDEX msr. Its
6233 value is used to denote the target vcpu for a SynIC interrupt. For
6234 compatibilty, KVM initializes this msr to KVM's internal vcpu index. When this
6235 capability is absent, userspace can still query this msr's value.
6237 8.13 KVM_CAP_S390_AIS_MIGRATION
6238 -------------------------------
6240 :Architectures: s390
6243 This capability indicates if the flic device will be able to get/set the
6244 AIS states for migration via the KVM_DEV_FLIC_AISM_ALL attribute and allows
6245 to discover this without having to create a flic device.
6247 8.14 KVM_CAP_S390_PSW
6248 ---------------------
6250 :Architectures: s390
6252 This capability indicates that the PSW is exposed via the kvm_run structure.
6254 8.15 KVM_CAP_S390_GMAP
6255 ----------------------
6257 :Architectures: s390
6259 This capability indicates that the user space memory used as guest mapping can
6260 be anywhere in the user memory address space, as long as the memory slots are
6261 aligned and sized to a segment (1MB) boundary.
6263 8.16 KVM_CAP_S390_COW
6264 ---------------------
6266 :Architectures: s390
6268 This capability indicates that the user space memory used as guest mapping can
6269 use copy-on-write semantics as well as dirty pages tracking via read-only page
6272 8.17 KVM_CAP_S390_BPB
6273 ---------------------
6275 :Architectures: s390
6277 This capability indicates that kvm will implement the interfaces to handle
6278 reset, migration and nested KVM for branch prediction blocking. The stfle
6279 facility 82 should not be provided to the guest without this capability.
6281 8.18 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_TLBFLUSH
6282 ----------------------------
6286 This capability indicates that KVM supports paravirtualized Hyper-V TLB Flush
6288 HvFlushVirtualAddressSpace, HvFlushVirtualAddressSpaceEx,
6289 HvFlushVirtualAddressList, HvFlushVirtualAddressListEx.
6291 8.19 KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR
6292 ----------------------------------
6294 :Architectures: arm, arm64
6296 This capability indicates that userspace can specify (via the
6297 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS ioctl) the syndrome value reported to the guest when it
6298 takes a virtual SError interrupt exception.
6299 If KVM advertises this capability, userspace can only specify the ISS field for
6300 the ESR syndrome. Other parts of the ESR, such as the EC are generated by the
6301 CPU when the exception is taken. If this virtual SError is taken to EL1 using
6302 AArch64, this value will be reported in the ISS field of ESR_ELx.
6304 See KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS for more details.
6306 8.20 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SEND_IPI
6307 ----------------------------
6311 This capability indicates that KVM supports paravirtualized Hyper-V IPI send
6313 HvCallSendSyntheticClusterIpi, HvCallSendSyntheticClusterIpiEx.
6315 8.21 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_DIRECT_TLBFLUSH
6316 -----------------------------------
6320 This capability indicates that KVM running on top of Hyper-V hypervisor
6321 enables Direct TLB flush for its guests meaning that TLB flush
6322 hypercalls are handled by Level 0 hypervisor (Hyper-V) bypassing KVM.
6323 Due to the different ABI for hypercall parameters between Hyper-V and
6324 KVM, enabling this capability effectively disables all hypercall
6325 handling by KVM (as some KVM hypercall may be mistakenly treated as TLB
6326 flush hypercalls by Hyper-V) so userspace should disable KVM identification
6327 in CPUID and only exposes Hyper-V identification. In this case, guest
6328 thinks it's running on Hyper-V and only use Hyper-V hypercalls.
6330 8.22 KVM_CAP_S390_VCPU_RESETS
6331 -----------------------------
6333 :Architectures: s390
6335 This capability indicates that the KVM_S390_NORMAL_RESET and
6336 KVM_S390_CLEAR_RESET ioctls are available.
6338 8.23 KVM_CAP_S390_PROTECTED
6339 ---------------------------
6341 :Architectures: s390
6343 This capability indicates that the Ultravisor has been initialized and
6344 KVM can therefore start protected VMs.
6345 This capability governs the KVM_S390_PV_COMMAND ioctl and the
6346 KVM_MP_STATE_LOAD MP_STATE. KVM_SET_MP_STATE can fail for protected
6347 guests when the state change is invalid.
6349 8.24 KVM_CAP_STEAL_TIME
6350 -----------------------
6352 :Architectures: arm64, x86
6354 This capability indicates that KVM supports steal time accounting.
6355 When steal time accounting is supported it may be enabled with
6356 architecture-specific interfaces. This capability and the architecture-
6357 specific interfaces must be consistent, i.e. if one says the feature
6358 is supported, than the other should as well and vice versa. For arm64
6359 see Documentation/virt/kvm/devices/vcpu.rst "KVM_ARM_VCPU_PVTIME_CTRL".
6360 For x86 see Documentation/virt/kvm/msr.rst "MSR_KVM_STEAL_TIME".
6362 8.25 KVM_CAP_S390_DIAG318
6363 -------------------------
6365 :Architectures: s390
6367 This capability enables a guest to set information about its control program
6368 (i.e. guest kernel type and version). The information is helpful during
6369 system/firmware service events, providing additional data about the guest
6370 environments running on the machine.
6372 The information is associated with the DIAGNOSE 0x318 instruction, which sets
6373 an 8-byte value consisting of a one-byte Control Program Name Code (CPNC) and
6374 a 7-byte Control Program Version Code (CPVC). The CPNC determines what
6375 environment the control program is running in (e.g. Linux, z/VM...), and the
6376 CPVC is used for information specific to OS (e.g. Linux version, Linux
6379 If this capability is available, then the CPNC and CPVC can be synchronized
6380 between KVM and userspace via the sync regs mechanism (KVM_SYNC_DIAG318).
6382 8.26 KVM_CAP_X86_USER_SPACE_MSR
6383 -------------------------------
6387 This capability indicates that KVM supports deflection of MSR reads and
6388 writes to user space. It can be enabled on a VM level. If enabled, MSR
6389 accesses that would usually trigger a #GP by KVM into the guest will
6390 instead get bounced to user space through the KVM_EXIT_X86_RDMSR and
6391 KVM_EXIT_X86_WRMSR exit notifications.
6393 8.27 KVM_X86_SET_MSR_FILTER
6394 ---------------------------
6398 This capability indicates that KVM supports that accesses to user defined MSRs
6399 may be rejected. With this capability exposed, KVM exports new VM ioctl
6400 KVM_X86_SET_MSR_FILTER which user space can call to specify bitmaps of MSR
6401 ranges that KVM should reject access to.
6403 In combination with KVM_CAP_X86_USER_SPACE_MSR, this allows user space to
6404 trap and emulate MSRs that are outside of the scope of KVM as well as
6405 limit the attack surface on KVM's MSR emulation code.
6407 8.28 KVM_CAP_ENFORCE_PV_CPUID
6408 -----------------------------
6412 When enabled, KVM will disable paravirtual features provided to the
6413 guest according to the bits in the KVM_CPUID_FEATURES CPUID leaf
6414 (0x40000001). Otherwise, a guest may use the paravirtual features
6415 regardless of what has actually been exposed through the CPUID leaf.
6418 8.29 KVM_CAP_DIRTY_LOG_RING
6419 ---------------------------
6422 :Parameters: args[0] - size of the dirty log ring
6424 KVM is capable of tracking dirty memory using ring buffers that are
6425 mmaped into userspace; there is one dirty ring per vcpu.
6427 The dirty ring is available to userspace as an array of
6428 ``struct kvm_dirty_gfn``. Each dirty entry it's defined as::
6430 struct kvm_dirty_gfn {
6432 __u32 slot; /* as_id | slot_id */
6436 The following values are defined for the flags field to define the
6437 current state of the entry::
6439 #define KVM_DIRTY_GFN_F_DIRTY BIT(0)
6440 #define KVM_DIRTY_GFN_F_RESET BIT(1)
6441 #define KVM_DIRTY_GFN_F_MASK 0x3
6443 Userspace should call KVM_ENABLE_CAP ioctl right after KVM_CREATE_VM
6444 ioctl to enable this capability for the new guest and set the size of
6445 the rings. Enabling the capability is only allowed before creating any
6446 vCPU, and the size of the ring must be a power of two. The larger the
6447 ring buffer, the less likely the ring is full and the VM is forced to
6448 exit to userspace. The optimal size depends on the workload, but it is
6449 recommended that it be at least 64 KiB (4096 entries).
6451 Just like for dirty page bitmaps, the buffer tracks writes to
6452 all user memory regions for which the KVM_MEM_LOG_DIRTY_PAGES flag was
6453 set in KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION. Once a memory region is registered
6454 with the flag set, userspace can start harvesting dirty pages from the
6457 An entry in the ring buffer can be unused (flag bits ``00``),
6458 dirty (flag bits ``01``) or harvested (flag bits ``1X``). The
6459 state machine for the entry is as follows::
6461 dirtied harvested reset
6462 00 -----------> 01 -------------> 1X -------+
6465 +------------------------------------------+
6467 To harvest the dirty pages, userspace accesses the mmaped ring buffer
6468 to read the dirty GFNs. If the flags has the DIRTY bit set (at this stage
6469 the RESET bit must be cleared), then it means this GFN is a dirty GFN.
6470 The userspace should harvest this GFN and mark the flags from state
6471 ``01b`` to ``1Xb`` (bit 0 will be ignored by KVM, but bit 1 must be set
6472 to show that this GFN is harvested and waiting for a reset), and move
6473 on to the next GFN. The userspace should continue to do this until the
6474 flags of a GFN have the DIRTY bit cleared, meaning that it has harvested
6475 all the dirty GFNs that were available.
6477 It's not necessary for userspace to harvest the all dirty GFNs at once.
6478 However it must collect the dirty GFNs in sequence, i.e., the userspace
6479 program cannot skip one dirty GFN to collect the one next to it.
6481 After processing one or more entries in the ring buffer, userspace
6482 calls the VM ioctl KVM_RESET_DIRTY_RINGS to notify the kernel about
6483 it, so that the kernel will reprotect those collected GFNs.
6484 Therefore, the ioctl must be called *before* reading the content of
6487 The dirty ring can get full. When it happens, the KVM_RUN of the
6488 vcpu will return with exit reason KVM_EXIT_DIRTY_LOG_FULL.
6490 The dirty ring interface has a major difference comparing to the
6491 KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG interface in that, when reading the dirty ring from
6492 userspace, it's still possible that the kernel has not yet flushed the
6493 processor's dirty page buffers into the kernel buffer (with dirty bitmaps, the
6494 flushing is done by the KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG ioctl). To achieve that, one
6495 needs to kick the vcpu out of KVM_RUN using a signal. The resulting
6496 vmexit ensures that all dirty GFNs are flushed to the dirty rings.
6498 NOTE: the capability KVM_CAP_DIRTY_LOG_RING and the corresponding
6499 ioctl KVM_RESET_DIRTY_RINGS are mutual exclusive to the existing ioctls
6500 KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG and KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG. After enabling
6501 KVM_CAP_DIRTY_LOG_RING with an acceptable dirty ring size, the virtual
6502 machine will switch to ring-buffer dirty page tracking and further
6503 KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG or KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG ioctls will fail.