1 The Definitive KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) API Documentation
2 ===================================================================
7 The kvm API is a set of ioctls that are issued to control various aspects
8 of a virtual machine. The ioctls belong to the following classes:
10 - System ioctls: These query and set global attributes which affect the
11 whole kvm subsystem. In addition a system ioctl is used to create
14 - VM ioctls: These query and set attributes that affect an entire virtual
15 machine, for example memory layout. In addition a VM ioctl is used to
16 create virtual cpus (vcpus) and devices.
18 VM ioctls must be issued from the same process (address space) that was
19 used to create the VM.
21 - vcpu ioctls: These query and set attributes that control the operation
22 of a single virtual cpu.
24 vcpu ioctls should be issued from the same thread that was used to create
25 the vcpu, except for asynchronous vcpu ioctl that are marked as such in
26 the documentation. Otherwise, the first ioctl after switching threads
27 could see a performance impact.
29 - device ioctls: These query and set attributes that control the operation
32 device ioctls must be issued from the same process (address space) that
33 was used to create the VM.
38 The kvm API is centered around file descriptors. An initial
39 open("/dev/kvm") obtains a handle to the kvm subsystem; this handle
40 can be used to issue system ioctls. A KVM_CREATE_VM ioctl on this
41 handle will create a VM file descriptor which can be used to issue VM
42 ioctls. A KVM_CREATE_VCPU or KVM_CREATE_DEVICE ioctl on a VM fd will
43 create a virtual cpu or device and return a file descriptor pointing to
44 the new resource. Finally, ioctls on a vcpu or device fd can be used
45 to control the vcpu or device. For vcpus, this includes the important
46 task of actually running guest code.
48 In general file descriptors can be migrated among processes by means
49 of fork() and the SCM_RIGHTS facility of unix domain socket. These
50 kinds of tricks are explicitly not supported by kvm. While they will
51 not cause harm to the host, their actual behavior is not guaranteed by
52 the API. See "General description" for details on the ioctl usage
53 model that is supported by KVM.
55 It is important to note that althought VM ioctls may only be issued from
56 the process that created the VM, a VM's lifecycle is associated with its
57 file descriptor, not its creator (process). In other words, the VM and
58 its resources, *including the associated address space*, are not freed
59 until the last reference to the VM's file descriptor has been released.
60 For example, if fork() is issued after ioctl(KVM_CREATE_VM), the VM will
61 not be freed until both the parent (original) process and its child have
62 put their references to the VM's file descriptor.
64 Because a VM's resources are not freed until the last reference to its
65 file descriptor is released, creating additional references to a VM via
66 via fork(), dup(), etc... without careful consideration is strongly
67 discouraged and may have unwanted side effects, e.g. memory allocated
68 by and on behalf of the VM's process may not be freed/unaccounted when
75 As of Linux 2.6.22, the KVM ABI has been stabilized: no backward
76 incompatible change are allowed. However, there is an extension
77 facility that allows backward-compatible extensions to the API to be
80 The extension mechanism is not based on the Linux version number.
81 Instead, kvm defines extension identifiers and a facility to query
82 whether a particular extension identifier is available. If it is, a
83 set of ioctls is available for application use.
89 This section describes ioctls that can be used to control kvm guests.
90 For each ioctl, the following information is provided along with a
93 Capability: which KVM extension provides this ioctl. Can be 'basic',
94 which means that is will be provided by any kernel that supports
95 API version 12 (see section 4.1), a KVM_CAP_xyz constant, which
96 means availability needs to be checked with KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
97 (see section 4.4), or 'none' which means that while not all kernels
98 support this ioctl, there's no capability bit to check its
99 availability: for kernels that don't support the ioctl,
100 the ioctl returns -ENOTTY.
102 Architectures: which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
103 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
105 Type: system, vm, or vcpu.
107 Parameters: what parameters are accepted by the ioctl.
109 Returns: the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
110 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
113 4.1 KVM_GET_API_VERSION
119 Returns: the constant KVM_API_VERSION (=12)
121 This identifies the API version as the stable kvm API. It is not
122 expected that this number will change. However, Linux 2.6.20 and
123 2.6.21 report earlier versions; these are not documented and not
124 supported. Applications should refuse to run if KVM_GET_API_VERSION
125 returns a value other than 12. If this check passes, all ioctls
126 described as 'basic' will be available.
134 Parameters: machine type identifier (KVM_VM_*)
135 Returns: a VM fd that can be used to control the new virtual machine.
137 The new VM has no virtual cpus and no memory.
138 You probably want to use 0 as machine type.
140 In order to create user controlled virtual machines on S390, check
141 KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL and use the flag KVM_VM_S390_UCONTROL as
142 privileged user (CAP_SYS_ADMIN).
144 To use hardware assisted virtualization on MIPS (VZ ASE) rather than
145 the default trap & emulate implementation (which changes the virtual
146 memory layout to fit in user mode), check KVM_CAP_MIPS_VZ and use the
150 On arm64, the physical address size for a VM (IPA Size limit) is limited
151 to 40bits by default. The limit can be configured if the host supports the
152 extension KVM_CAP_ARM_VM_IPA_SIZE. When supported, use
153 KVM_VM_TYPE_ARM_IPA_SIZE(IPA_Bits) to set the size in the machine type
154 identifier, where IPA_Bits is the maximum width of any physical
155 address used by the VM. The IPA_Bits is encoded in bits[7-0] of the
156 machine type identifier.
158 e.g, to configure a guest to use 48bit physical address size :
160 vm_fd = ioctl(dev_fd, KVM_CREATE_VM, KVM_VM_TYPE_ARM_IPA_SIZE(48));
162 The requested size (IPA_Bits) must be :
163 0 - Implies default size, 40bits (for backward compatibility)
167 N - Implies N bits, where N is a positive integer such that,
168 32 <= N <= Host_IPA_Limit
170 Host_IPA_Limit is the maximum possible value for IPA_Bits on the host and
171 is dependent on the CPU capability and the kernel configuration. The limit can
172 be retrieved using KVM_CAP_ARM_VM_IPA_SIZE of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
175 Please note that configuring the IPA size does not affect the capability
176 exposed by the guest CPUs in ID_AA64MMFR0_EL1[PARange]. It only affects
177 size of the address translated by the stage2 level (guest physical to
178 host physical address translations).
181 4.3 KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST, KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
183 Capability: basic, KVM_CAP_GET_MSR_FEATURES for KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
186 Parameters: struct kvm_msr_list (in/out)
187 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
189 EFAULT: the msr index list cannot be read from or written to
190 E2BIG: the msr index list is to be to fit in the array specified by
193 struct kvm_msr_list {
194 __u32 nmsrs; /* number of msrs in entries */
198 The user fills in the size of the indices array in nmsrs, and in return
199 kvm adjusts nmsrs to reflect the actual number of msrs and fills in the
200 indices array with their numbers.
202 KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST returns the guest msrs that are supported. The list
203 varies by kvm version and host processor, but does not change otherwise.
205 Note: if kvm indicates supports MCE (KVM_CAP_MCE), then the MCE bank MSRs are
206 not returned in the MSR list, as different vcpus can have a different number
207 of banks, as set via the KVM_X86_SETUP_MCE ioctl.
209 KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST returns the list of MSRs that can be passed
210 to the KVM_GET_MSRS system ioctl. This lets userspace probe host capabilities
211 and processor features that are exposed via MSRs (e.g., VMX capabilities).
212 This list also varies by kvm version and host processor, but does not change
216 4.4 KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION
218 Capability: basic, KVM_CAP_CHECK_EXTENSION_VM for vm ioctl
220 Type: system ioctl, vm ioctl
221 Parameters: extension identifier (KVM_CAP_*)
222 Returns: 0 if unsupported; 1 (or some other positive integer) if supported
224 The API allows the application to query about extensions to the core
225 kvm API. Userspace passes an extension identifier (an integer) and
226 receives an integer that describes the extension availability.
227 Generally 0 means no and 1 means yes, but some extensions may report
228 additional information in the integer return value.
230 Based on their initialization different VMs may have different capabilities.
231 It is thus encouraged to use the vm ioctl to query for capabilities (available
232 with KVM_CAP_CHECK_EXTENSION_VM on the vm fd)
234 4.5 KVM_GET_VCPU_MMAP_SIZE
240 Returns: size of vcpu mmap area, in bytes
242 The KVM_RUN ioctl (cf.) communicates with userspace via a shared
243 memory region. This ioctl returns the size of that region. See the
244 KVM_RUN documentation for details.
247 4.6 KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION
252 Parameters: struct kvm_memory_region (in)
253 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
255 This ioctl is obsolete and has been removed.
263 Parameters: vcpu id (apic id on x86)
264 Returns: vcpu fd on success, -1 on error
266 This API adds a vcpu to a virtual machine. No more than max_vcpus may be added.
267 The vcpu id is an integer in the range [0, max_vcpu_id).
269 The recommended max_vcpus value can be retrieved using the KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS of
270 the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
271 The maximum possible value for max_vcpus can be retrieved using the
272 KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
274 If the KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpus is 4
276 If the KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpus is
277 same as the value returned from KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS.
279 The maximum possible value for max_vcpu_id can be retrieved using the
280 KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPU_ID of the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl() at run-time.
282 If the KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPU_ID does not exist, you should assume that max_vcpu_id
283 is the same as the value returned from KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS.
285 On powerpc using book3s_hv mode, the vcpus are mapped onto virtual
286 threads in one or more virtual CPU cores. (This is because the
287 hardware requires all the hardware threads in a CPU core to be in the
288 same partition.) The KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT capability indicates the number
289 of vcpus per virtual core (vcore). The vcore id is obtained by
290 dividing the vcpu id by the number of vcpus per vcore. The vcpus in a
291 given vcore will always be in the same physical core as each other
292 (though that might be a different physical core from time to time).
293 Userspace can control the threading (SMT) mode of the guest by its
294 allocation of vcpu ids. For example, if userspace wants
295 single-threaded guest vcpus, it should make all vcpu ids be a multiple
296 of the number of vcpus per vcore.
298 For virtual cpus that have been created with S390 user controlled virtual
299 machines, the resulting vcpu fd can be memory mapped at page offset
300 KVM_S390_SIE_PAGE_OFFSET in order to obtain a memory map of the virtual
301 cpu's hardware control block.
304 4.8 KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG (vm ioctl)
309 Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_log (in/out)
310 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
312 /* for KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG */
313 struct kvm_dirty_log {
317 void __user *dirty_bitmap; /* one bit per page */
322 Given a memory slot, return a bitmap containing any pages dirtied
323 since the last call to this ioctl. Bit 0 is the first page in the
324 memory slot. Ensure the entire structure is cleared to avoid padding
327 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 specifies
328 the address space for which you want to return the dirty bitmap.
329 They must be less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for
330 the KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability.
332 The bits in the dirty bitmap are cleared before the ioctl returns, unless
333 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 is enabled. For more information,
334 see the description of the capability.
336 4.9 KVM_SET_MEMORY_ALIAS
341 Parameters: struct kvm_memory_alias (in)
342 Returns: 0 (success), -1 (error)
344 This ioctl is obsolete and has been removed.
353 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
355 EINTR: an unmasked signal is pending
357 This ioctl is used to run a guest virtual cpu. While there are no
358 explicit parameters, there is an implicit parameter block that can be
359 obtained by mmap()ing the vcpu fd at offset 0, with the size given by
360 KVM_GET_VCPU_MMAP_SIZE. The parameter block is formatted as a 'struct
361 kvm_run' (see below).
367 Architectures: all except ARM, arm64
369 Parameters: struct kvm_regs (out)
370 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
372 Reads the general purpose registers from the vcpu.
376 /* out (KVM_GET_REGS) / in (KVM_SET_REGS) */
377 __u64 rax, rbx, rcx, rdx;
378 __u64 rsi, rdi, rsp, rbp;
379 __u64 r8, r9, r10, r11;
380 __u64 r12, r13, r14, r15;
386 /* out (KVM_GET_REGS) / in (KVM_SET_REGS) */
397 Architectures: all except ARM, arm64
399 Parameters: struct kvm_regs (in)
400 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
402 Writes the general purpose registers into the vcpu.
404 See KVM_GET_REGS for the data structure.
410 Architectures: x86, ppc
412 Parameters: struct kvm_sregs (out)
413 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
415 Reads special registers from the vcpu.
419 struct kvm_segment cs, ds, es, fs, gs, ss;
420 struct kvm_segment tr, ldt;
421 struct kvm_dtable gdt, idt;
422 __u64 cr0, cr2, cr3, cr4, cr8;
425 __u64 interrupt_bitmap[(KVM_NR_INTERRUPTS + 63) / 64];
428 /* ppc -- see arch/powerpc/include/uapi/asm/kvm.h */
430 interrupt_bitmap is a bitmap of pending external interrupts. At most
431 one bit may be set. This interrupt has been acknowledged by the APIC
432 but not yet injected into the cpu core.
438 Architectures: x86, ppc
440 Parameters: struct kvm_sregs (in)
441 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
443 Writes special registers into the vcpu. See KVM_GET_SREGS for the
452 Parameters: struct kvm_translation (in/out)
453 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
455 Translates a virtual address according to the vcpu's current address
458 struct kvm_translation {
460 __u64 linear_address;
463 __u64 physical_address;
474 Architectures: x86, ppc, mips
476 Parameters: struct kvm_interrupt (in)
477 Returns: 0 on success, negative on failure.
479 Queues a hardware interrupt vector to be injected.
481 /* for KVM_INTERRUPT */
482 struct kvm_interrupt {
489 Returns: 0 on success,
490 -EEXIST if an interrupt is already enqueued
491 -EINVAL the the irq number is invalid
492 -ENXIO if the PIC is in the kernel
493 -EFAULT if the pointer is invalid
495 Note 'irq' is an interrupt vector, not an interrupt pin or line. This
496 ioctl is useful if the in-kernel PIC is not used.
500 Queues an external interrupt to be injected. This ioctl is overleaded
501 with 3 different irq values:
505 This injects an edge type external interrupt into the guest once it's ready
506 to receive interrupts. When injected, the interrupt is done.
508 b) KVM_INTERRUPT_UNSET
510 This unsets any pending interrupt.
512 Only available with KVM_CAP_PPC_UNSET_IRQ.
514 c) KVM_INTERRUPT_SET_LEVEL
516 This injects a level type external interrupt into the guest context. The
517 interrupt stays pending until a specific ioctl with KVM_INTERRUPT_UNSET
520 Only available with KVM_CAP_PPC_IRQ_LEVEL.
522 Note that any value for 'irq' other than the ones stated above is invalid
523 and incurs unexpected behavior.
525 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
529 Queues an external interrupt to be injected into the virtual CPU. A negative
530 interrupt number dequeues the interrupt.
532 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
543 Support for this has been removed. Use KVM_SET_GUEST_DEBUG instead.
548 Capability: basic (vcpu), KVM_CAP_GET_MSR_FEATURES (system)
550 Type: system ioctl, vcpu ioctl
551 Parameters: struct kvm_msrs (in/out)
552 Returns: number of msrs successfully returned;
555 When used as a system ioctl:
556 Reads the values of MSR-based features that are available for the VM. This
557 is similar to KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID, but it returns MSR indices and values.
558 The list of msr-based features can be obtained using KVM_GET_MSR_FEATURE_INDEX_LIST
561 When used as a vcpu ioctl:
562 Reads model-specific registers from the vcpu. Supported msr indices can
563 be obtained using KVM_GET_MSR_INDEX_LIST in a system ioctl.
566 __u32 nmsrs; /* number of msrs in entries */
569 struct kvm_msr_entry entries[0];
572 struct kvm_msr_entry {
578 Application code should set the 'nmsrs' member (which indicates the
579 size of the entries array) and the 'index' member of each array entry.
580 kvm will fill in the 'data' member.
588 Parameters: struct kvm_msrs (in)
589 Returns: number of msrs successfully set (see below), -1 on error
591 Writes model-specific registers to the vcpu. See KVM_GET_MSRS for the
594 Application code should set the 'nmsrs' member (which indicates the
595 size of the entries array), and the 'index' and 'data' members of each
598 It tries to set the MSRs in array entries[] one by one. If setting an MSR
599 fails, e.g., due to setting reserved bits, the MSR isn't supported/emulated
600 by KVM, etc..., it stops processing the MSR list and returns the number of
601 MSRs that have been set successfully.
609 Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid (in)
610 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
612 Defines the vcpu responses to the cpuid instruction. Applications
613 should use the KVM_SET_CPUID2 ioctl if available.
616 struct kvm_cpuid_entry {
625 /* for KVM_SET_CPUID */
629 struct kvm_cpuid_entry entries[0];
633 4.21 KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK
638 Parameters: struct kvm_signal_mask (in)
639 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
641 Defines which signals are blocked during execution of KVM_RUN. This
642 signal mask temporarily overrides the threads signal mask. Any
643 unblocked signal received (except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP, which retain
644 their traditional behaviour) will cause KVM_RUN to return with -EINTR.
646 Note the signal will only be delivered if not blocked by the original
649 /* for KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK */
650 struct kvm_signal_mask {
661 Parameters: struct kvm_fpu (out)
662 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
664 Reads the floating point state from the vcpu.
666 /* for KVM_GET_FPU and KVM_SET_FPU */
671 __u8 ftwx; /* in fxsave format */
687 Parameters: struct kvm_fpu (in)
688 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
690 Writes the floating point state to the vcpu.
692 /* for KVM_GET_FPU and KVM_SET_FPU */
697 __u8 ftwx; /* in fxsave format */
708 4.24 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP
710 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP, KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP (s390)
711 Architectures: x86, ARM, arm64, s390
714 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
716 Creates an interrupt controller model in the kernel.
717 On x86, creates a virtual ioapic, a virtual PIC (two PICs, nested), and sets up
718 future vcpus to have a local APIC. IRQ routing for GSIs 0-15 is set to both
719 PIC and IOAPIC; GSI 16-23 only go to the IOAPIC.
720 On ARM/arm64, a GICv2 is created. Any other GIC versions require the usage of
721 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE, which also supports creating a GICv2. Using
722 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE is preferred over KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP for GICv2.
723 On s390, a dummy irq routing table is created.
725 Note that on s390 the KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP vm capability needs to be enabled
726 before KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP can be used.
731 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
732 Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
734 Parameters: struct kvm_irq_level
735 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
737 Sets the level of a GSI input to the interrupt controller model in the kernel.
738 On some architectures it is required that an interrupt controller model has
739 been previously created with KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Note that edge-triggered
740 interrupts require the level to be set to 1 and then back to 0.
742 On real hardware, interrupt pins can be active-low or active-high. This
743 does not matter for the level field of struct kvm_irq_level: 1 always
744 means active (asserted), 0 means inactive (deasserted).
746 x86 allows the operating system to program the interrupt polarity
747 (active-low/active-high) for level-triggered interrupts, and KVM used
748 to consider the polarity. However, due to bitrot in the handling of
749 active-low interrupts, the above convention is now valid on x86 too.
750 This is signaled by KVM_CAP_X86_IOAPIC_POLARITY_IGNORED. Userspace
751 should not present interrupts to the guest as active-low unless this
752 capability is present (or unless it is not using the in-kernel irqchip,
756 ARM/arm64 can signal an interrupt either at the CPU level, or at the
757 in-kernel irqchip (GIC), and for in-kernel irqchip can tell the GIC to
758 use PPIs designated for specific cpus. The irq field is interpreted
761 Â bits: | 31 ... 28 | 27 ... 24 | 23 ... 16 | 15 ... 0 |
762 field: | vcpu2_index | irq_type | vcpu_index | irq_id |
764 The irq_type field has the following values:
765 - irq_type[0]: out-of-kernel GIC: irq_id 0 is IRQ, irq_id 1 is FIQ
766 - irq_type[1]: in-kernel GIC: SPI, irq_id between 32 and 1019 (incl.)
767 (the vcpu_index field is ignored)
768 - irq_type[2]: in-kernel GIC: PPI, irq_id between 16 and 31 (incl.)
770 (The irq_id field thus corresponds nicely to the IRQ ID in the ARM GIC specs)
772 In both cases, level is used to assert/deassert the line.
774 When KVM_CAP_ARM_IRQ_LINE_LAYOUT_2 is supported, the target vcpu is
775 identified as (256 * vcpu2_index + vcpu_index). Otherwise, vcpu2_index
778 Note that on arm/arm64, the KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP capability only conditions
779 injection of interrupts for the in-kernel irqchip. KVM_IRQ_LINE can always
780 be used for a userspace interrupt controller.
782 struct kvm_irq_level {
785 __s32 status; /* not used for KVM_IRQ_LEVEL */
787 __u32 level; /* 0 or 1 */
793 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
796 Parameters: struct kvm_irqchip (in/out)
797 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
799 Reads the state of a kernel interrupt controller created with
800 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP into a buffer provided by the caller.
803 __u32 chip_id; /* 0 = PIC1, 1 = PIC2, 2 = IOAPIC */
806 char dummy[512]; /* reserving space */
807 struct kvm_pic_state pic;
808 struct kvm_ioapic_state ioapic;
815 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
818 Parameters: struct kvm_irqchip (in)
819 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
821 Sets the state of a kernel interrupt controller created with
822 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP from a buffer provided by the caller.
825 __u32 chip_id; /* 0 = PIC1, 1 = PIC2, 2 = IOAPIC */
828 char dummy[512]; /* reserving space */
829 struct kvm_pic_state pic;
830 struct kvm_ioapic_state ioapic;
835 4.28 KVM_XEN_HVM_CONFIG
837 Capability: KVM_CAP_XEN_HVM
840 Parameters: struct kvm_xen_hvm_config (in)
841 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
843 Sets the MSR that the Xen HVM guest uses to initialize its hypercall
844 page, and provides the starting address and size of the hypercall
845 blobs in userspace. When the guest writes the MSR, kvm copies one
846 page of a blob (32- or 64-bit, depending on the vcpu mode) to guest
849 struct kvm_xen_hvm_config {
862 Capability: KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK
865 Parameters: struct kvm_clock_data (out)
866 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
868 Gets the current timestamp of kvmclock as seen by the current guest. In
869 conjunction with KVM_SET_CLOCK, it is used to ensure monotonicity on scenarios
872 When KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK is passed to KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION, it returns the
873 set of bits that KVM can return in struct kvm_clock_data's flag member.
875 The only flag defined now is KVM_CLOCK_TSC_STABLE. If set, the returned
876 value is the exact kvmclock value seen by all VCPUs at the instant
877 when KVM_GET_CLOCK was called. If clear, the returned value is simply
878 CLOCK_MONOTONIC plus a constant offset; the offset can be modified
879 with KVM_SET_CLOCK. KVM will try to make all VCPUs follow this clock,
880 but the exact value read by each VCPU could differ, because the host
883 struct kvm_clock_data {
884 __u64 clock; /* kvmclock current value */
892 Capability: KVM_CAP_ADJUST_CLOCK
895 Parameters: struct kvm_clock_data (in)
896 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
898 Sets the current timestamp of kvmclock to the value specified in its parameter.
899 In conjunction with KVM_GET_CLOCK, it is used to ensure monotonicity on scenarios
902 struct kvm_clock_data {
903 __u64 clock; /* kvmclock current value */
909 4.31 KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS
911 Capability: KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS
912 Extended by: KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW
913 Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
915 Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_event (out)
916 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
920 Gets currently pending exceptions, interrupts, and NMIs as well as related
923 struct kvm_vcpu_events {
952 __u8 exception_has_payload;
953 __u64 exception_payload;
956 The following bits are defined in the flags field:
958 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SHADOW may be set to signal that
959 interrupt.shadow contains a valid state.
961 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM may be set to signal that smi contains a
964 - KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_PAYLOAD may be set to signal that the
965 exception_has_payload, exception_payload, and exception.pending
966 fields contain a valid state. This bit will be set whenever
967 KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD is enabled.
971 If the guest accesses a device that is being emulated by the host kernel in
972 such a way that a real device would generate a physical SError, KVM may make
973 a virtual SError pending for that VCPU. This system error interrupt remains
974 pending until the guest takes the exception by unmasking PSTATE.A.
976 Running the VCPU may cause it to take a pending SError, or make an access that
977 causes an SError to become pending. The event's description is only valid while
978 the VPCU is not running.
980 This API provides a way to read and write the pending 'event' state that is not
981 visible to the guest. To save, restore or migrate a VCPU the struct representing
982 the state can be read then written using this GET/SET API, along with the other
983 guest-visible registers. It is not possible to 'cancel' an SError that has been
986 A device being emulated in user-space may also wish to generate an SError. To do
987 this the events structure can be populated by user-space. The current state
988 should be read first, to ensure no existing SError is pending. If an existing
989 SError is pending, the architecture's 'Multiple SError interrupts' rules should
990 be followed. (2.5.3 of DDI0587.a "ARM Reliability, Availability, and
991 Serviceability (RAS) Specification").
993 SError exceptions always have an ESR value. Some CPUs have the ability to
994 specify what the virtual SError's ESR value should be. These systems will
995 advertise KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR. In this case exception.has_esr will
996 always have a non-zero value when read, and the agent making an SError pending
997 should specify the ISS field in the lower 24 bits of exception.serror_esr. If
998 the system supports KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR, but user-space sets the events
999 with exception.has_esr as zero, KVM will choose an ESR.
1001 Specifying exception.has_esr on a system that does not support it will return
1002 -EINVAL. Setting anything other than the lower 24bits of exception.serror_esr
1003 will return -EINVAL.
1005 It is not possible to read back a pending external abort (injected via
1006 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS or otherwise) because such an exception is always delivered
1007 directly to the virtual CPU).
1010 struct kvm_vcpu_events {
1012 __u8 serror_pending;
1013 __u8 serror_has_esr;
1014 __u8 ext_dabt_pending;
1015 /* Align it to 8 bytes */
1022 4.32 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS
1024 Capability: KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS
1025 Extended by: KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW
1026 Architectures: x86, arm, arm64
1028 Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_event (in)
1029 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1033 Set pending exceptions, interrupts, and NMIs as well as related states of the
1036 See KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS for the data structure.
1038 Fields that may be modified asynchronously by running VCPUs can be excluded
1039 from the update. These fields are nmi.pending, sipi_vector, smi.smm,
1040 smi.pending. Keep the corresponding bits in the flags field cleared to
1041 suppress overwriting the current in-kernel state. The bits are:
1043 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_NMI_PENDING - transfer nmi.pending to the kernel
1044 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SIPI_VECTOR - transfer sipi_vector
1045 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM - transfer the smi sub-struct.
1047 If KVM_CAP_INTR_SHADOW is available, KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SHADOW can be set in
1048 the flags field to signal that interrupt.shadow contains a valid state and
1049 shall be written into the VCPU.
1051 KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_SMM can only be set if KVM_CAP_X86_SMM is available.
1053 If KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD is enabled, KVM_VCPUEVENT_VALID_PAYLOAD
1054 can be set in the flags field to signal that the
1055 exception_has_payload, exception_payload, and exception.pending fields
1056 contain a valid state and shall be written into the VCPU.
1060 User space may need to inject several types of events to the guest.
1062 Set the pending SError exception state for this VCPU. It is not possible to
1063 'cancel' an Serror that has been made pending.
1065 If the guest performed an access to I/O memory which could not be handled by
1066 userspace, for example because of missing instruction syndrome decode
1067 information or because there is no device mapped at the accessed IPA, then
1068 userspace can ask the kernel to inject an external abort using the address
1069 from the exiting fault on the VCPU. It is a programming error to set
1070 ext_dabt_pending after an exit which was not either KVM_EXIT_MMIO or
1071 KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV. This feature is only available if the system supports
1072 KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_EXT_DABT. This is a helper which provides commonality in
1073 how userspace reports accesses for the above cases to guests, across different
1074 userspace implementations. Nevertheless, userspace can still emulate all Arm
1075 exceptions by manipulating individual registers using the KVM_SET_ONE_REG API.
1077 See KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS for the data structure.
1080 4.33 KVM_GET_DEBUGREGS
1082 Capability: KVM_CAP_DEBUGREGS
1085 Parameters: struct kvm_debugregs (out)
1086 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1088 Reads debug registers from the vcpu.
1090 struct kvm_debugregs {
1099 4.34 KVM_SET_DEBUGREGS
1101 Capability: KVM_CAP_DEBUGREGS
1104 Parameters: struct kvm_debugregs (in)
1105 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1107 Writes debug registers into the vcpu.
1109 See KVM_GET_DEBUGREGS for the data structure. The flags field is unused
1110 yet and must be cleared on entry.
1113 4.35 KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION
1115 Capability: KVM_CAP_USER_MEMORY
1118 Parameters: struct kvm_userspace_memory_region (in)
1119 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1121 struct kvm_userspace_memory_region {
1124 __u64 guest_phys_addr;
1125 __u64 memory_size; /* bytes */
1126 __u64 userspace_addr; /* start of the userspace allocated memory */
1129 /* for kvm_memory_region::flags */
1130 #define KVM_MEM_LOG_DIRTY_PAGES (1UL << 0)
1131 #define KVM_MEM_READONLY (1UL << 1)
1133 This ioctl allows the user to create, modify or delete a guest physical
1134 memory slot. Bits 0-15 of "slot" specify the slot id and this value
1135 should be less than the maximum number of user memory slots supported per
1136 VM. The maximum allowed slots can be queried using KVM_CAP_NR_MEMSLOTS.
1137 Slots may not overlap in guest physical address space.
1139 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 of "slot"
1140 specifies the address space which is being modified. They must be
1141 less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for the
1142 KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability. Slots in separate address spaces
1143 are unrelated; the restriction on overlapping slots only applies within
1146 Deleting a slot is done by passing zero for memory_size. When changing
1147 an existing slot, it may be moved in the guest physical memory space,
1148 or its flags may be modified, but it may not be resized.
1150 Memory for the region is taken starting at the address denoted by the
1151 field userspace_addr, which must point at user addressable memory for
1152 the entire memory slot size. Any object may back this memory, including
1153 anonymous memory, ordinary files, and hugetlbfs.
1155 It is recommended that the lower 21 bits of guest_phys_addr and userspace_addr
1156 be identical. This allows large pages in the guest to be backed by large
1159 The flags field supports two flags: KVM_MEM_LOG_DIRTY_PAGES and
1160 KVM_MEM_READONLY. The former can be set to instruct KVM to keep track of
1161 writes to memory within the slot. See KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG ioctl to know how to
1162 use it. The latter can be set, if KVM_CAP_READONLY_MEM capability allows it,
1163 to make a new slot read-only. In this case, writes to this memory will be
1164 posted to userspace as KVM_EXIT_MMIO exits.
1166 When the KVM_CAP_SYNC_MMU capability is available, changes in the backing of
1167 the memory region are automatically reflected into the guest. For example, an
1168 mmap() that affects the region will be made visible immediately. Another
1169 example is madvise(MADV_DROP).
1171 It is recommended to use this API instead of the KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION ioctl.
1172 The KVM_SET_MEMORY_REGION does not allow fine grained control over memory
1173 allocation and is deprecated.
1176 4.36 KVM_SET_TSS_ADDR
1178 Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_TSS_ADDR
1181 Parameters: unsigned long tss_address (in)
1182 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1184 This ioctl defines the physical address of a three-page region in the guest
1185 physical address space. The region must be within the first 4GB of the
1186 guest physical address space and must not conflict with any memory slot
1187 or any mmio address. The guest may malfunction if it accesses this memory
1190 This ioctl is required on Intel-based hosts. This is needed on Intel hardware
1191 because of a quirk in the virtualization implementation (see the internals
1192 documentation when it pops into existence).
1197 Capability: KVM_CAP_ENABLE_CAP
1198 Architectures: mips, ppc, s390
1200 Parameters: struct kvm_enable_cap (in)
1201 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1203 Capability: KVM_CAP_ENABLE_CAP_VM
1206 Parameters: struct kvm_enable_cap (in)
1207 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1209 +Not all extensions are enabled by default. Using this ioctl the application
1210 can enable an extension, making it available to the guest.
1212 On systems that do not support this ioctl, it always fails. On systems that
1213 do support it, it only works for extensions that are supported for enablement.
1215 To check if a capability can be enabled, the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl should
1218 struct kvm_enable_cap {
1222 The capability that is supposed to get enabled.
1226 A bitfield indicating future enhancements. Has to be 0 for now.
1230 Arguments for enabling a feature. If a feature needs initial values to
1231 function properly, this is the place to put them.
1236 The vcpu ioctl should be used for vcpu-specific capabilities, the vm ioctl
1237 for vm-wide capabilities.
1239 4.38 KVM_GET_MP_STATE
1241 Capability: KVM_CAP_MP_STATE
1242 Architectures: x86, s390, arm, arm64
1244 Parameters: struct kvm_mp_state (out)
1245 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1247 struct kvm_mp_state {
1251 Returns the vcpu's current "multiprocessing state" (though also valid on
1252 uniprocessor guests).
1254 Possible values are:
1256 - KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE: the vcpu is currently running [x86,arm/arm64]
1257 - KVM_MP_STATE_UNINITIALIZED: the vcpu is an application processor (AP)
1258 which has not yet received an INIT signal [x86]
1259 - KVM_MP_STATE_INIT_RECEIVED: the vcpu has received an INIT signal, and is
1260 now ready for a SIPI [x86]
1261 - KVM_MP_STATE_HALTED: the vcpu has executed a HLT instruction and
1262 is waiting for an interrupt [x86]
1263 - KVM_MP_STATE_SIPI_RECEIVED: the vcpu has just received a SIPI (vector
1264 accessible via KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS) [x86]
1265 - KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED: the vcpu is stopped [s390,arm/arm64]
1266 - KVM_MP_STATE_CHECK_STOP: the vcpu is in a special error state [s390]
1267 - KVM_MP_STATE_OPERATING: the vcpu is operating (running or halted)
1269 - KVM_MP_STATE_LOAD: the vcpu is in a special load/startup state
1272 On x86, this ioctl is only useful after KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Without an
1273 in-kernel irqchip, the multiprocessing state must be maintained by userspace on
1274 these architectures.
1278 The only states that are valid are KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED and
1279 KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE which reflect if the vcpu is paused or not.
1281 4.39 KVM_SET_MP_STATE
1283 Capability: KVM_CAP_MP_STATE
1284 Architectures: x86, s390, arm, arm64
1286 Parameters: struct kvm_mp_state (in)
1287 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
1289 Sets the vcpu's current "multiprocessing state"; see KVM_GET_MP_STATE for
1292 On x86, this ioctl is only useful after KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. Without an
1293 in-kernel irqchip, the multiprocessing state must be maintained by userspace on
1294 these architectures.
1298 The only states that are valid are KVM_MP_STATE_STOPPED and
1299 KVM_MP_STATE_RUNNABLE which reflect if the vcpu should be paused or not.
1301 4.40 KVM_SET_IDENTITY_MAP_ADDR
1303 Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_IDENTITY_MAP_ADDR
1306 Parameters: unsigned long identity (in)
1307 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1309 This ioctl defines the physical address of a one-page region in the guest
1310 physical address space. The region must be within the first 4GB of the
1311 guest physical address space and must not conflict with any memory slot
1312 or any mmio address. The guest may malfunction if it accesses this memory
1315 Setting the address to 0 will result in resetting the address to its default
1318 This ioctl is required on Intel-based hosts. This is needed on Intel hardware
1319 because of a quirk in the virtualization implementation (see the internals
1320 documentation when it pops into existence).
1322 Fails if any VCPU has already been created.
1324 4.41 KVM_SET_BOOT_CPU_ID
1326 Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_BOOT_CPU_ID
1329 Parameters: unsigned long vcpu_id
1330 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1332 Define which vcpu is the Bootstrap Processor (BSP). Values are the same
1333 as the vcpu id in KVM_CREATE_VCPU. If this ioctl is not called, the default
1339 Capability: KVM_CAP_XSAVE
1342 Parameters: struct kvm_xsave (out)
1343 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1349 This ioctl would copy current vcpu's xsave struct to the userspace.
1354 Capability: KVM_CAP_XSAVE
1357 Parameters: struct kvm_xsave (in)
1358 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1364 This ioctl would copy userspace's xsave struct to the kernel.
1369 Capability: KVM_CAP_XCRS
1372 Parameters: struct kvm_xcrs (out)
1373 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1384 struct kvm_xcr xcrs[KVM_MAX_XCRS];
1388 This ioctl would copy current vcpu's xcrs to the userspace.
1393 Capability: KVM_CAP_XCRS
1396 Parameters: struct kvm_xcrs (in)
1397 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1408 struct kvm_xcr xcrs[KVM_MAX_XCRS];
1412 This ioctl would set vcpu's xcr to the value userspace specified.
1415 4.46 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID
1417 Capability: KVM_CAP_EXT_CPUID
1420 Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
1421 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1426 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
1429 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX BIT(0)
1430 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC BIT(1)
1431 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT BIT(2)
1433 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
1444 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features which are supported by both the
1445 hardware and kvm in its default configuration. Userspace can use the
1446 information returned by this ioctl to construct cpuid information (for
1447 KVM_SET_CPUID2) that is consistent with hardware, kernel, and
1448 userspace capabilities, and with user requirements (for example, the
1449 user may wish to constrain cpuid to emulate older hardware, or for
1450 feature consistency across a cluster).
1452 Note that certain capabilities, such as KVM_CAP_X86_DISABLE_EXITS, may
1453 expose cpuid features (e.g. MONITOR) which are not supported by kvm in
1454 its default configuration. If userspace enables such capabilities, it
1455 is responsible for modifying the results of this ioctl appropriately.
1457 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2 structure
1458 with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in the variable-size
1459 array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low to describe the cpu
1460 capabilities, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the number is too high,
1461 the 'nent' field is adjusted and an error (ENOMEM) is returned. If the
1462 number is just right, the 'nent' field is adjusted to the number of valid
1463 entries in the 'entries' array, which is then filled.
1465 The entries returned are the host cpuid as returned by the cpuid instruction,
1466 with unknown or unsupported features masked out. Some features (for example,
1467 x2apic), may not be present in the host cpu, but are exposed by kvm if it can
1468 emulate them efficiently. The fields in each entry are defined as follows:
1470 function: the eax value used to obtain the entry
1471 index: the ecx value used to obtain the entry (for entries that are
1473 flags: an OR of zero or more of the following:
1474 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX:
1475 if the index field is valid
1476 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC:
1477 if cpuid for this function returns different values for successive
1478 invocations; there will be several entries with the same function,
1479 all with this flag set
1480 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT:
1481 for KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC entries, set if this entry is
1482 the first entry to be read by a cpu
1483 eax, ebx, ecx, edx: the values returned by the cpuid instruction for
1484 this function/index combination
1486 The TSC deadline timer feature (CPUID leaf 1, ecx[24]) is always returned
1487 as false, since the feature depends on KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP for local APIC
1488 support. Instead it is reported via
1490 ioctl(KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION, KVM_CAP_TSC_DEADLINE_TIMER)
1492 if that returns true and you use KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, or if you emulate the
1493 feature in userspace, then you can enable the feature for KVM_SET_CPUID2.
1496 4.47 KVM_PPC_GET_PVINFO
1498 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_PVINFO
1501 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_pvinfo (out)
1502 Returns: 0 on success, !0 on error
1504 struct kvm_ppc_pvinfo {
1510 This ioctl fetches PV specific information that need to be passed to the guest
1511 using the device tree or other means from vm context.
1513 The hcall array defines 4 instructions that make up a hypercall.
1515 If any additional field gets added to this structure later on, a bit for that
1516 additional piece of information will be set in the flags bitmap.
1518 The flags bitmap is defined as:
1520 /* the host supports the ePAPR idle hcall
1521 #define KVM_PPC_PVINFO_FLAGS_EV_IDLE (1<<0)
1523 4.52 KVM_SET_GSI_ROUTING
1525 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQ_ROUTING
1526 Architectures: x86 s390 arm arm64
1528 Parameters: struct kvm_irq_routing (in)
1529 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1531 Sets the GSI routing table entries, overwriting any previously set entries.
1533 On arm/arm64, GSI routing has the following limitation:
1534 - GSI routing does not apply to KVM_IRQ_LINE but only to KVM_IRQFD.
1536 struct kvm_irq_routing {
1539 struct kvm_irq_routing_entry entries[0];
1542 No flags are specified so far, the corresponding field must be set to zero.
1544 struct kvm_irq_routing_entry {
1550 struct kvm_irq_routing_irqchip irqchip;
1551 struct kvm_irq_routing_msi msi;
1552 struct kvm_irq_routing_s390_adapter adapter;
1553 struct kvm_irq_routing_hv_sint hv_sint;
1558 /* gsi routing entry types */
1559 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_IRQCHIP 1
1560 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI 2
1561 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_S390_ADAPTER 3
1562 #define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_HV_SINT 4
1565 - KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID: used along with KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI routing entry
1566 type, specifies that the devid field contains a valid value. The per-VM
1567 KVM_CAP_MSI_DEVID capability advertises the requirement to provide
1568 the device ID. If this capability is not available, userspace should
1569 never set the KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID flag as the ioctl might fail.
1572 struct kvm_irq_routing_irqchip {
1577 struct kvm_irq_routing_msi {
1587 If KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID is set, devid contains a unique device identifier
1588 for the device that wrote the MSI message. For PCI, this is usually a
1589 BFD identifier in the lower 16 bits.
1591 On x86, address_hi is ignored unless the KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS
1592 feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability is enabled. If it is enabled,
1593 address_hi bits 31-8 provide bits 31-8 of the destination id. Bits 7-0 of
1594 address_hi must be zero.
1596 struct kvm_irq_routing_s390_adapter {
1600 __u32 summary_offset;
1604 struct kvm_irq_routing_hv_sint {
1610 4.55 KVM_SET_TSC_KHZ
1612 Capability: KVM_CAP_TSC_CONTROL
1615 Parameters: virtual tsc_khz
1616 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1618 Specifies the tsc frequency for the virtual machine. The unit of the
1622 4.56 KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ
1624 Capability: KVM_CAP_GET_TSC_KHZ
1628 Returns: virtual tsc-khz on success, negative value on error
1630 Returns the tsc frequency of the guest. The unit of the return value is
1631 KHz. If the host has unstable tsc this ioctl returns -EIO instead as an
1637 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
1640 Parameters: struct kvm_lapic_state (out)
1641 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1643 #define KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE 0x400
1644 struct kvm_lapic_state {
1645 char regs[KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE];
1648 Reads the Local APIC registers and copies them into the input argument. The
1649 data format and layout are the same as documented in the architecture manual.
1651 If KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API is
1652 enabled, then the format of APIC_ID register depends on the APIC mode
1653 (reported by MSR_IA32_APICBASE) of its VCPU. x2APIC stores APIC ID in
1654 the APIC_ID register (bytes 32-35). xAPIC only allows an 8-bit APIC ID
1655 which is stored in bits 31-24 of the APIC register, or equivalently in
1656 byte 35 of struct kvm_lapic_state's regs field. KVM_GET_LAPIC must then
1657 be called after MSR_IA32_APICBASE has been set with KVM_SET_MSR.
1659 If KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS feature is disabled, struct kvm_lapic_state
1660 always uses xAPIC format.
1665 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQCHIP
1668 Parameters: struct kvm_lapic_state (in)
1669 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1671 #define KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE 0x400
1672 struct kvm_lapic_state {
1673 char regs[KVM_APIC_REG_SIZE];
1676 Copies the input argument into the Local APIC registers. The data format
1677 and layout are the same as documented in the architecture manual.
1679 The format of the APIC ID register (bytes 32-35 of struct kvm_lapic_state's
1680 regs field) depends on the state of the KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability.
1681 See the note in KVM_GET_LAPIC.
1686 Capability: KVM_CAP_IOEVENTFD
1689 Parameters: struct kvm_ioeventfd (in)
1690 Returns: 0 on success, !0 on error
1692 This ioctl attaches or detaches an ioeventfd to a legal pio/mmio address
1693 within the guest. A guest write in the registered address will signal the
1694 provided event instead of triggering an exit.
1696 struct kvm_ioeventfd {
1698 __u64 addr; /* legal pio/mmio address */
1699 __u32 len; /* 0, 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes */
1705 For the special case of virtio-ccw devices on s390, the ioevent is matched
1706 to a subchannel/virtqueue tuple instead.
1708 The following flags are defined:
1710 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_DATAMATCH (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_datamatch)
1711 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_PIO (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_pio)
1712 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_deassign)
1713 #define KVM_IOEVENTFD_FLAG_VIRTIO_CCW_NOTIFY \
1714 (1 << kvm_ioeventfd_flag_nr_virtio_ccw_notify)
1716 If datamatch flag is set, the event will be signaled only if the written value
1717 to the registered address is equal to datamatch in struct kvm_ioeventfd.
1719 For virtio-ccw devices, addr contains the subchannel id and datamatch the
1722 With KVM_CAP_IOEVENTFD_ANY_LENGTH, a zero length ioeventfd is allowed, and
1723 the kernel will ignore the length of guest write and may get a faster vmexit.
1724 The speedup may only apply to specific architectures, but the ioeventfd will
1729 Capability: KVM_CAP_SW_TLB
1732 Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_tlb (in)
1733 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1735 struct kvm_dirty_tlb {
1740 This must be called whenever userspace has changed an entry in the shared
1741 TLB, prior to calling KVM_RUN on the associated vcpu.
1743 The "bitmap" field is the userspace address of an array. This array
1744 consists of a number of bits, equal to the total number of TLB entries as
1745 determined by the last successful call to KVM_CONFIG_TLB, rounded up to the
1746 nearest multiple of 64.
1748 Each bit corresponds to one TLB entry, ordered the same as in the shared TLB
1751 The array is little-endian: the bit 0 is the least significant bit of the
1752 first byte, bit 8 is the least significant bit of the second byte, etc.
1753 This avoids any complications with differing word sizes.
1755 The "num_dirty" field is a performance hint for KVM to determine whether it
1756 should skip processing the bitmap and just invalidate everything. It must
1757 be set to the number of set bits in the bitmap.
1760 4.62 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE
1762 Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE
1763 Architectures: powerpc
1765 Parameters: struct kvm_create_spapr_tce (in)
1766 Returns: file descriptor for manipulating the created TCE table
1768 This creates a virtual TCE (translation control entry) table, which
1769 is an IOMMU for PAPR-style virtual I/O. It is used to translate
1770 logical addresses used in virtual I/O into guest physical addresses,
1771 and provides a scatter/gather capability for PAPR virtual I/O.
1773 /* for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE */
1774 struct kvm_create_spapr_tce {
1779 The liobn field gives the logical IO bus number for which to create a
1780 TCE table. The window_size field specifies the size of the DMA window
1781 which this TCE table will translate - the table will contain one 64
1782 bit TCE entry for every 4kiB of the DMA window.
1784 When the guest issues an H_PUT_TCE hcall on a liobn for which a TCE
1785 table has been created using this ioctl(), the kernel will handle it
1786 in real mode, updating the TCE table. H_PUT_TCE calls for other
1787 liobns will cause a vm exit and must be handled by userspace.
1789 The return value is a file descriptor which can be passed to mmap(2)
1790 to map the created TCE table into userspace. This lets userspace read
1791 the entries written by kernel-handled H_PUT_TCE calls, and also lets
1792 userspace update the TCE table directly which is useful in some
1796 4.63 KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA
1798 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RMA
1799 Architectures: powerpc
1801 Parameters: struct kvm_allocate_rma (out)
1802 Returns: file descriptor for mapping the allocated RMA
1804 This allocates a Real Mode Area (RMA) from the pool allocated at boot
1805 time by the kernel. An RMA is a physically-contiguous, aligned region
1806 of memory used on older POWER processors to provide the memory which
1807 will be accessed by real-mode (MMU off) accesses in a KVM guest.
1808 POWER processors support a set of sizes for the RMA that usually
1809 includes 64MB, 128MB, 256MB and some larger powers of two.
1811 /* for KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA */
1812 struct kvm_allocate_rma {
1816 The return value is a file descriptor which can be passed to mmap(2)
1817 to map the allocated RMA into userspace. The mapped area can then be
1818 passed to the KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION ioctl to establish it as the
1819 RMA for a virtual machine. The size of the RMA in bytes (which is
1820 fixed at host kernel boot time) is returned in the rma_size field of
1821 the argument structure.
1823 The KVM_CAP_PPC_RMA capability is 1 or 2 if the KVM_ALLOCATE_RMA ioctl
1824 is supported; 2 if the processor requires all virtual machines to have
1825 an RMA, or 1 if the processor can use an RMA but doesn't require it,
1826 because it supports the Virtual RMA (VRMA) facility.
1831 Capability: KVM_CAP_USER_NMI
1835 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
1837 Queues an NMI on the thread's vcpu. Note this is well defined only
1838 when KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP has not been called, since this is an interface
1839 between the virtual cpu core and virtual local APIC. After KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP
1840 has been called, this interface is completely emulated within the kernel.
1842 To use this to emulate the LINT1 input with KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, use the
1843 following algorithm:
1846 - read the local APIC's state (KVM_GET_LAPIC)
1847 - check whether changing LINT1 will queue an NMI (see the LVT entry for LINT1)
1848 - if so, issue KVM_NMI
1851 Some guests configure the LINT1 NMI input to cause a panic, aiding in
1855 4.65 KVM_S390_UCAS_MAP
1857 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
1860 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping (in)
1861 Returns: 0 in case of success
1863 The parameter is defined like this:
1864 struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping {
1870 This ioctl maps the memory at "user_addr" with the length "length" to
1871 the vcpu's address space starting at "vcpu_addr". All parameters need to
1872 be aligned by 1 megabyte.
1875 4.66 KVM_S390_UCAS_UNMAP
1877 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
1880 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping (in)
1881 Returns: 0 in case of success
1883 The parameter is defined like this:
1884 struct kvm_s390_ucas_mapping {
1890 This ioctl unmaps the memory in the vcpu's address space starting at
1891 "vcpu_addr" with the length "length". The field "user_addr" is ignored.
1892 All parameters need to be aligned by 1 megabyte.
1895 4.67 KVM_S390_VCPU_FAULT
1897 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_UCONTROL
1900 Parameters: vcpu absolute address (in)
1901 Returns: 0 in case of success
1903 This call creates a page table entry on the virtual cpu's address space
1904 (for user controlled virtual machines) or the virtual machine's address
1905 space (for regular virtual machines). This only works for minor faults,
1906 thus it's recommended to access subject memory page via the user page
1907 table upfront. This is useful to handle validity intercepts for user
1908 controlled virtual machines to fault in the virtual cpu's lowcore pages
1909 prior to calling the KVM_RUN ioctl.
1912 4.68 KVM_SET_ONE_REG
1914 Capability: KVM_CAP_ONE_REG
1917 Parameters: struct kvm_one_reg (in)
1918 Returns: 0 on success, negative value on failure
1920 Â ENOENT: Â Â no such register
1921 Â EINVAL: Â Â invalid register ID, or no such register
1922 Â EPERM: Â Â Â (arm64) register access not allowed before vcpu finalization
1923 (These error codes are indicative only: do not rely on a specific error
1924 code being returned in a specific situation.)
1926 struct kvm_one_reg {
1931 Using this ioctl, a single vcpu register can be set to a specific value
1932 defined by user space with the passed in struct kvm_one_reg, where id
1933 refers to the register identifier as described below and addr is a pointer
1934 to a variable with the respective size. There can be architecture agnostic
1935 and architecture specific registers. Each have their own range of operation
1936 and their own constants and width. To keep track of the implemented
1937 registers, find a list below:
1939 Arch | Register | Width (bits)
1941 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_HIOR | 64
1942 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IAC1 | 64
1943 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IAC2 | 64
1944 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IAC3 | 64
1945 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IAC4 | 64
1946 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DAC1 | 64
1947 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DAC2 | 64
1948 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DABR | 64
1949 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DSCR | 64
1950 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PURR | 64
1951 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SPURR | 64
1952 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DAR | 64
1953 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DSISR | 32
1954 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_AMR | 64
1955 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_UAMOR | 64
1956 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR0 | 64
1957 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR1 | 64
1958 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMCRA | 64
1959 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMCR2 | 64
1960 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMCRS | 64
1961 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SIAR | 64
1962 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SDAR | 64
1963 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SIER | 64
1964 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC1 | 32
1965 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC2 | 32
1966 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC3 | 32
1967 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC4 | 32
1968 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC5 | 32
1969 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC6 | 32
1970 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC7 | 32
1971 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PMC8 | 32
1972 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_FPR0 | 64
1974 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_FPR31 | 64
1975 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VR0 | 128
1977 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VR31 | 128
1978 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VSR0 | 128
1980 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VSR31 | 128
1981 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_FPSCR | 64
1982 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VSCR | 32
1983 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_ADDR | 64
1984 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_SLB | 128
1985 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VPA_DTL | 128
1986 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_EPCR | 32
1987 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_EPR | 32
1988 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TCR | 32
1989 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TSR | 32
1990 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_OR_TSR | 32
1991 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_CLEAR_TSR | 32
1992 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS0 | 32
1993 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS1 | 32
1994 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS2 | 64
1995 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS7_3 | 64
1996 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS4 | 32
1997 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MAS6 | 32
1998 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_MMUCFG | 32
1999 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB0CFG | 32
2000 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB1CFG | 32
2001 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB2CFG | 32
2002 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB3CFG | 32
2003 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB0PS | 32
2004 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB1PS | 32
2005 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB2PS | 32
2006 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TLB3PS | 32
2007 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_EPTCFG | 32
2008 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_ICP_STATE | 64
2009 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VP_STATE | 128
2010 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TB_OFFSET | 64
2011 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SPMC1 | 32
2012 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SPMC2 | 32
2013 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IAMR | 64
2014 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TFHAR | 64
2015 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TFIAR | 64
2016 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TEXASR | 64
2017 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_FSCR | 64
2018 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PSPB | 32
2019 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_EBBHR | 64
2020 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_EBBRR | 64
2021 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_BESCR | 64
2022 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TAR | 64
2023 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DPDES | 64
2024 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DAWR | 64
2025 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DAWRX | 64
2026 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_CIABR | 64
2027 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_IC | 64
2028 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VTB | 64
2029 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_CSIGR | 64
2030 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TACR | 64
2031 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TCSCR | 64
2032 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PID | 64
2033 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_ACOP | 64
2034 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_VRSAVE | 32
2035 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_LPCR | 32
2036 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_LPCR_64 | 64
2037 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PPR | 64
2038 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_ARCH_COMPAT | 32
2039 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DABRX | 32
2040 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_WORT | 64
2041 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_SPRG9 | 64
2042 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DBSR | 32
2043 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TIDR | 64
2044 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PSSCR | 64
2045 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_DEC_EXPIRY | 64
2046 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_PTCR | 64
2047 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_GPR0 | 64
2049 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_GPR31 | 64
2050 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSR0 | 128
2052 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSR63 | 128
2053 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_CR | 64
2054 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_LR | 64
2055 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_CTR | 64
2056 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_FPSCR | 64
2057 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_AMR | 64
2058 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_PPR | 64
2059 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VRSAVE | 64
2060 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_VSCR | 32
2061 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_DSCR | 64
2062 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_TAR | 64
2063 PPC | KVM_REG_PPC_TM_XER | 64
2065 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_R0 | 64
2067 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_R31 | 64
2068 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_HI | 64
2069 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_LO | 64
2070 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_PC | 64
2071 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_INDEX | 32
2072 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO0 | 64
2073 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO1 | 64
2074 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONTEXT | 64
2075 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONTEXTCONFIG| 32
2076 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_USERLOCAL | 64
2077 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_XCONTEXTCONFIG| 64
2078 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PAGEMASK | 32
2079 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PAGEGRAIN | 32
2080 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL0 | 64
2081 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL1 | 64
2082 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_SEGCTL2 | 64
2083 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWBASE | 64
2084 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWFIELD | 64
2085 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWSIZE | 64
2086 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_WIRED | 32
2087 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PWCTL | 32
2088 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_HWRENA | 32
2089 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADVADDR | 64
2090 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADINSTR | 32
2091 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_BADINSTRP | 32
2092 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_COUNT | 32
2093 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYHI | 64
2094 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_COMPARE | 32
2095 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_STATUS | 32
2096 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_INTCTL | 32
2097 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CAUSE | 32
2098 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_EPC | 64
2099 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_PRID | 32
2100 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_EBASE | 64
2101 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG | 32
2102 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG1 | 32
2103 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG2 | 32
2104 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG3 | 32
2105 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG4 | 32
2106 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG5 | 32
2107 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_CONFIG7 | 32
2108 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_XCONTEXT | 64
2109 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ERROREPC | 64
2110 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH1 | 64
2111 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH2 | 64
2112 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH3 | 64
2113 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH4 | 64
2114 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH5 | 64
2115 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_KSCRATCH6 | 64
2116 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_MAAR(0..63) | 64
2117 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_CTL | 64
2118 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_RESUME | 64
2119 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_COUNT_HZ | 64
2120 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_32(0..31) | 32
2121 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_64(0..31) | 64
2122 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_128(0..31) | 128
2123 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_IR | 32
2124 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_CSR | 32
2125 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_IR | 32
2126 MIPS | KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_CSR | 32
2128 ARM registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of that
2129 is the register group type, or coprocessor number:
2131 ARM core registers have the following id bit patterns:
2132 0x4020 0000 0010 <index into the kvm_regs struct:16>
2134 ARM 32-bit CP15 registers have the following id bit patterns:
2135 0x4020 0000 000F <zero:1> <crn:4> <crm:4> <opc1:4> <opc2:3>
2137 ARM 64-bit CP15 registers have the following id bit patterns:
2138 0x4030 0000 000F <zero:1> <zero:4> <crm:4> <opc1:4> <zero:3>
2140 ARM CCSIDR registers are demultiplexed by CSSELR value:
2141 0x4020 0000 0011 00 <csselr:8>
2143 ARM 32-bit VFP control registers have the following id bit patterns:
2144 0x4020 0000 0012 1 <regno:12>
2146 ARM 64-bit FP registers have the following id bit patterns:
2147 0x4030 0000 0012 0 <regno:12>
2149 ARM firmware pseudo-registers have the following bit pattern:
2150 0x4030 0000 0014 <regno:16>
2153 arm64 registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of
2154 that is the register group type, or coprocessor number:
2156 arm64 core/FP-SIMD registers have the following id bit patterns. Note
2157 that the size of the access is variable, as the kvm_regs structure
2158 contains elements ranging from 32 to 128 bits. The index is a 32bit
2159 value in the kvm_regs structure seen as a 32bit array.
2160 0x60x0 0000 0010 <index into the kvm_regs struct:16>
2163 Encoding Register Bits kvm_regs member
2164 ----------------------------------------------------------------
2165 0x6030 0000 0010 0000 X0 64 regs.regs[0]
2166 0x6030 0000 0010 0002 X1 64 regs.regs[1]
2168 0x6030 0000 0010 003c X30 64 regs.regs[30]
2169 0x6030 0000 0010 003e SP 64 regs.sp
2170 0x6030 0000 0010 0040 PC 64 regs.pc
2171 0x6030 0000 0010 0042 PSTATE 64 regs.pstate
2172 0x6030 0000 0010 0044 SP_EL1 64 sp_el1
2173 0x6030 0000 0010 0046 ELR_EL1 64 elr_el1
2174 0x6030 0000 0010 0048 SPSR_EL1 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_EL1] (alias SPSR_SVC)
2175 0x6030 0000 0010 004a SPSR_ABT 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_ABT]
2176 0x6030 0000 0010 004c SPSR_UND 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_UND]
2177 0x6030 0000 0010 004e SPSR_IRQ 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_IRQ]
2178 0x6060 0000 0010 0050 SPSR_FIQ 64 spsr[KVM_SPSR_FIQ]
2179 0x6040 0000 0010 0054 V0 128 fp_regs.vregs[0] (*)
2180 0x6040 0000 0010 0058 V1 128 fp_regs.vregs[1] (*)
2182 0x6040 0000 0010 00d0 V31 128 fp_regs.vregs[31] (*)
2183 0x6020 0000 0010 00d4 FPSR 32 fp_regs.fpsr
2184 0x6020 0000 0010 00d5 FPCR 32 fp_regs.fpcr
2186 (*) These encodings are not accepted for SVE-enabled vcpus. See
2189 The equivalent register content can be accessed via bits [127:0] of
2190 the corresponding SVE Zn registers instead for vcpus that have SVE
2191 enabled (see below).
2193 arm64 CCSIDR registers are demultiplexed by CSSELR value:
2194 0x6020 0000 0011 00 <csselr:8>
2196 arm64 system registers have the following id bit patterns:
2197 0x6030 0000 0013 <op0:2> <op1:3> <crn:4> <crm:4> <op2:3>
2200 Two system register IDs do not follow the specified pattern. These
2201 are KVM_REG_ARM_TIMER_CVAL and KVM_REG_ARM_TIMER_CNT, which map to
2202 system registers CNTV_CVAL_EL0 and CNTVCT_EL0 respectively. These
2203 two had their values accidentally swapped, which means TIMER_CVAL is
2204 derived from the register encoding for CNTVCT_EL0 and TIMER_CNT is
2205 derived from the register encoding for CNTV_CVAL_EL0. As this is
2206 API, it must remain this way.
2208 arm64 firmware pseudo-registers have the following bit pattern:
2209 0x6030 0000 0014 <regno:16>
2211 arm64 SVE registers have the following bit patterns:
2212 0x6080 0000 0015 00 <n:5> <slice:5> Zn bits[2048*slice + 2047 : 2048*slice]
2213 0x6050 0000 0015 04 <n:4> <slice:5> Pn bits[256*slice + 255 : 256*slice]
2214 0x6050 0000 0015 060 <slice:5> FFR bits[256*slice + 255 : 256*slice]
2215 0x6060 0000 0015 ffff KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS pseudo-register
2217 Access to register IDs where 2048 * slice >= 128 * max_vq will fail with
2218 ENOENT. max_vq is the vcpu's maximum supported vector length in 128-bit
2219 quadwords: see (**) below.
2221 These registers are only accessible on vcpus for which SVE is enabled.
2222 See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT for details.
2224 In addition, except for KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS, these registers are not
2225 accessible until the vcpu's SVE configuration has been finalized
2226 using KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE). See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT
2227 and KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE for more information about this procedure.
2229 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS is a pseudo-register that allows the set of vector
2230 lengths supported by the vcpu to be discovered and configured by
2231 userspace. When transferred to or from user memory via KVM_GET_ONE_REG
2232 or KVM_SET_ONE_REG, the value of this register is of type
2233 __u64[KVM_ARM64_SVE_VLS_WORDS], and encodes the set of vector lengths as
2236 __u64 vector_lengths[KVM_ARM64_SVE_VLS_WORDS];
2238 if (vq >= SVE_VQ_MIN && vq <= SVE_VQ_MAX &&
2239 ((vector_lengths[(vq - KVM_ARM64_SVE_VQ_MIN) / 64] >>
2240 ((vq - KVM_ARM64_SVE_VQ_MIN) % 64)) & 1))
2241 /* Vector length vq * 16 bytes supported */
2243 /* Vector length vq * 16 bytes not supported */
2245 (**) The maximum value vq for which the above condition is true is
2246 max_vq. This is the maximum vector length available to the guest on
2247 this vcpu, and determines which register slices are visible through
2248 this ioctl interface.
2250 (See Documentation/arm64/sve.rst for an explanation of the "vq"
2253 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS is only accessible after KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT.
2254 KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT initialises it to the best set of vector lengths that
2257 Userspace may subsequently modify it if desired until the vcpu's SVE
2258 configuration is finalized using KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE).
2260 Apart from simply removing all vector lengths from the host set that
2261 exceed some value, support for arbitrarily chosen sets of vector lengths
2262 is hardware-dependent and may not be available. Attempting to configure
2263 an invalid set of vector lengths via KVM_SET_ONE_REG will fail with
2266 After the vcpu's SVE configuration is finalized, further attempts to
2267 write this register will fail with EPERM.
2270 MIPS registers are mapped using the lower 32 bits. The upper 16 of that is
2271 the register group type:
2273 MIPS core registers (see above) have the following id bit patterns:
2274 0x7030 0000 0000 <reg:16>
2276 MIPS CP0 registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_* above) have the following id bit
2277 patterns depending on whether they're 32-bit or 64-bit registers:
2278 0x7020 0000 0001 00 <reg:5> <sel:3> (32-bit)
2279 0x7030 0000 0001 00 <reg:5> <sel:3> (64-bit)
2281 Note: KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO0 and KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_ENTRYLO1 are the MIPS64
2282 versions of the EntryLo registers regardless of the word size of the host
2283 hardware, host kernel, guest, and whether XPA is present in the guest, i.e.
2284 with the RI and XI bits (if they exist) in bits 63 and 62 respectively, and
2285 the PFNX field starting at bit 30.
2287 MIPS MAARs (see KVM_REG_MIPS_CP0_MAAR(*) above) have the following id bit
2289 0x7030 0000 0001 01 <reg:8>
2291 MIPS KVM control registers (see above) have the following id bit patterns:
2292 0x7030 0000 0002 <reg:16>
2294 MIPS FPU registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_{32,64}() above) have the following
2295 id bit patterns depending on the size of the register being accessed. They are
2296 always accessed according to the current guest FPU mode (Status.FR and
2297 Config5.FRE), i.e. as the guest would see them, and they become unpredictable
2298 if the guest FPU mode is changed. MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA) vector
2299 registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_128() above) have similar patterns as they
2300 overlap the FPU registers:
2301 0x7020 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (32-bit FPU registers)
2302 0x7030 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (64-bit FPU registers)
2303 0x7040 0000 0003 00 <0:3> <reg:5> (128-bit MSA vector registers)
2305 MIPS FPU control registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_{IR,CSR} above) have the
2306 following id bit patterns:
2307 0x7020 0000 0003 01 <0:3> <reg:5>
2309 MIPS MSA control registers (see KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_{IR,CSR} above) have the
2310 following id bit patterns:
2311 0x7020 0000 0003 02 <0:3> <reg:5>
2314 4.69 KVM_GET_ONE_REG
2316 Capability: KVM_CAP_ONE_REG
2319 Parameters: struct kvm_one_reg (in and out)
2320 Returns: 0 on success, negative value on failure
2322 Â ENOENT: Â Â no such register
2323 Â EINVAL: Â Â invalid register ID, or no such register
2324 Â EPERM: Â Â Â (arm64) register access not allowed before vcpu finalization
2325 (These error codes are indicative only: do not rely on a specific error
2326 code being returned in a specific situation.)
2328 This ioctl allows to receive the value of a single register implemented
2329 in a vcpu. The register to read is indicated by the "id" field of the
2330 kvm_one_reg struct passed in. On success, the register value can be found
2331 at the memory location pointed to by "addr".
2333 The list of registers accessible using this interface is identical to the
2337 4.70 KVM_KVMCLOCK_CTRL
2339 Capability: KVM_CAP_KVMCLOCK_CTRL
2340 Architectures: Any that implement pvclocks (currently x86 only)
2343 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2345 This signals to the host kernel that the specified guest is being paused by
2346 userspace. The host will set a flag in the pvclock structure that is checked
2347 from the soft lockup watchdog. The flag is part of the pvclock structure that
2348 is shared between guest and host, specifically the second bit of the flags
2349 field of the pvclock_vcpu_time_info structure. It will be set exclusively by
2350 the host and read/cleared exclusively by the guest. The guest operation of
2351 checking and clearing the flag must an atomic operation so
2352 load-link/store-conditional, or equivalent must be used. There are two cases
2353 where the guest will clear the flag: when the soft lockup watchdog timer resets
2354 itself or when a soft lockup is detected. This ioctl can be called any time
2355 after pausing the vcpu, but before it is resumed.
2360 Capability: KVM_CAP_SIGNAL_MSI
2361 Architectures: x86 arm arm64
2363 Parameters: struct kvm_msi (in)
2364 Returns: >0 on delivery, 0 if guest blocked the MSI, and -1 on error
2366 Directly inject a MSI message. Only valid with in-kernel irqchip that handles
2378 flags: KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID: devid contains a valid value. The per-VM
2379 KVM_CAP_MSI_DEVID capability advertises the requirement to provide
2380 the device ID. If this capability is not available, userspace
2381 should never set the KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID flag as the ioctl might fail.
2383 If KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID is set, devid contains a unique device identifier
2384 for the device that wrote the MSI message. For PCI, this is usually a
2385 BFD identifier in the lower 16 bits.
2387 On x86, address_hi is ignored unless the KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS
2388 feature of KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API capability is enabled. If it is enabled,
2389 address_hi bits 31-8 provide bits 31-8 of the destination id. Bits 7-0 of
2390 address_hi must be zero.
2393 4.71 KVM_CREATE_PIT2
2395 Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT2
2398 Parameters: struct kvm_pit_config (in)
2399 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2401 Creates an in-kernel device model for the i8254 PIT. This call is only valid
2402 after enabling in-kernel irqchip support via KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP. The following
2403 parameters have to be passed:
2405 struct kvm_pit_config {
2412 #define KVM_PIT_SPEAKER_DUMMY 1 /* emulate speaker port stub */
2414 PIT timer interrupts may use a per-VM kernel thread for injection. If it
2415 exists, this thread will have a name of the following pattern:
2417 kvm-pit/<owner-process-pid>
2419 When running a guest with elevated priorities, the scheduling parameters of
2420 this thread may have to be adjusted accordingly.
2422 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_CREATE_PIT.
2427 Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT_STATE2
2430 Parameters: struct kvm_pit_state2 (out)
2431 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2433 Retrieves the state of the in-kernel PIT model. Only valid after
2434 KVM_CREATE_PIT2. The state is returned in the following structure:
2436 struct kvm_pit_state2 {
2437 struct kvm_pit_channel_state channels[3];
2444 /* disable PIT in HPET legacy mode */
2445 #define KVM_PIT_FLAGS_HPET_LEGACY 0x00000001
2447 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_GET_PIT.
2452 Capability: KVM_CAP_PIT_STATE2
2455 Parameters: struct kvm_pit_state2 (in)
2456 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2458 Sets the state of the in-kernel PIT model. Only valid after KVM_CREATE_PIT2.
2459 See KVM_GET_PIT2 for details on struct kvm_pit_state2.
2461 This IOCTL replaces the obsolete KVM_SET_PIT.
2464 4.74 KVM_PPC_GET_SMMU_INFO
2466 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_SMMU_INFO
2467 Architectures: powerpc
2470 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2472 This populates and returns a structure describing the features of
2473 the "Server" class MMU emulation supported by KVM.
2474 This can in turn be used by userspace to generate the appropriate
2475 device-tree properties for the guest operating system.
2477 The structure contains some global information, followed by an
2478 array of supported segment page sizes:
2480 struct kvm_ppc_smmu_info {
2484 struct kvm_ppc_one_seg_page_size sps[KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_MAX_SZ];
2487 The supported flags are:
2489 - KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_REAL:
2490 When that flag is set, guest page sizes must "fit" the backing
2491 store page sizes. When not set, any page size in the list can
2492 be used regardless of how they are backed by userspace.
2494 - KVM_PPC_1T_SEGMENTS
2495 The emulated MMU supports 1T segments in addition to the
2499 This flag indicates that HPT guests are not supported by KVM,
2500 thus all guests must use radix MMU mode.
2502 The "slb_size" field indicates how many SLB entries are supported
2504 The "sps" array contains 8 entries indicating the supported base
2505 page sizes for a segment in increasing order. Each entry is defined
2508 struct kvm_ppc_one_seg_page_size {
2509 __u32 page_shift; /* Base page shift of segment (or 0) */
2510 __u32 slb_enc; /* SLB encoding for BookS */
2511 struct kvm_ppc_one_page_size enc[KVM_PPC_PAGE_SIZES_MAX_SZ];
2514 An entry with a "page_shift" of 0 is unused. Because the array is
2515 organized in increasing order, a lookup can stop when encoutering
2518 The "slb_enc" field provides the encoding to use in the SLB for the
2519 page size. The bits are in positions such as the value can directly
2520 be OR'ed into the "vsid" argument of the slbmte instruction.
2522 The "enc" array is a list which for each of those segment base page
2523 size provides the list of supported actual page sizes (which can be
2524 only larger or equal to the base page size), along with the
2525 corresponding encoding in the hash PTE. Similarly, the array is
2526 8 entries sorted by increasing sizes and an entry with a "0" shift
2527 is an empty entry and a terminator:
2529 struct kvm_ppc_one_page_size {
2530 __u32 page_shift; /* Page shift (or 0) */
2531 __u32 pte_enc; /* Encoding in the HPTE (>>12) */
2534 The "pte_enc" field provides a value that can OR'ed into the hash
2535 PTE's RPN field (ie, it needs to be shifted left by 12 to OR it
2536 into the hash PTE second double word).
2540 Capability: KVM_CAP_IRQFD
2541 Architectures: x86 s390 arm arm64
2543 Parameters: struct kvm_irqfd (in)
2544 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2546 Allows setting an eventfd to directly trigger a guest interrupt.
2547 kvm_irqfd.fd specifies the file descriptor to use as the eventfd and
2548 kvm_irqfd.gsi specifies the irqchip pin toggled by this event. When
2549 an event is triggered on the eventfd, an interrupt is injected into
2550 the guest using the specified gsi pin. The irqfd is removed using
2551 the KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN flag, specifying both kvm_irqfd.fd
2554 With KVM_CAP_IRQFD_RESAMPLE, KVM_IRQFD supports a de-assert and notify
2555 mechanism allowing emulation of level-triggered, irqfd-based
2556 interrupts. When KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_RESAMPLE is set the user must pass an
2557 additional eventfd in the kvm_irqfd.resamplefd field. When operating
2558 in resample mode, posting of an interrupt through kvm_irq.fd asserts
2559 the specified gsi in the irqchip. When the irqchip is resampled, such
2560 as from an EOI, the gsi is de-asserted and the user is notified via
2561 kvm_irqfd.resamplefd. It is the user's responsibility to re-queue
2562 the interrupt if the device making use of it still requires service.
2563 Note that closing the resamplefd is not sufficient to disable the
2564 irqfd. The KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_RESAMPLE is only necessary on assignment
2565 and need not be specified with KVM_IRQFD_FLAG_DEASSIGN.
2567 On arm/arm64, gsi routing being supported, the following can happen:
2568 - in case no routing entry is associated to this gsi, injection fails
2569 - in case the gsi is associated to an irqchip routing entry,
2570 irqchip.pin + 32 corresponds to the injected SPI ID.
2571 - in case the gsi is associated to an MSI routing entry, the MSI
2572 message and device ID are translated into an LPI (support restricted
2573 to GICv3 ITS in-kernel emulation).
2575 4.76 KVM_PPC_ALLOCATE_HTAB
2577 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_ALLOC_HTAB
2578 Architectures: powerpc
2580 Parameters: Pointer to u32 containing hash table order (in/out)
2581 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2583 This requests the host kernel to allocate an MMU hash table for a
2584 guest using the PAPR paravirtualization interface. This only does
2585 anything if the kernel is configured to use the Book 3S HV style of
2586 virtualization. Otherwise the capability doesn't exist and the ioctl
2587 returns an ENOTTY error. The rest of this description assumes Book 3S
2590 There must be no vcpus running when this ioctl is called; if there
2591 are, it will do nothing and return an EBUSY error.
2593 The parameter is a pointer to a 32-bit unsigned integer variable
2594 containing the order (log base 2) of the desired size of the hash
2595 table, which must be between 18 and 46. On successful return from the
2596 ioctl, the value will not be changed by the kernel.
2598 If no hash table has been allocated when any vcpu is asked to run
2599 (with the KVM_RUN ioctl), the host kernel will allocate a
2600 default-sized hash table (16 MB).
2602 If this ioctl is called when a hash table has already been allocated,
2603 with a different order from the existing hash table, the existing hash
2604 table will be freed and a new one allocated. If this is ioctl is
2605 called when a hash table has already been allocated of the same order
2606 as specified, the kernel will clear out the existing hash table (zero
2607 all HPTEs). In either case, if the guest is using the virtualized
2608 real-mode area (VRMA) facility, the kernel will re-create the VMRA
2609 HPTEs on the next KVM_RUN of any vcpu.
2611 4.77 KVM_S390_INTERRUPT
2615 Type: vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
2616 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_interrupt (in)
2617 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2619 Allows to inject an interrupt to the guest. Interrupts can be floating
2620 (vm ioctl) or per cpu (vcpu ioctl), depending on the interrupt type.
2622 Interrupt parameters are passed via kvm_s390_interrupt:
2624 struct kvm_s390_interrupt {
2630 type can be one of the following:
2632 KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP (vcpu) - sigp stop; optional flags in parm
2633 KVM_S390_PROGRAM_INT (vcpu) - program check; code in parm
2634 KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX (vcpu) - sigp set prefix; prefix address in parm
2635 KVM_S390_RESTART (vcpu) - restart
2636 KVM_S390_INT_CLOCK_COMP (vcpu) - clock comparator interrupt
2637 KVM_S390_INT_CPU_TIMER (vcpu) - CPU timer interrupt
2638 KVM_S390_INT_VIRTIO (vm) - virtio external interrupt; external interrupt
2639 parameters in parm and parm64
2640 KVM_S390_INT_SERVICE (vm) - sclp external interrupt; sclp parameter in parm
2641 KVM_S390_INT_EMERGENCY (vcpu) - sigp emergency; source cpu in parm
2642 KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL (vcpu) - sigp external call; source cpu in parm
2643 KVM_S390_INT_IO(ai,cssid,ssid,schid) (vm) - compound value to indicate an
2644 I/O interrupt (ai - adapter interrupt; cssid,ssid,schid - subchannel);
2645 I/O interruption parameters in parm (subchannel) and parm64 (intparm,
2646 interruption subclass)
2647 KVM_S390_MCHK (vm, vcpu) - machine check interrupt; cr 14 bits in parm,
2648 machine check interrupt code in parm64 (note that
2649 machine checks needing further payload are not
2650 supported by this ioctl)
2652 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
2654 4.78 KVM_PPC_GET_HTAB_FD
2656 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_HTAB_FD
2657 Architectures: powerpc
2659 Parameters: Pointer to struct kvm_get_htab_fd (in)
2660 Returns: file descriptor number (>= 0) on success, -1 on error
2662 This returns a file descriptor that can be used either to read out the
2663 entries in the guest's hashed page table (HPT), or to write entries to
2664 initialize the HPT. The returned fd can only be written to if the
2665 KVM_GET_HTAB_WRITE bit is set in the flags field of the argument, and
2666 can only be read if that bit is clear. The argument struct looks like
2669 /* For KVM_PPC_GET_HTAB_FD */
2670 struct kvm_get_htab_fd {
2676 /* Values for kvm_get_htab_fd.flags */
2677 #define KVM_GET_HTAB_BOLTED_ONLY ((__u64)0x1)
2678 #define KVM_GET_HTAB_WRITE ((__u64)0x2)
2680 The `start_index' field gives the index in the HPT of the entry at
2681 which to start reading. It is ignored when writing.
2683 Reads on the fd will initially supply information about all
2684 "interesting" HPT entries. Interesting entries are those with the
2685 bolted bit set, if the KVM_GET_HTAB_BOLTED_ONLY bit is set, otherwise
2686 all entries. When the end of the HPT is reached, the read() will
2687 return. If read() is called again on the fd, it will start again from
2688 the beginning of the HPT, but will only return HPT entries that have
2689 changed since they were last read.
2691 Data read or written is structured as a header (8 bytes) followed by a
2692 series of valid HPT entries (16 bytes) each. The header indicates how
2693 many valid HPT entries there are and how many invalid entries follow
2694 the valid entries. The invalid entries are not represented explicitly
2695 in the stream. The header format is:
2697 struct kvm_get_htab_header {
2703 Writes to the fd create HPT entries starting at the index given in the
2704 header; first `n_valid' valid entries with contents from the data
2705 written, then `n_invalid' invalid entries, invalidating any previously
2706 valid entries found.
2708 4.79 KVM_CREATE_DEVICE
2710 Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL
2712 Parameters: struct kvm_create_device (in/out)
2713 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2715 ENODEV: The device type is unknown or unsupported
2716 EEXIST: Device already created, and this type of device may not
2717 be instantiated multiple times
2719 Other error conditions may be defined by individual device types or
2720 have their standard meanings.
2722 Creates an emulated device in the kernel. The file descriptor returned
2723 in fd can be used with KVM_SET/GET/HAS_DEVICE_ATTR.
2725 If the KVM_CREATE_DEVICE_TEST flag is set, only test whether the
2726 device type is supported (not necessarily whether it can be created
2729 Individual devices should not define flags. Attributes should be used
2730 for specifying any behavior that is not implied by the device type
2733 struct kvm_create_device {
2734 __u32 type; /* in: KVM_DEV_TYPE_xxx */
2735 __u32 fd; /* out: device handle */
2736 __u32 flags; /* in: KVM_CREATE_DEVICE_xxx */
2739 4.80 KVM_SET_DEVICE_ATTR/KVM_GET_DEVICE_ATTR
2741 Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL, KVM_CAP_VM_ATTRIBUTES for vm device,
2742 KVM_CAP_VCPU_ATTRIBUTES for vcpu device
2743 Type: device ioctl, vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
2744 Parameters: struct kvm_device_attr
2745 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2747 ENXIO: The group or attribute is unknown/unsupported for this device
2748 or hardware support is missing.
2749 EPERM: The attribute cannot (currently) be accessed this way
2750 (e.g. read-only attribute, or attribute that only makes
2751 sense when the device is in a different state)
2753 Other error conditions may be defined by individual device types.
2755 Gets/sets a specified piece of device configuration and/or state. The
2756 semantics are device-specific. See individual device documentation in
2757 the "devices" directory. As with ONE_REG, the size of the data
2758 transferred is defined by the particular attribute.
2760 struct kvm_device_attr {
2761 __u32 flags; /* no flags currently defined */
2762 __u32 group; /* device-defined */
2763 __u64 attr; /* group-defined */
2764 __u64 addr; /* userspace address of attr data */
2767 4.81 KVM_HAS_DEVICE_ATTR
2769 Capability: KVM_CAP_DEVICE_CTRL, KVM_CAP_VM_ATTRIBUTES for vm device,
2770 KVM_CAP_VCPU_ATTRIBUTES for vcpu device
2771 Type: device ioctl, vm ioctl, vcpu ioctl
2772 Parameters: struct kvm_device_attr
2773 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2775 ENXIO: The group or attribute is unknown/unsupported for this device
2776 or hardware support is missing.
2778 Tests whether a device supports a particular attribute. A successful
2779 return indicates the attribute is implemented. It does not necessarily
2780 indicate that the attribute can be read or written in the device's
2781 current state. "addr" is ignored.
2783 4.82 KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT
2786 Architectures: arm, arm64
2788 Parameters: struct kvm_vcpu_init (in)
2789 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
2791 Â EINVAL: Â Â Â the target is unknown, or the combination of features is invalid.
2792 Â ENOENT: Â Â Â a features bit specified is unknown.
2794 This tells KVM what type of CPU to present to the guest, and what
2795 optional features it should have. Â This will cause a reset of the cpu
2796 registers to their initial values. Â If this is not called, KVM_RUN will
2797 return ENOEXEC for that vcpu.
2799 Note that because some registers reflect machine topology, all vcpus
2800 should be created before this ioctl is invoked.
2802 Userspace can call this function multiple times for a given vcpu, including
2803 after the vcpu has been run. This will reset the vcpu to its initial
2804 state. All calls to this function after the initial call must use the same
2805 target and same set of feature flags, otherwise EINVAL will be returned.
2808 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_POWER_OFF: Starts the CPU in a power-off state.
2809 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PSCI. If not set, the CPU will be powered on
2810 and execute guest code when KVM_RUN is called.
2811 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_EL1_32BIT: Starts the CPU in a 32bit mode.
2812 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_EL1_32BIT (arm64 only).
2813 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PSCI_0_2: Emulate PSCI v0.2 (or a future revision
2814 backward compatible with v0.2) for the CPU.
2815 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PSCI_0_2.
2816 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3: Emulate PMUv3 for the CPU.
2817 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PMU_V3.
2819 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS: Enables Address Pointer authentication
2821 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS.
2822 If KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC are
2823 both present, then both KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and
2824 KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC must be requested or neither must be
2827 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC: Enables Generic Pointer authentication
2829 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC.
2830 If KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and KVM_CAP_ARM_PTRAUTH_GENERIC are
2831 both present, then both KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_ADDRESS and
2832 KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_GENERIC must be requested or neither must be
2835 - KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE: Enables SVE for the CPU (arm64 only).
2836 Depends on KVM_CAP_ARM_SVE.
2837 Requires KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
2839 * After KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT:
2841 - KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS may be read using KVM_GET_ONE_REG: the
2842 initial value of this pseudo-register indicates the best set of
2843 vector lengths possible for a vcpu on this host.
2845 * Before KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
2847 - KVM_RUN and KVM_GET_REG_LIST are not available;
2849 - KVM_GET_ONE_REG and KVM_SET_ONE_REG cannot be used to access
2850 the scalable archietctural SVE registers
2851 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_ZREG(), KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_PREG() or
2852 KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_FFR;
2854 - KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS may optionally be written using
2855 KVM_SET_ONE_REG, to modify the set of vector lengths available
2858 * After KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE(KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE):
2860 - the KVM_REG_ARM64_SVE_VLS pseudo-register is immutable, and can
2861 no longer be written using KVM_SET_ONE_REG.
2863 4.83 KVM_ARM_PREFERRED_TARGET
2866 Architectures: arm, arm64
2868 Parameters: struct struct kvm_vcpu_init (out)
2869 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
2871 ENODEV: no preferred target available for the host
2873 This queries KVM for preferred CPU target type which can be emulated
2874 by KVM on underlying host.
2876 The ioctl returns struct kvm_vcpu_init instance containing information
2877 about preferred CPU target type and recommended features for it. The
2878 kvm_vcpu_init->features bitmap returned will have feature bits set if
2879 the preferred target recommends setting these features, but this is
2882 The information returned by this ioctl can be used to prepare an instance
2883 of struct kvm_vcpu_init for KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT ioctl which will result in
2884 in VCPU matching underlying host.
2887 4.84 KVM_GET_REG_LIST
2890 Architectures: arm, arm64, mips
2892 Parameters: struct kvm_reg_list (in/out)
2893 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
2895 Â E2BIG: Â Â Â Â the reg index list is too big to fit in the array specified by
2896 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the user (the number required will be written into n).
2898 struct kvm_reg_list {
2899 __u64 n; /* number of registers in reg[] */
2903 This ioctl returns the guest registers that are supported for the
2904 KVM_GET_ONE_REG/KVM_SET_ONE_REG calls.
2907 4.85 KVM_ARM_SET_DEVICE_ADDR (deprecated)
2909 Capability: KVM_CAP_ARM_SET_DEVICE_ADDR
2910 Architectures: arm, arm64
2912 Parameters: struct kvm_arm_device_address (in)
2913 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2915 ENODEV: The device id is unknown
2916 ENXIO: Device not supported on current system
2917 EEXIST: Address already set
2918 E2BIG: Address outside guest physical address space
2919 EBUSY: Address overlaps with other device range
2921 struct kvm_arm_device_addr {
2926 Specify a device address in the guest's physical address space where guests
2927 can access emulated or directly exposed devices, which the host kernel needs
2928 to know about. The id field is an architecture specific identifier for a
2931 ARM/arm64 divides the id field into two parts, a device id and an
2932 address type id specific to the individual device.
2934 Â bits: | 63 ... 32 | 31 ... 16 | 15 ... 0 |
2935 field: | 0x00000000 | device id | addr type id |
2937 ARM/arm64 currently only require this when using the in-kernel GIC
2938 support for the hardware VGIC features, using KVM_ARM_DEVICE_VGIC_V2
2939 as the device id. When setting the base address for the guest's
2940 mapping of the VGIC virtual CPU and distributor interface, the ioctl
2941 must be called after calling KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP, but before calling
2942 KVM_RUN on any of the VCPUs. Calling this ioctl twice for any of the
2943 base addresses will return -EEXIST.
2945 Note, this IOCTL is deprecated and the more flexible SET/GET_DEVICE_ATTR API
2946 should be used instead.
2949 4.86 KVM_PPC_RTAS_DEFINE_TOKEN
2951 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RTAS
2954 Parameters: struct kvm_rtas_token_args
2955 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
2957 Defines a token value for a RTAS (Run Time Abstraction Services)
2958 service in order to allow it to be handled in the kernel. The
2959 argument struct gives the name of the service, which must be the name
2960 of a service that has a kernel-side implementation. If the token
2961 value is non-zero, it will be associated with that service, and
2962 subsequent RTAS calls by the guest specifying that token will be
2963 handled by the kernel. If the token value is 0, then any token
2964 associated with the service will be forgotten, and subsequent RTAS
2965 calls by the guest for that service will be passed to userspace to be
2968 4.87 KVM_SET_GUEST_DEBUG
2970 Capability: KVM_CAP_SET_GUEST_DEBUG
2971 Architectures: x86, s390, ppc, arm64
2973 Parameters: struct kvm_guest_debug (in)
2974 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
2976 struct kvm_guest_debug {
2979 struct kvm_guest_debug_arch arch;
2982 Set up the processor specific debug registers and configure vcpu for
2983 handling guest debug events. There are two parts to the structure, the
2984 first a control bitfield indicates the type of debug events to handle
2985 when running. Common control bits are:
2987 - KVM_GUESTDBG_ENABLE: guest debugging is enabled
2988 - KVM_GUESTDBG_SINGLESTEP: the next run should single-step
2990 The top 16 bits of the control field are architecture specific control
2991 flags which can include the following:
2993 - KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_SW_BP: using software breakpoints [x86, arm64]
2994 - KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_HW_BP: using hardware breakpoints [x86, s390, arm64]
2995 - KVM_GUESTDBG_INJECT_DB: inject DB type exception [x86]
2996 - KVM_GUESTDBG_INJECT_BP: inject BP type exception [x86]
2997 - KVM_GUESTDBG_EXIT_PENDING: trigger an immediate guest exit [s390]
2999 For example KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_SW_BP indicates that software breakpoints
3000 are enabled in memory so we need to ensure breakpoint exceptions are
3001 correctly trapped and the KVM run loop exits at the breakpoint and not
3002 running off into the normal guest vector. For KVM_GUESTDBG_USE_HW_BP
3003 we need to ensure the guest vCPUs architecture specific registers are
3004 updated to the correct (supplied) values.
3006 The second part of the structure is architecture specific and
3007 typically contains a set of debug registers.
3009 For arm64 the number of debug registers is implementation defined and
3010 can be determined by querying the KVM_CAP_GUEST_DEBUG_HW_BPS and
3011 KVM_CAP_GUEST_DEBUG_HW_WPS capabilities which return a positive number
3012 indicating the number of supported registers.
3014 For ppc, the KVM_CAP_PPC_GUEST_DEBUG_SSTEP capability indicates whether
3015 the single-step debug event (KVM_GUESTDBG_SINGLESTEP) is supported.
3017 When debug events exit the main run loop with the reason
3018 KVM_EXIT_DEBUG with the kvm_debug_exit_arch part of the kvm_run
3019 structure containing architecture specific debug information.
3021 4.88 KVM_GET_EMULATED_CPUID
3023 Capability: KVM_CAP_EXT_EMUL_CPUID
3026 Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
3027 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3032 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
3035 The member 'flags' is used for passing flags from userspace.
3037 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX BIT(0)
3038 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC BIT(1)
3039 #define KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT BIT(2)
3041 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
3052 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features which are emulated by
3053 kvm.Userspace can use the information returned by this ioctl to query
3054 which features are emulated by kvm instead of being present natively.
3056 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_EMULATED_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2
3057 structure with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in
3058 the variable-size array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low
3059 to describe the cpu capabilities, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the
3060 number is too high, the 'nent' field is adjusted and an error (ENOMEM)
3061 is returned. If the number is just right, the 'nent' field is adjusted
3062 to the number of valid entries in the 'entries' array, which is then
3065 The entries returned are the set CPUID bits of the respective features
3066 which kvm emulates, as returned by the CPUID instruction, with unknown
3067 or unsupported feature bits cleared.
3069 Features like x2apic, for example, may not be present in the host cpu
3070 but are exposed by kvm in KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID because they can be
3071 emulated efficiently and thus not included here.
3073 The fields in each entry are defined as follows:
3075 function: the eax value used to obtain the entry
3076 index: the ecx value used to obtain the entry (for entries that are
3078 flags: an OR of zero or more of the following:
3079 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_SIGNIFCANT_INDEX:
3080 if the index field is valid
3081 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC:
3082 if cpuid for this function returns different values for successive
3083 invocations; there will be several entries with the same function,
3084 all with this flag set
3085 KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATE_READ_NEXT:
3086 for KVM_CPUID_FLAG_STATEFUL_FUNC entries, set if this entry is
3087 the first entry to be read by a cpu
3088 eax, ebx, ecx, edx: the values returned by the cpuid instruction for
3089 this function/index combination
3091 4.89 KVM_S390_MEM_OP
3093 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_MEM_OP
3096 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_mem_op (in)
3097 Returns: = 0 on success,
3098 < 0 on generic error (e.g. -EFAULT or -ENOMEM),
3099 > 0 if an exception occurred while walking the page tables
3101 Read or write data from/to the logical (virtual) memory of a VCPU.
3103 Parameters are specified via the following structure:
3105 struct kvm_s390_mem_op {
3106 __u64 gaddr; /* the guest address */
3107 __u64 flags; /* flags */
3108 __u32 size; /* amount of bytes */
3109 __u32 op; /* type of operation */
3110 __u64 buf; /* buffer in userspace */
3111 __u8 ar; /* the access register number */
3112 __u8 reserved[31]; /* should be set to 0 */
3115 The type of operation is specified in the "op" field. It is either
3116 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_READ for reading from logical memory space or
3117 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_WRITE for writing to logical memory space. The
3118 KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_CHECK_ONLY flag can be set in the "flags" field to check
3119 whether the corresponding memory access would create an access exception
3120 (without touching the data in the memory at the destination). In case an
3121 access exception occurred while walking the MMU tables of the guest, the
3122 ioctl returns a positive error number to indicate the type of exception.
3123 This exception is also raised directly at the corresponding VCPU if the
3124 flag KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_INJECT_EXCEPTION is set in the "flags" field.
3126 The start address of the memory region has to be specified in the "gaddr"
3127 field, and the length of the region in the "size" field (which must not
3128 be 0). The maximum value for "size" can be obtained by checking the
3129 KVM_CAP_S390_MEM_OP capability. "buf" is the buffer supplied by the
3130 userspace application where the read data should be written to for
3131 KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_READ, or where the data that should be written is
3132 stored for a KVM_S390_MEMOP_LOGICAL_WRITE. When KVM_S390_MEMOP_F_CHECK_ONLY
3133 is specified, "buf" is unused and can be NULL. "ar" designates the access
3134 register number to be used; the valid range is 0..15.
3136 The "reserved" field is meant for future extensions. It is not used by
3137 KVM with the currently defined set of flags.
3139 4.90 KVM_S390_GET_SKEYS
3141 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_SKEYS
3144 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_skeys
3145 Returns: 0 on success, KVM_S390_GET_KEYS_NONE if guest is not using storage
3146 keys, negative value on error
3148 This ioctl is used to get guest storage key values on the s390
3149 architecture. The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_skeys struct.
3151 struct kvm_s390_skeys {
3154 __u64 skeydata_addr;
3159 The start_gfn field is the number of the first guest frame whose storage keys
3162 The count field is the number of consecutive frames (starting from start_gfn)
3163 whose storage keys to get. The count field must be at least 1 and the maximum
3164 allowed value is defined as KVM_S390_SKEYS_ALLOC_MAX. Values outside this range
3165 will cause the ioctl to return -EINVAL.
3167 The skeydata_addr field is the address to a buffer large enough to hold count
3168 bytes. This buffer will be filled with storage key data by the ioctl.
3170 4.91 KVM_S390_SET_SKEYS
3172 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_SKEYS
3175 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_skeys
3176 Returns: 0 on success, negative value on error
3178 This ioctl is used to set guest storage key values on the s390
3179 architecture. The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_skeys struct.
3180 See section on KVM_S390_GET_SKEYS for struct definition.
3182 The start_gfn field is the number of the first guest frame whose storage keys
3185 The count field is the number of consecutive frames (starting from start_gfn)
3186 whose storage keys to get. The count field must be at least 1 and the maximum
3187 allowed value is defined as KVM_S390_SKEYS_ALLOC_MAX. Values outside this range
3188 will cause the ioctl to return -EINVAL.
3190 The skeydata_addr field is the address to a buffer containing count bytes of
3191 storage keys. Each byte in the buffer will be set as the storage key for a
3192 single frame starting at start_gfn for count frames.
3194 Note: If any architecturally invalid key value is found in the given data then
3195 the ioctl will return -EINVAL.
3199 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_INJECT_IRQ
3202 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq (in)
3203 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3205 EINVAL: interrupt type is invalid
3206 type is KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP and flag parameter is invalid value
3207 type is KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL and code is bigger
3208 than the maximum of VCPUs
3209 EBUSY: type is KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX and vcpu is not stopped
3210 type is KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP and a stop irq is already pending
3211 type is KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL and an external call interrupt
3214 Allows to inject an interrupt to the guest.
3216 Using struct kvm_s390_irq as a parameter allows
3217 to inject additional payload which is not
3218 possible via KVM_S390_INTERRUPT.
3220 Interrupt parameters are passed via kvm_s390_irq:
3222 struct kvm_s390_irq {
3225 struct kvm_s390_io_info io;
3226 struct kvm_s390_ext_info ext;
3227 struct kvm_s390_pgm_info pgm;
3228 struct kvm_s390_emerg_info emerg;
3229 struct kvm_s390_extcall_info extcall;
3230 struct kvm_s390_prefix_info prefix;
3231 struct kvm_s390_stop_info stop;
3232 struct kvm_s390_mchk_info mchk;
3237 type can be one of the following:
3239 KVM_S390_SIGP_STOP - sigp stop; parameter in .stop
3240 KVM_S390_PROGRAM_INT - program check; parameters in .pgm
3241 KVM_S390_SIGP_SET_PREFIX - sigp set prefix; parameters in .prefix
3242 KVM_S390_RESTART - restart; no parameters
3243 KVM_S390_INT_CLOCK_COMP - clock comparator interrupt; no parameters
3244 KVM_S390_INT_CPU_TIMER - CPU timer interrupt; no parameters
3245 KVM_S390_INT_EMERGENCY - sigp emergency; parameters in .emerg
3246 KVM_S390_INT_EXTERNAL_CALL - sigp external call; parameters in .extcall
3247 KVM_S390_MCHK - machine check interrupt; parameters in .mchk
3249 This is an asynchronous vcpu ioctl and can be invoked from any thread.
3251 4.94 KVM_S390_GET_IRQ_STATE
3253 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_IRQ_STATE
3256 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq_state (out)
3257 Returns: >= number of bytes copied into buffer,
3258 -EINVAL if buffer size is 0,
3259 -ENOBUFS if buffer size is too small to fit all pending interrupts,
3260 -EFAULT if the buffer address was invalid
3262 This ioctl allows userspace to retrieve the complete state of all currently
3263 pending interrupts in a single buffer. Use cases include migration
3264 and introspection. The parameter structure contains the address of a
3265 userspace buffer and its length:
3267 struct kvm_s390_irq_state {
3269 __u32 flags; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3271 __u32 reserved[4]; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3274 Userspace passes in the above struct and for each pending interrupt a
3275 struct kvm_s390_irq is copied to the provided buffer.
3277 The structure contains a flags and a reserved field for future extensions. As
3278 the kernel never checked for flags == 0 and QEMU never pre-zeroed flags and
3279 reserved, these fields can not be used in the future without breaking
3282 If -ENOBUFS is returned the buffer provided was too small and userspace
3283 may retry with a bigger buffer.
3285 4.95 KVM_S390_SET_IRQ_STATE
3287 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_IRQ_STATE
3290 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_irq_state (in)
3291 Returns: 0 on success,
3292 -EFAULT if the buffer address was invalid,
3293 -EINVAL for an invalid buffer length (see below),
3294 -EBUSY if there were already interrupts pending,
3295 errors occurring when actually injecting the
3296 interrupt. See KVM_S390_IRQ.
3298 This ioctl allows userspace to set the complete state of all cpu-local
3299 interrupts currently pending for the vcpu. It is intended for restoring
3300 interrupt state after a migration. The input parameter is a userspace buffer
3301 containing a struct kvm_s390_irq_state:
3303 struct kvm_s390_irq_state {
3305 __u32 flags; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3307 __u32 reserved[4]; /* will stay unused for compatibility reasons */
3310 The restrictions for flags and reserved apply as well.
3311 (see KVM_S390_GET_IRQ_STATE)
3313 The userspace memory referenced by buf contains a struct kvm_s390_irq
3314 for each interrupt to be injected into the guest.
3315 If one of the interrupts could not be injected for some reason the
3318 len must be a multiple of sizeof(struct kvm_s390_irq). It must be > 0
3319 and it must not exceed (max_vcpus + 32) * sizeof(struct kvm_s390_irq),
3320 which is the maximum number of possibly pending cpu-local interrupts.
3324 Capability: KVM_CAP_X86_SMM
3328 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3330 Queues an SMI on the thread's vcpu.
3332 4.97 KVM_CAP_PPC_MULTITCE
3334 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_MULTITCE
3338 This capability means the kernel is capable of handling hypercalls
3339 H_PUT_TCE_INDIRECT and H_STUFF_TCE without passing those into the user
3340 space. This significantly accelerates DMA operations for PPC KVM guests.
3341 User space should expect that its handlers for these hypercalls
3342 are not going to be called if user space previously registered LIOBN
3343 in KVM (via KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE or similar calls).
3345 In order to enable H_PUT_TCE_INDIRECT and H_STUFF_TCE use in the guest,
3346 user space might have to advertise it for the guest. For example,
3347 IBM pSeries (sPAPR) guest starts using them if "hcall-multi-tce" is
3348 present in the "ibm,hypertas-functions" device-tree property.
3350 The hypercalls mentioned above may or may not be processed successfully
3351 in the kernel based fast path. If they can not be handled by the kernel,
3352 they will get passed on to user space. So user space still has to have
3353 an implementation for these despite the in kernel acceleration.
3355 This capability is always enabled.
3357 4.98 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE_64
3359 Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE_64
3360 Architectures: powerpc
3362 Parameters: struct kvm_create_spapr_tce_64 (in)
3363 Returns: file descriptor for manipulating the created TCE table
3365 This is an extension for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE which only supports 32bit
3366 windows, described in 4.62 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE
3368 This capability uses extended struct in ioctl interface:
3370 /* for KVM_CAP_SPAPR_TCE_64 */
3371 struct kvm_create_spapr_tce_64 {
3375 __u64 offset; /* in pages */
3376 __u64 size; /* in pages */
3379 The aim of extension is to support an additional bigger DMA window with
3380 a variable page size.
3381 KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE_64 receives a 64bit window size, an IOMMU page shift and
3382 a bus offset of the corresponding DMA window, @size and @offset are numbers
3385 @flags are not used at the moment.
3387 The rest of functionality is identical to KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE.
3389 4.99 KVM_REINJECT_CONTROL
3391 Capability: KVM_CAP_REINJECT_CONTROL
3394 Parameters: struct kvm_reinject_control (in)
3395 Returns: 0 on success,
3396 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3397 -ENXIO if KVM_CREATE_PIT or KVM_CREATE_PIT2 didn't succeed earlier.
3399 i8254 (PIT) has two modes, reinject and !reinject. The default is reinject,
3400 where KVM queues elapsed i8254 ticks and monitors completion of interrupt from
3401 vector(s) that i8254 injects. Reinject mode dequeues a tick and injects its
3402 interrupt whenever there isn't a pending interrupt from i8254.
3403 !reinject mode injects an interrupt as soon as a tick arrives.
3405 struct kvm_reinject_control {
3410 pit_reinject = 0 (!reinject mode) is recommended, unless running an old
3411 operating system that uses the PIT for timing (e.g. Linux 2.4.x).
3413 4.100 KVM_PPC_CONFIGURE_V3_MMU
3415 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU or KVM_CAP_PPC_HASH_MMU_V3
3418 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg (in)
3419 Returns: 0 on success,
3420 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg cannot be read,
3421 -EINVAL if the configuration is invalid
3423 This ioctl controls whether the guest will use radix or HPT (hashed
3424 page table) translation, and sets the pointer to the process table for
3427 struct kvm_ppc_mmuv3_cfg {
3429 __u64 process_table;
3432 There are two bits that can be set in flags; KVM_PPC_MMUV3_RADIX and
3433 KVM_PPC_MMUV3_GTSE. KVM_PPC_MMUV3_RADIX, if set, configures the guest
3434 to use radix tree translation, and if clear, to use HPT translation.
3435 KVM_PPC_MMUV3_GTSE, if set and if KVM permits it, configures the guest
3436 to be able to use the global TLB and SLB invalidation instructions;
3437 if clear, the guest may not use these instructions.
3439 The process_table field specifies the address and size of the guest
3440 process table, which is in the guest's space. This field is formatted
3441 as the second doubleword of the partition table entry, as defined in
3442 the Power ISA V3.00, Book III section 5.7.6.1.
3444 4.101 KVM_PPC_GET_RMMU_INFO
3446 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU
3449 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info (out)
3450 Returns: 0 on success,
3451 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info cannot be written,
3452 -EINVAL if no useful information can be returned
3454 This ioctl returns a structure containing two things: (a) a list
3455 containing supported radix tree geometries, and (b) a list that maps
3456 page sizes to put in the "AP" (actual page size) field for the tlbie
3457 (TLB invalidate entry) instruction.
3459 struct kvm_ppc_rmmu_info {
3460 struct kvm_ppc_radix_geom {
3465 __u32 ap_encodings[8];
3468 The geometries[] field gives up to 8 supported geometries for the
3469 radix page table, in terms of the log base 2 of the smallest page
3470 size, and the number of bits indexed at each level of the tree, from
3471 the PTE level up to the PGD level in that order. Any unused entries
3472 will have 0 in the page_shift field.
3474 The ap_encodings gives the supported page sizes and their AP field
3475 encodings, encoded with the AP value in the top 3 bits and the log
3476 base 2 of the page size in the bottom 6 bits.
3478 4.102 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE
3480 Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_RESIZE_HPT
3481 Architectures: powerpc
3483 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt (in)
3484 Returns: 0 on successful completion,
3485 >0 if a new HPT is being prepared, the value is an estimated
3486 number of milliseconds until preparation is complete
3487 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3488 -EINVAL if the supplied shift or flags are invalid
3489 -ENOMEM if unable to allocate the new HPT
3490 -ENOSPC if there was a hash collision when moving existing
3491 HPT entries to the new HPT
3492 -EIO on other error conditions
3494 Used to implement the PAPR extension for runtime resizing of a guest's
3495 Hashed Page Table (HPT). Specifically this starts, stops or monitors
3496 the preparation of a new potential HPT for the guest, essentially
3497 implementing the H_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE hypercall.
3499 If called with shift > 0 when there is no pending HPT for the guest,
3500 this begins preparation of a new pending HPT of size 2^(shift) bytes.
3501 It then returns a positive integer with the estimated number of
3502 milliseconds until preparation is complete.
3504 If called when there is a pending HPT whose size does not match that
3505 requested in the parameters, discards the existing pending HPT and
3506 creates a new one as above.
3508 If called when there is a pending HPT of the size requested, will:
3509 * If preparation of the pending HPT is already complete, return 0
3510 * If preparation of the pending HPT has failed, return an error
3511 code, then discard the pending HPT.
3512 * If preparation of the pending HPT is still in progress, return an
3513 estimated number of milliseconds until preparation is complete.
3515 If called with shift == 0, discards any currently pending HPT and
3516 returns 0 (i.e. cancels any in-progress preparation).
3518 flags is reserved for future expansion, currently setting any bits in
3519 flags will result in an -EINVAL.
3521 Normally this will be called repeatedly with the same parameters until
3522 it returns <= 0. The first call will initiate preparation, subsequent
3523 ones will monitor preparation until it completes or fails.
3525 struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt {
3531 4.103 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT
3533 Capability: KVM_CAP_SPAPR_RESIZE_HPT
3534 Architectures: powerpc
3536 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt (in)
3537 Returns: 0 on successful completion,
3538 -EFAULT if struct kvm_reinject_control cannot be read,
3539 -EINVAL if the supplied shift or flags are invalid
3540 -ENXIO is there is no pending HPT, or the pending HPT doesn't
3541 have the requested size
3542 -EBUSY if the pending HPT is not fully prepared
3543 -ENOSPC if there was a hash collision when moving existing
3544 HPT entries to the new HPT
3545 -EIO on other error conditions
3547 Used to implement the PAPR extension for runtime resizing of a guest's
3548 Hashed Page Table (HPT). Specifically this requests that the guest be
3549 transferred to working with the new HPT, essentially implementing the
3550 H_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT hypercall.
3552 This should only be called after KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_PREPARE has
3553 returned 0 with the same parameters. In other cases
3554 KVM_PPC_RESIZE_HPT_COMMIT will return an error (usually -ENXIO or
3555 -EBUSY, though others may be possible if the preparation was started,
3558 This will have undefined effects on the guest if it has not already
3559 placed itself in a quiescent state where no vcpu will make MMU enabled
3562 On succsful completion, the pending HPT will become the guest's active
3563 HPT and the previous HPT will be discarded.
3565 On failure, the guest will still be operating on its previous HPT.
3567 struct kvm_ppc_resize_hpt {
3573 4.104 KVM_X86_GET_MCE_CAP_SUPPORTED
3575 Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
3578 Parameters: u64 mce_cap (out)
3579 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3581 Returns supported MCE capabilities. The u64 mce_cap parameter
3582 has the same format as the MSR_IA32_MCG_CAP register. Supported
3583 capabilities will have the corresponding bits set.
3585 4.105 KVM_X86_SETUP_MCE
3587 Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
3590 Parameters: u64 mcg_cap (in)
3591 Returns: 0 on success,
3592 -EFAULT if u64 mcg_cap cannot be read,
3593 -EINVAL if the requested number of banks is invalid,
3594 -EINVAL if requested MCE capability is not supported.
3596 Initializes MCE support for use. The u64 mcg_cap parameter
3597 has the same format as the MSR_IA32_MCG_CAP register and
3598 specifies which capabilities should be enabled. The maximum
3599 supported number of error-reporting banks can be retrieved when
3600 checking for KVM_CAP_MCE. The supported capabilities can be
3601 retrieved with KVM_X86_GET_MCE_CAP_SUPPORTED.
3603 4.106 KVM_X86_SET_MCE
3605 Capability: KVM_CAP_MCE
3608 Parameters: struct kvm_x86_mce (in)
3609 Returns: 0 on success,
3610 -EFAULT if struct kvm_x86_mce cannot be read,
3611 -EINVAL if the bank number is invalid,
3612 -EINVAL if VAL bit is not set in status field.
3614 Inject a machine check error (MCE) into the guest. The input
3617 struct kvm_x86_mce {
3627 If the MCE being reported is an uncorrected error, KVM will
3628 inject it as an MCE exception into the guest. If the guest
3629 MCG_STATUS register reports that an MCE is in progress, KVM
3630 causes an KVM_EXIT_SHUTDOWN vmexit.
3632 Otherwise, if the MCE is a corrected error, KVM will just
3633 store it in the corresponding bank (provided this bank is
3634 not holding a previously reported uncorrected error).
3636 4.107 KVM_S390_GET_CMMA_BITS
3638 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_CMMA_MIGRATION
3641 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_cmma_log (in, out)
3642 Returns: 0 on success, a negative value on error
3644 This ioctl is used to get the values of the CMMA bits on the s390
3645 architecture. It is meant to be used in two scenarios:
3646 - During live migration to save the CMMA values. Live migration needs
3647 to be enabled via the KVM_REQ_START_MIGRATION VM property.
3648 - To non-destructively peek at the CMMA values, with the flag
3649 KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK set.
3651 The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_cmma_log struct. The desired
3652 values are written to a buffer whose location is indicated via the "values"
3653 member in the kvm_s390_cmma_log struct. The values in the input struct are
3654 also updated as needed.
3655 Each CMMA value takes up one byte.
3657 struct kvm_s390_cmma_log {
3668 start_gfn is the number of the first guest frame whose CMMA values are
3671 count is the length of the buffer in bytes,
3673 values points to the buffer where the result will be written to.
3675 If count is greater than KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX, then it is considered to be
3676 KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX. KVM_S390_SKEYS_MAX is re-used for consistency with
3679 The result is written in the buffer pointed to by the field values, and
3680 the values of the input parameter are updated as follows.
3682 Depending on the flags, different actions are performed. The only
3683 supported flag so far is KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK.
3685 The default behaviour if KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is not set is:
3686 start_gfn will indicate the first page frame whose CMMA bits were dirty.
3687 It is not necessarily the same as the one passed as input, as clean pages
3690 count will indicate the number of bytes actually written in the buffer.
3691 It can (and very often will) be smaller than the input value, since the
3692 buffer is only filled until 16 bytes of clean values are found (which
3693 are then not copied in the buffer). Since a CMMA migration block needs
3694 the base address and the length, for a total of 16 bytes, we will send
3695 back some clean data if there is some dirty data afterwards, as long as
3696 the size of the clean data does not exceed the size of the header. This
3697 allows to minimize the amount of data to be saved or transferred over
3698 the network at the expense of more roundtrips to userspace. The next
3699 invocation of the ioctl will skip over all the clean values, saving
3700 potentially more than just the 16 bytes we found.
3702 If KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is set:
3703 the existing storage attributes are read even when not in migration
3704 mode, and no other action is performed;
3706 the output start_gfn will be equal to the input start_gfn,
3708 the output count will be equal to the input count, except if the end of
3709 memory has been reached.
3712 the field "remaining" will indicate the total number of dirty CMMA values
3713 still remaining, or 0 if KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is set and migration mode is
3718 values points to the userspace buffer where the result will be stored.
3720 This ioctl can fail with -ENOMEM if not enough memory can be allocated to
3721 complete the task, with -ENXIO if CMMA is not enabled, with -EINVAL if
3722 KVM_S390_CMMA_PEEK is not set but migration mode was not enabled, with
3723 -EFAULT if the userspace address is invalid or if no page table is
3724 present for the addresses (e.g. when using hugepages).
3726 4.108 KVM_S390_SET_CMMA_BITS
3728 Capability: KVM_CAP_S390_CMMA_MIGRATION
3731 Parameters: struct kvm_s390_cmma_log (in)
3732 Returns: 0 on success, a negative value on error
3734 This ioctl is used to set the values of the CMMA bits on the s390
3735 architecture. It is meant to be used during live migration to restore
3736 the CMMA values, but there are no restrictions on its use.
3737 The ioctl takes parameters via the kvm_s390_cmma_values struct.
3738 Each CMMA value takes up one byte.
3740 struct kvm_s390_cmma_log {
3751 start_gfn indicates the starting guest frame number,
3753 count indicates how many values are to be considered in the buffer,
3755 flags is not used and must be 0.
3757 mask indicates which PGSTE bits are to be considered.
3759 remaining is not used.
3761 values points to the buffer in userspace where to store the values.
3763 This ioctl can fail with -ENOMEM if not enough memory can be allocated to
3764 complete the task, with -ENXIO if CMMA is not enabled, with -EINVAL if
3765 the count field is too large (e.g. more than KVM_S390_CMMA_SIZE_MAX) or
3766 if the flags field was not 0, with -EFAULT if the userspace address is
3767 invalid, if invalid pages are written to (e.g. after the end of memory)
3768 or if no page table is present for the addresses (e.g. when using
3771 4.109 KVM_PPC_GET_CPU_CHAR
3773 Capability: KVM_CAP_PPC_GET_CPU_CHAR
3774 Architectures: powerpc
3776 Parameters: struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char (out)
3777 Returns: 0 on successful completion
3778 -EFAULT if struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char cannot be written
3780 This ioctl gives userspace information about certain characteristics
3781 of the CPU relating to speculative execution of instructions and
3782 possible information leakage resulting from speculative execution (see
3783 CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5754). The information is
3784 returned in struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char, which looks like this:
3786 struct kvm_ppc_cpu_char {
3787 __u64 character; /* characteristics of the CPU */
3788 __u64 behaviour; /* recommended software behaviour */
3789 __u64 character_mask; /* valid bits in character */
3790 __u64 behaviour_mask; /* valid bits in behaviour */
3793 For extensibility, the character_mask and behaviour_mask fields
3794 indicate which bits of character and behaviour have been filled in by
3795 the kernel. If the set of defined bits is extended in future then
3796 userspace will be able to tell whether it is running on a kernel that
3797 knows about the new bits.
3799 The character field describes attributes of the CPU which can help
3800 with preventing inadvertent information disclosure - specifically,
3801 whether there is an instruction to flash-invalidate the L1 data cache
3802 (ori 30,30,0 or mtspr SPRN_TRIG2,rN), whether the L1 data cache is set
3803 to a mode where entries can only be used by the thread that created
3804 them, whether the bcctr[l] instruction prevents speculation, and
3805 whether a speculation barrier instruction (ori 31,31,0) is provided.
3807 The behaviour field describes actions that software should take to
3808 prevent inadvertent information disclosure, and thus describes which
3809 vulnerabilities the hardware is subject to; specifically whether the
3810 L1 data cache should be flushed when returning to user mode from the
3811 kernel, and whether a speculation barrier should be placed between an
3812 array bounds check and the array access.
3814 These fields use the same bit definitions as the new
3815 H_GET_CPU_CHARACTERISTICS hypercall.
3817 4.110 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_OP
3822 Parameters: an opaque platform specific structure (in/out)
3823 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3825 If the platform supports creating encrypted VMs then this ioctl can be used
3826 for issuing platform-specific memory encryption commands to manage those
3829 Currently, this ioctl is used for issuing Secure Encrypted Virtualization
3830 (SEV) commands on AMD Processors. The SEV commands are defined in
3831 Documentation/virt/kvm/amd-memory-encryption.rst.
3833 4.111 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_REG_REGION
3838 Parameters: struct kvm_enc_region (in)
3839 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3841 This ioctl can be used to register a guest memory region which may
3842 contain encrypted data (e.g. guest RAM, SMRAM etc).
3844 It is used in the SEV-enabled guest. When encryption is enabled, a guest
3845 memory region may contain encrypted data. The SEV memory encryption
3846 engine uses a tweak such that two identical plaintext pages, each at
3847 different locations will have differing ciphertexts. So swapping or
3848 moving ciphertext of those pages will not result in plaintext being
3849 swapped. So relocating (or migrating) physical backing pages for the SEV
3850 guest will require some additional steps.
3852 Note: The current SEV key management spec does not provide commands to
3853 swap or migrate (move) ciphertext pages. Hence, for now we pin the guest
3854 memory region registered with the ioctl.
3856 4.112 KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_UNREG_REGION
3861 Parameters: struct kvm_enc_region (in)
3862 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
3864 This ioctl can be used to unregister the guest memory region registered
3865 with KVM_MEMORY_ENCRYPT_REG_REGION ioctl above.
3867 4.113 KVM_HYPERV_EVENTFD
3869 Capability: KVM_CAP_HYPERV_EVENTFD
3872 Parameters: struct kvm_hyperv_eventfd (in)
3874 This ioctl (un)registers an eventfd to receive notifications from the guest on
3875 the specified Hyper-V connection id through the SIGNAL_EVENT hypercall, without
3876 causing a user exit. SIGNAL_EVENT hypercall with non-zero event flag number
3877 (bits 24-31) still triggers a KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_HCALL user exit.
3879 struct kvm_hyperv_eventfd {
3886 The conn_id field should fit within 24 bits:
3888 #define KVM_HYPERV_CONN_ID_MASK 0x00ffffff
3890 The acceptable values for the flags field are:
3892 #define KVM_HYPERV_EVENTFD_DEASSIGN (1 << 0)
3894 Returns: 0 on success,
3895 -EINVAL if conn_id or flags is outside the allowed range
3896 -ENOENT on deassign if the conn_id isn't registered
3897 -EEXIST on assign if the conn_id is already registered
3899 4.114 KVM_GET_NESTED_STATE
3901 Capability: KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
3904 Parameters: struct kvm_nested_state (in/out)
3905 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3907 E2BIG: the total state size exceeds the value of 'size' specified by
3908 the user; the size required will be written into size.
3910 struct kvm_nested_state {
3916 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_hdr vmx;
3917 struct kvm_svm_nested_state_hdr svm;
3919 /* Pad the header to 128 bytes. */
3924 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_data vmx[0];
3925 struct kvm_svm_nested_state_data svm[0];
3929 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_GUEST_MODE 0x00000001
3930 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_RUN_PENDING 0x00000002
3931 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_EVMCS 0x00000004
3933 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_FORMAT_VMX 0
3934 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_FORMAT_SVM 1
3936 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE 0x1000
3938 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_SMM_GUEST_MODE 0x00000001
3939 #define KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_SMM_VMXON 0x00000002
3941 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_hdr {
3950 struct kvm_vmx_nested_state_data {
3951 __u8 vmcs12[KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE];
3952 __u8 shadow_vmcs12[KVM_STATE_NESTED_VMX_VMCS_SIZE];
3955 This ioctl copies the vcpu's nested virtualization state from the kernel to
3958 The maximum size of the state can be retrieved by passing KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
3959 to the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl().
3961 4.115 KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE
3963 Capability: KVM_CAP_NESTED_STATE
3966 Parameters: struct kvm_nested_state (in)
3967 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
3969 This copies the vcpu's kvm_nested_state struct from userspace to the kernel.
3970 For the definition of struct kvm_nested_state, see KVM_GET_NESTED_STATE.
3972 4.116 KVM_(UN)REGISTER_COALESCED_MMIO
3974 Capability: KVM_CAP_COALESCED_MMIO (for coalesced mmio)
3975 KVM_CAP_COALESCED_PIO (for coalesced pio)
3978 Parameters: struct kvm_coalesced_mmio_zone
3979 Returns: 0 on success, < 0 on error
3981 Coalesced I/O is a performance optimization that defers hardware
3982 register write emulation so that userspace exits are avoided. It is
3983 typically used to reduce the overhead of emulating frequently accessed
3986 When a hardware register is configured for coalesced I/O, write accesses
3987 do not exit to userspace and their value is recorded in a ring buffer
3988 that is shared between kernel and userspace.
3990 Coalesced I/O is used if one or more write accesses to a hardware
3991 register can be deferred until a read or a write to another hardware
3992 register on the same device. This last access will cause a vmexit and
3993 userspace will process accesses from the ring buffer before emulating
3994 it. That will avoid exiting to userspace on repeated writes.
3996 Coalesced pio is based on coalesced mmio. There is little difference
3997 between coalesced mmio and pio except that coalesced pio records accesses
4000 4.117 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG (vm ioctl)
4002 Capability: KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
4003 Architectures: x86, arm, arm64, mips
4005 Parameters: struct kvm_dirty_log (in)
4006 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4008 /* for KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG */
4009 struct kvm_clear_dirty_log {
4014 void __user *dirty_bitmap; /* one bit per page */
4019 The ioctl clears the dirty status of pages in a memory slot, according to
4020 the bitmap that is passed in struct kvm_clear_dirty_log's dirty_bitmap
4021 field. Bit 0 of the bitmap corresponds to page "first_page" in the
4022 memory slot, and num_pages is the size in bits of the input bitmap.
4023 first_page must be a multiple of 64; num_pages must also be a multiple of
4024 64 unless first_page + num_pages is the size of the memory slot. For each
4025 bit that is set in the input bitmap, the corresponding page is marked "clean"
4026 in KVM's dirty bitmap, and dirty tracking is re-enabled for that page
4027 (for example via write-protection, or by clearing the dirty bit in
4028 a page table entry).
4030 If KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE is available, bits 16-31 specifies
4031 the address space for which you want to return the dirty bitmap.
4032 They must be less than the value that KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns for
4033 the KVM_CAP_MULTI_ADDRESS_SPACE capability.
4035 This ioctl is mostly useful when KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
4036 is enabled; for more information, see the description of the capability.
4037 However, it can always be used as long as KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION confirms
4038 that KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 is present.
4040 4.118 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_HV_CPUID
4042 Capability: KVM_CAP_HYPERV_CPUID
4045 Parameters: struct kvm_cpuid2 (in/out)
4046 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4051 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[0];
4054 struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 {
4065 This ioctl returns x86 cpuid features leaves related to Hyper-V emulation in
4066 KVM. Userspace can use the information returned by this ioctl to construct
4067 cpuid information presented to guests consuming Hyper-V enlightenments (e.g.
4068 Windows or Hyper-V guests).
4070 CPUID feature leaves returned by this ioctl are defined by Hyper-V Top Level
4071 Functional Specification (TLFS). These leaves can't be obtained with
4072 KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID ioctl because some of them intersect with KVM feature
4073 leaves (0x40000000, 0x40000001).
4075 Currently, the following list of CPUID leaves are returned:
4076 HYPERV_CPUID_VENDOR_AND_MAX_FUNCTIONS
4077 HYPERV_CPUID_INTERFACE
4078 HYPERV_CPUID_VERSION
4079 HYPERV_CPUID_FEATURES
4080 HYPERV_CPUID_ENLIGHTMENT_INFO
4081 HYPERV_CPUID_IMPLEMENT_LIMITS
4082 HYPERV_CPUID_NESTED_FEATURES
4084 HYPERV_CPUID_NESTED_FEATURES leaf is only exposed when Enlightened VMCS was
4085 enabled on the corresponding vCPU (KVM_CAP_HYPERV_ENLIGHTENED_VMCS).
4087 Userspace invokes KVM_GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID by passing a kvm_cpuid2 structure
4088 with the 'nent' field indicating the number of entries in the variable-size
4089 array 'entries'. If the number of entries is too low to describe all Hyper-V
4090 feature leaves, an error (E2BIG) is returned. If the number is more or equal
4091 to the number of Hyper-V feature leaves, the 'nent' field is adjusted to the
4092 number of valid entries in the 'entries' array, which is then filled.
4094 'index' and 'flags' fields in 'struct kvm_cpuid_entry2' are currently reserved,
4095 userspace should not expect to get any particular value there.
4097 4.119 KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE
4099 Architectures: arm, arm64
4101 Parameters: int feature (in)
4102 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4104 EPERM: feature not enabled, needs configuration, or already finalized
4105 EINVAL: feature unknown or not present
4107 Recognised values for feature:
4108 arm64 KVM_ARM_VCPU_SVE (requires KVM_CAP_ARM_SVE)
4110 Finalizes the configuration of the specified vcpu feature.
4112 The vcpu must already have been initialised, enabling the affected feature, by
4113 means of a successful KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT call with the appropriate flag set in
4116 For affected vcpu features, this is a mandatory step that must be performed
4117 before the vcpu is fully usable.
4119 Between KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT and KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE, the feature may be
4120 configured by use of ioctls such as KVM_SET_ONE_REG. The exact configuration
4121 that should be performaned and how to do it are feature-dependent.
4123 Other calls that depend on a particular feature being finalized, such as
4124 KVM_RUN, KVM_GET_REG_LIST, KVM_GET_ONE_REG and KVM_SET_ONE_REG, will fail with
4125 -EPERM unless the feature has already been finalized by means of a
4126 KVM_ARM_VCPU_FINALIZE call.
4128 See KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT for details of vcpu features that require finalization
4131 4.120 KVM_SET_PMU_EVENT_FILTER
4133 Capability: KVM_CAP_PMU_EVENT_FILTER
4136 Parameters: struct kvm_pmu_event_filter (in)
4137 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4139 struct kvm_pmu_event_filter {
4142 __u32 fixed_counter_bitmap;
4148 This ioctl restricts the set of PMU events that the guest can program.
4149 The argument holds a list of events which will be allowed or denied.
4150 The eventsel+umask of each event the guest attempts to program is compared
4151 against the events field to determine whether the guest should have access.
4152 The events field only controls general purpose counters; fixed purpose
4153 counters are controlled by the fixed_counter_bitmap.
4155 No flags are defined yet, the field must be zero.
4157 Valid values for 'action':
4158 #define KVM_PMU_EVENT_ALLOW 0
4159 #define KVM_PMU_EVENT_DENY 1
4161 4.121 KVM_PPC_SVM_OFF
4164 Architectures: powerpc
4167 Returns: 0 on successful completion,
4169 EINVAL: if ultravisor failed to terminate the secure guest
4170 ENOMEM: if hypervisor failed to allocate new radix page tables for guest
4172 This ioctl is used to turn off the secure mode of the guest or transition
4173 the guest from secure mode to normal mode. This is invoked when the guest
4174 is reset. This has no effect if called for a normal guest.
4176 This ioctl issues an ultravisor call to terminate the secure guest,
4177 unpins the VPA pages and releases all the device pages that are used to
4178 track the secure pages by hypervisor.
4180 5. The kvm_run structure
4181 ------------------------
4183 Application code obtains a pointer to the kvm_run structure by
4184 mmap()ing a vcpu fd. From that point, application code can control
4185 execution by changing fields in kvm_run prior to calling the KVM_RUN
4186 ioctl, and obtain information about the reason KVM_RUN returned by
4187 looking up structure members.
4191 __u8 request_interrupt_window;
4193 Request that KVM_RUN return when it becomes possible to inject external
4194 interrupts into the guest. Useful in conjunction with KVM_INTERRUPT.
4196 __u8 immediate_exit;
4198 This field is polled once when KVM_RUN starts; if non-zero, KVM_RUN
4199 exits immediately, returning -EINTR. In the common scenario where a
4200 signal is used to "kick" a VCPU out of KVM_RUN, this field can be used
4201 to avoid usage of KVM_SET_SIGNAL_MASK, which has worse scalability.
4202 Rather than blocking the signal outside KVM_RUN, userspace can set up
4203 a signal handler that sets run->immediate_exit to a non-zero value.
4205 This field is ignored if KVM_CAP_IMMEDIATE_EXIT is not available.
4212 When KVM_RUN has returned successfully (return value 0), this informs
4213 application code why KVM_RUN has returned. Allowable values for this
4214 field are detailed below.
4216 __u8 ready_for_interrupt_injection;
4218 If request_interrupt_window has been specified, this field indicates
4219 an interrupt can be injected now with KVM_INTERRUPT.
4223 The value of the current interrupt flag. Only valid if in-kernel
4224 local APIC is not used.
4228 More architecture-specific flags detailing state of the VCPU that may
4229 affect the device's behavior. The only currently defined flag is
4230 KVM_RUN_X86_SMM, which is valid on x86 machines and is set if the
4231 VCPU is in system management mode.
4233 /* in (pre_kvm_run), out (post_kvm_run) */
4236 The value of the cr8 register. Only valid if in-kernel local APIC is
4237 not used. Both input and output.
4241 The value of the APIC BASE msr. Only valid if in-kernel local
4242 APIC is not used. Both input and output.
4245 /* KVM_EXIT_UNKNOWN */
4247 __u64 hardware_exit_reason;
4250 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_UNKNOWN, the vcpu has exited due to unknown
4251 reasons. Further architecture-specific information is available in
4252 hardware_exit_reason.
4254 /* KVM_EXIT_FAIL_ENTRY */
4256 __u64 hardware_entry_failure_reason;
4259 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_FAIL_ENTRY, the vcpu could not be run due
4260 to unknown reasons. Further architecture-specific information is
4261 available in hardware_entry_failure_reason.
4263 /* KVM_EXIT_EXCEPTION */
4273 #define KVM_EXIT_IO_IN 0
4274 #define KVM_EXIT_IO_OUT 1
4276 __u8 size; /* bytes */
4279 __u64 data_offset; /* relative to kvm_run start */
4282 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_IO, then the vcpu has
4283 executed a port I/O instruction which could not be satisfied by kvm.
4284 data_offset describes where the data is located (KVM_EXIT_IO_OUT) or
4285 where kvm expects application code to place the data for the next
4286 KVM_RUN invocation (KVM_EXIT_IO_IN). Data format is a packed array.
4288 /* KVM_EXIT_DEBUG */
4290 struct kvm_debug_exit_arch arch;
4293 If the exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_DEBUG, then a vcpu is processing a debug event
4294 for which architecture specific information is returned.
4304 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_MMIO, then the vcpu has
4305 executed a memory-mapped I/O instruction which could not be satisfied
4306 by kvm. The 'data' member contains the written data if 'is_write' is
4307 true, and should be filled by application code otherwise.
4309 The 'data' member contains, in its first 'len' bytes, the value as it would
4310 appear if the VCPU performed a load or store of the appropriate width directly
4313 NOTE: For KVM_EXIT_IO, KVM_EXIT_MMIO, KVM_EXIT_OSI, KVM_EXIT_PAPR and
4314 KVM_EXIT_EPR the corresponding
4315 operations are complete (and guest state is consistent) only after userspace
4316 has re-entered the kernel with KVM_RUN. The kernel side will first finish
4317 incomplete operations and then check for pending signals. Userspace
4318 can re-enter the guest with an unmasked signal pending to complete
4321 /* KVM_EXIT_HYPERCALL */
4330 Unused. This was once used for 'hypercall to userspace'. To implement
4331 such functionality, use KVM_EXIT_IO (x86) or KVM_EXIT_MMIO (all except s390).
4332 Note KVM_EXIT_IO is significantly faster than KVM_EXIT_MMIO.
4334 /* KVM_EXIT_TPR_ACCESS */
4341 To be documented (KVM_TPR_ACCESS_REPORTING).
4343 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_SIEIC */
4346 __u64 mask; /* psw upper half */
4347 __u64 addr; /* psw lower half */
4354 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_RESET */
4355 #define KVM_S390_RESET_POR 1
4356 #define KVM_S390_RESET_CLEAR 2
4357 #define KVM_S390_RESET_SUBSYSTEM 4
4358 #define KVM_S390_RESET_CPU_INIT 8
4359 #define KVM_S390_RESET_IPL 16
4360 __u64 s390_reset_flags;
4364 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_UCONTROL */
4366 __u64 trans_exc_code;
4370 s390 specific. A page fault has occurred for a user controlled virtual
4371 machine (KVM_VM_S390_UNCONTROL) on it's host page table that cannot be
4372 resolved by the kernel.
4373 The program code and the translation exception code that were placed
4374 in the cpu's lowcore are presented here as defined by the z Architecture
4375 Principles of Operation Book in the Chapter for Dynamic Address Translation
4385 Deprecated - was used for 440 KVM.
4392 MOL uses a special hypercall interface it calls 'OSI'. To enable it, we catch
4393 hypercalls and exit with this exit struct that contains all the guest gprs.
4395 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_OSI, then the vcpu has triggered such a hypercall.
4396 Userspace can now handle the hypercall and when it's done modify the gprs as
4397 necessary. Upon guest entry all guest GPRs will then be replaced by the values
4400 /* KVM_EXIT_PAPR_HCALL */
4407 This is used on 64-bit PowerPC when emulating a pSeries partition,
4408 e.g. with the 'pseries' machine type in qemu. It occurs when the
4409 guest does a hypercall using the 'sc 1' instruction. The 'nr' field
4410 contains the hypercall number (from the guest R3), and 'args' contains
4411 the arguments (from the guest R4 - R12). Userspace should put the
4412 return code in 'ret' and any extra returned values in args[].
4413 The possible hypercalls are defined in the Power Architecture Platform
4414 Requirements (PAPR) document available from www.power.org (free
4415 developer registration required to access it).
4417 /* KVM_EXIT_S390_TSCH */
4419 __u16 subchannel_id;
4420 __u16 subchannel_nr;
4427 s390 specific. This exit occurs when KVM_CAP_S390_CSS_SUPPORT has been enabled
4428 and TEST SUBCHANNEL was intercepted. If dequeued is set, a pending I/O
4429 interrupt for the target subchannel has been dequeued and subchannel_id,
4430 subchannel_nr, io_int_parm and io_int_word contain the parameters for that
4431 interrupt. ipb is needed for instruction parameter decoding.
4438 On FSL BookE PowerPC chips, the interrupt controller has a fast patch
4439 interrupt acknowledge path to the core. When the core successfully
4440 delivers an interrupt, it automatically populates the EPR register with
4441 the interrupt vector number and acknowledges the interrupt inside
4442 the interrupt controller.
4444 In case the interrupt controller lives in user space, we need to do
4445 the interrupt acknowledge cycle through it to fetch the next to be
4446 delivered interrupt vector using this exit.
4448 It gets triggered whenever both KVM_CAP_PPC_EPR are enabled and an
4449 external interrupt has just been delivered into the guest. User space
4450 should put the acknowledged interrupt vector into the 'epr' field.
4452 /* KVM_EXIT_SYSTEM_EVENT */
4454 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_SHUTDOWN 1
4455 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_RESET 2
4456 #define KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_CRASH 3
4461 If exit_reason is KVM_EXIT_SYSTEM_EVENT then the vcpu has triggered
4462 a system-level event using some architecture specific mechanism (hypercall
4463 or some special instruction). In case of ARM/ARM64, this is triggered using
4464 HVC instruction based PSCI call from the vcpu. The 'type' field describes
4465 the system-level event type. The 'flags' field describes architecture
4466 specific flags for the system-level event.
4468 Valid values for 'type' are:
4469 KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_SHUTDOWN -- the guest has requested a shutdown of the
4470 VM. Userspace is not obliged to honour this, and if it does honour
4471 this does not need to destroy the VM synchronously (ie it may call
4472 KVM_RUN again before shutdown finally occurs).
4473 KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_RESET -- the guest has requested a reset of the VM.
4474 As with SHUTDOWN, userspace can choose to ignore the request, or
4475 to schedule the reset to occur in the future and may call KVM_RUN again.
4476 KVM_SYSTEM_EVENT_CRASH -- the guest crash occurred and the guest
4477 has requested a crash condition maintenance. Userspace can choose
4478 to ignore the request, or to gather VM memory core dump and/or
4479 reset/shutdown of the VM.
4481 /* KVM_EXIT_IOAPIC_EOI */
4486 Indicates that the VCPU's in-kernel local APIC received an EOI for a
4487 level-triggered IOAPIC interrupt. This exit only triggers when the
4488 IOAPIC is implemented in userspace (i.e. KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP is enabled);
4489 the userspace IOAPIC should process the EOI and retrigger the interrupt if
4490 it is still asserted. Vector is the LAPIC interrupt vector for which the
4493 struct kvm_hyperv_exit {
4494 #define KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNIC 1
4495 #define KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_HCALL 2
4511 /* KVM_EXIT_HYPERV */
4512 struct kvm_hyperv_exit hyperv;
4513 Indicates that the VCPU exits into userspace to process some tasks
4514 related to Hyper-V emulation.
4515 Valid values for 'type' are:
4516 KVM_EXIT_HYPERV_SYNIC -- synchronously notify user-space about
4517 Hyper-V SynIC state change. Notification is used to remap SynIC
4518 event/message pages and to enable/disable SynIC messages/events processing
4521 /* KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV */
4527 Used on arm and arm64 systems. If a guest accesses memory not in a memslot,
4528 KVM will typically return to userspace and ask it to do MMIO emulation on its
4529 behalf. However, for certain classes of instructions, no instruction decode
4530 (direction, length of memory access) is provided, and fetching and decoding
4531 the instruction from the VM is overly complicated to live in the kernel.
4533 Historically, when this situation occurred, KVM would print a warning and kill
4534 the VM. KVM assumed that if the guest accessed non-memslot memory, it was
4535 trying to do I/O, which just couldn't be emulated, and the warning message was
4536 phrased accordingly. However, what happened more often was that a guest bug
4537 caused access outside the guest memory areas which should lead to a more
4538 meaningful warning message and an external abort in the guest, if the access
4539 did not fall within an I/O window.
4541 Userspace implementations can query for KVM_CAP_ARM_NISV_TO_USER, and enable
4542 this capability at VM creation. Once this is done, these types of errors will
4543 instead return to userspace with KVM_EXIT_ARM_NISV, with the valid bits from
4544 the HSR (arm) and ESR_EL2 (arm64) in the esr_iss field, and the faulting IPA
4545 in the fault_ipa field. Userspace can either fix up the access if it's
4546 actually an I/O access by decoding the instruction from guest memory (if it's
4547 very brave) and continue executing the guest, or it can decide to suspend,
4548 dump, or restart the guest.
4550 Note that KVM does not skip the faulting instruction as it does for
4551 KVM_EXIT_MMIO, but userspace has to emulate any change to the processing state
4552 if it decides to decode and emulate the instruction.
4554 /* Fix the size of the union. */
4559 * shared registers between kvm and userspace.
4560 * kvm_valid_regs specifies the register classes set by the host
4561 * kvm_dirty_regs specified the register classes dirtied by userspace
4562 * struct kvm_sync_regs is architecture specific, as well as the
4563 * bits for kvm_valid_regs and kvm_dirty_regs
4565 __u64 kvm_valid_regs;
4566 __u64 kvm_dirty_regs;
4568 struct kvm_sync_regs regs;
4569 char padding[SYNC_REGS_SIZE_BYTES];
4572 If KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS is defined, these fields allow userspace to access
4573 certain guest registers without having to call SET/GET_*REGS. Thus we can
4574 avoid some system call overhead if userspace has to handle the exit.
4575 Userspace can query the validity of the structure by checking
4576 kvm_valid_regs for specific bits. These bits are architecture specific
4577 and usually define the validity of a groups of registers. (e.g. one bit
4578 for general purpose registers)
4580 Please note that the kernel is allowed to use the kvm_run structure as the
4581 primary storage for certain register types. Therefore, the kernel may use the
4582 values in kvm_run even if the corresponding bit in kvm_dirty_regs is not set.
4588 6. Capabilities that can be enabled on vCPUs
4589 --------------------------------------------
4591 There are certain capabilities that change the behavior of the virtual CPU or
4592 the virtual machine when enabled. To enable them, please see section 4.37.
4593 Below you can find a list of capabilities and what their effect on the vCPU or
4594 the virtual machine is when enabling them.
4596 The following information is provided along with the description:
4598 Architectures: which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
4599 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
4601 Target: whether this is a per-vcpu or per-vm capability.
4603 Parameters: what parameters are accepted by the capability.
4605 Returns: the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
4606 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
4614 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4616 This capability enables interception of OSI hypercalls that otherwise would
4617 be treated as normal system calls to be injected into the guest. OSI hypercalls
4618 were invented by Mac-on-Linux to have a standardized communication mechanism
4619 between the guest and the host.
4621 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_OSI can occur.
4624 6.2 KVM_CAP_PPC_PAPR
4629 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4631 This capability enables interception of PAPR hypercalls. PAPR hypercalls are
4632 done using the hypercall instruction "sc 1".
4634 It also sets the guest privilege level to "supervisor" mode. Usually the guest
4635 runs in "hypervisor" privilege mode with a few missing features.
4637 In addition to the above, it changes the semantics of SDR1. In this mode, the
4638 HTAB address part of SDR1 contains an HVA instead of a GPA, as PAPR keeps the
4639 HTAB invisible to the guest.
4641 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_PAPR_HCALL can occur.
4648 Parameters: args[0] is the address of a struct kvm_config_tlb
4649 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4651 struct kvm_config_tlb {
4658 Configures the virtual CPU's TLB array, establishing a shared memory area
4659 between userspace and KVM. The "params" and "array" fields are userspace
4660 addresses of mmu-type-specific data structures. The "array_len" field is an
4661 safety mechanism, and should be set to the size in bytes of the memory that
4662 userspace has reserved for the array. It must be at least the size dictated
4663 by "mmu_type" and "params".
4665 While KVM_RUN is active, the shared region is under control of KVM. Its
4666 contents are undefined, and any modification by userspace results in
4667 boundedly undefined behavior.
4669 On return from KVM_RUN, the shared region will reflect the current state of
4670 the guest's TLB. If userspace makes any changes, it must call KVM_DIRTY_TLB
4671 to tell KVM which entries have been changed, prior to calling KVM_RUN again
4674 For mmu types KVM_MMU_FSL_BOOKE_NOHV and KVM_MMU_FSL_BOOKE_HV:
4675 - The "params" field is of type "struct kvm_book3e_206_tlb_params".
4676 - The "array" field points to an array of type "struct
4677 kvm_book3e_206_tlb_entry".
4678 - The array consists of all entries in the first TLB, followed by all
4679 entries in the second TLB.
4680 - Within a TLB, entries are ordered first by increasing set number. Within a
4681 set, entries are ordered by way (increasing ESEL).
4682 - The hash for determining set number in TLB0 is: (MAS2 >> 12) & (num_sets - 1)
4683 where "num_sets" is the tlb_sizes[] value divided by the tlb_ways[] value.
4684 - The tsize field of mas1 shall be set to 4K on TLB0, even though the
4685 hardware ignores this value for TLB0.
4687 6.4 KVM_CAP_S390_CSS_SUPPORT
4692 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4694 This capability enables support for handling of channel I/O instructions.
4696 TEST PENDING INTERRUPTION and the interrupt portion of TEST SUBCHANNEL are
4697 handled in-kernel, while the other I/O instructions are passed to userspace.
4699 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_S390_TSCH will occur on TEST
4700 SUBCHANNEL intercepts.
4702 Note that even though this capability is enabled per-vcpu, the complete
4703 virtual machine is affected.
4709 Parameters: args[0] defines whether the proxy facility is active
4710 Returns: 0 on success; -1 on error
4712 This capability enables or disables the delivery of interrupts through the
4713 external proxy facility.
4715 When enabled (args[0] != 0), every time the guest gets an external interrupt
4716 delivered, it automatically exits into user space with a KVM_EXIT_EPR exit
4717 to receive the topmost interrupt vector.
4719 When disabled (args[0] == 0), behavior is as if this facility is unsupported.
4721 When this capability is enabled, KVM_EXIT_EPR can occur.
4723 6.6 KVM_CAP_IRQ_MPIC
4726 Parameters: args[0] is the MPIC device fd
4727 args[1] is the MPIC CPU number for this vcpu
4729 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel MPIC device.
4731 6.7 KVM_CAP_IRQ_XICS
4735 Parameters: args[0] is the XICS device fd
4736 args[1] is the XICS CPU number (server ID) for this vcpu
4738 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel XICS device.
4740 6.8 KVM_CAP_S390_IRQCHIP
4746 This capability enables the in-kernel irqchip for s390. Please refer to
4747 "4.24 KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP" for details.
4749 6.9 KVM_CAP_MIPS_FPU
4753 Parameters: args[0] is reserved for future use (should be 0).
4755 This capability allows the use of the host Floating Point Unit by the guest. It
4756 allows the Config1.FP bit to be set to enable the FPU in the guest. Once this is
4757 done the KVM_REG_MIPS_FPR_* and KVM_REG_MIPS_FCR_* registers can be accessed
4758 (depending on the current guest FPU register mode), and the Status.FR,
4759 Config5.FRE bits are accessible via the KVM API and also from the guest,
4760 depending on them being supported by the FPU.
4762 6.10 KVM_CAP_MIPS_MSA
4766 Parameters: args[0] is reserved for future use (should be 0).
4768 This capability allows the use of the MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA) by the guest.
4769 It allows the Config3.MSAP bit to be set to enable the use of MSA by the guest.
4770 Once this is done the KVM_REG_MIPS_VEC_* and KVM_REG_MIPS_MSA_* registers can be
4771 accessed, and the Config5.MSAEn bit is accessible via the KVM API and also from
4774 6.74 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS
4775 Architectures: s390, x86
4776 Target: s390: always enabled, x86: vcpu
4778 Returns: x86: KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION returns a bit-array indicating which register
4779 sets are supported (bitfields defined in arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm.h).
4781 As described above in the kvm_sync_regs struct info in section 5 (kvm_run):
4782 KVM_CAP_SYNC_REGS "allow[s] userspace to access certain guest registers
4783 without having to call SET/GET_*REGS". This reduces overhead by eliminating
4784 repeated ioctl calls for setting and/or getting register values. This is
4785 particularly important when userspace is making synchronous guest state
4786 modifications, e.g. when emulating and/or intercepting instructions in
4789 For s390 specifics, please refer to the source code.
4792 - the register sets to be copied out to kvm_run are selectable
4793 by userspace (rather that all sets being copied out for every exit).
4794 - vcpu_events are available in addition to regs and sregs.
4796 For x86, the 'kvm_valid_regs' field of struct kvm_run is overloaded to
4797 function as an input bit-array field set by userspace to indicate the
4798 specific register sets to be copied out on the next exit.
4800 To indicate when userspace has modified values that should be copied into
4801 the vCPU, the all architecture bitarray field, 'kvm_dirty_regs' must be set.
4802 This is done using the same bitflags as for the 'kvm_valid_regs' field.
4803 If the dirty bit is not set, then the register set values will not be copied
4804 into the vCPU even if they've been modified.
4806 Unused bitfields in the bitarrays must be set to zero.
4808 struct kvm_sync_regs {
4809 struct kvm_regs regs;
4810 struct kvm_sregs sregs;
4811 struct kvm_vcpu_events events;
4814 6.75 KVM_CAP_PPC_IRQ_XIVE
4818 Parameters: args[0] is the XIVE device fd
4819 args[1] is the XIVE CPU number (server ID) for this vcpu
4821 This capability connects the vcpu to an in-kernel XIVE device.
4823 7. Capabilities that can be enabled on VMs
4824 ------------------------------------------
4826 There are certain capabilities that change the behavior of the virtual
4827 machine when enabled. To enable them, please see section 4.37. Below
4828 you can find a list of capabilities and what their effect on the VM
4829 is when enabling them.
4831 The following information is provided along with the description:
4833 Architectures: which instruction set architectures provide this ioctl.
4834 x86 includes both i386 and x86_64.
4836 Parameters: what parameters are accepted by the capability.
4838 Returns: the return value. General error numbers (EBADF, ENOMEM, EINVAL)
4839 are not detailed, but errors with specific meanings are.
4842 7.1 KVM_CAP_PPC_ENABLE_HCALL
4845 Parameters: args[0] is the sPAPR hcall number
4846 args[1] is 0 to disable, 1 to enable in-kernel handling
4848 This capability controls whether individual sPAPR hypercalls (hcalls)
4849 get handled by the kernel or not. Enabling or disabling in-kernel
4850 handling of an hcall is effective across the VM. On creation, an
4851 initial set of hcalls are enabled for in-kernel handling, which
4852 consists of those hcalls for which in-kernel handlers were implemented
4853 before this capability was implemented. If disabled, the kernel will
4854 not to attempt to handle the hcall, but will always exit to userspace
4855 to handle it. Note that it may not make sense to enable some and
4856 disable others of a group of related hcalls, but KVM does not prevent
4857 userspace from doing that.
4859 If the hcall number specified is not one that has an in-kernel
4860 implementation, the KVM_ENABLE_CAP ioctl will fail with an EINVAL
4863 7.2 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_SIGP
4868 This capability controls which SIGP orders will be handled completely in user
4869 space. With this capability enabled, all fast orders will be handled completely
4875 - CONDITIONAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL
4877 All other orders will be handled completely in user space.
4879 Only privileged operation exceptions will be checked for in the kernel (or even
4880 in the hardware prior to interception). If this capability is not enabled, the
4881 old way of handling SIGP orders is used (partially in kernel and user space).
4883 7.3 KVM_CAP_S390_VECTOR_REGISTERS
4887 Returns: 0 on success, negative value on error
4889 Allows use of the vector registers introduced with z13 processor, and
4890 provides for the synchronization between host and user space. Will
4891 return -EINVAL if the machine does not support vectors.
4893 7.4 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_STSI
4898 This capability allows post-handlers for the STSI instruction. After
4899 initial handling in the kernel, KVM exits to user space with
4900 KVM_EXIT_S390_STSI to allow user space to insert further data.
4902 Before exiting to userspace, kvm handlers should fill in s390_stsi field of
4913 @addr - guest address of STSI SYSIB
4917 @ar - access register number
4919 KVM handlers should exit to userspace with rc = -EREMOTE.
4921 7.5 KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP
4924 Parameters: args[0] - number of routes reserved for userspace IOAPICs
4925 Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error
4927 Create a local apic for each processor in the kernel. This can be used
4928 instead of KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP if the userspace VMM wishes to emulate the
4929 IOAPIC and PIC (and also the PIT, even though this has to be enabled
4932 This capability also enables in kernel routing of interrupt requests;
4933 when KVM_CAP_SPLIT_IRQCHIP only routes of KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI type are
4934 used in the IRQ routing table. The first args[0] MSI routes are reserved
4935 for the IOAPIC pins. Whenever the LAPIC receives an EOI for these routes,
4936 a KVM_EXIT_IOAPIC_EOI vmexit will be reported to userspace.
4938 Fails if VCPU has already been created, or if the irqchip is already in the
4939 kernel (i.e. KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP has already been called).
4946 Allows use of runtime-instrumentation introduced with zEC12 processor.
4947 Will return -EINVAL if the machine does not support runtime-instrumentation.
4948 Will return -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
4950 7.7 KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API
4953 Parameters: args[0] - features that should be enabled
4954 Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when args[0] contains invalid features
4956 Valid feature flags in args[0] are
4958 #define KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS (1ULL << 0)
4959 #define KVM_X2APIC_API_DISABLE_BROADCAST_QUIRK (1ULL << 1)
4961 Enabling KVM_X2APIC_API_USE_32BIT_IDS changes the behavior of
4962 KVM_SET_GSI_ROUTING, KVM_SIGNAL_MSI, KVM_SET_LAPIC, and KVM_GET_LAPIC,
4963 allowing the use of 32-bit APIC IDs. See KVM_CAP_X2APIC_API in their
4964 respective sections.
4966 KVM_X2APIC_API_DISABLE_BROADCAST_QUIRK must be enabled for x2APIC to work
4967 in logical mode or with more than 255 VCPUs. Otherwise, KVM treats 0xff
4968 as a broadcast even in x2APIC mode in order to support physical x2APIC
4969 without interrupt remapping. This is undesirable in logical mode,
4970 where 0xff represents CPUs 0-7 in cluster 0.
4972 7.8 KVM_CAP_S390_USER_INSTR0
4977 With this capability enabled, all illegal instructions 0x0000 (2 bytes) will
4978 be intercepted and forwarded to user space. User space can use this
4979 mechanism e.g. to realize 2-byte software breakpoints. The kernel will
4980 not inject an operating exception for these instructions, user space has
4981 to take care of that.
4983 This capability can be enabled dynamically even if VCPUs were already
4984 created and are running.
4990 Returns: 0 on success; -EINVAL if the machine does not support
4991 guarded storage; -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
4993 Allows use of guarded storage for the KVM guest.
4995 7.10 KVM_CAP_S390_AIS
5000 Allow use of adapter-interruption suppression.
5001 Returns: 0 on success; -EBUSY if a VCPU has already been created.
5003 7.11 KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT
5006 Parameters: vsmt_mode, flags
5008 Enabling this capability on a VM provides userspace with a way to set
5009 the desired virtual SMT mode (i.e. the number of virtual CPUs per
5010 virtual core). The virtual SMT mode, vsmt_mode, must be a power of 2
5011 between 1 and 8. On POWER8, vsmt_mode must also be no greater than
5012 the number of threads per subcore for the host. Currently flags must
5013 be 0. A successful call to enable this capability will result in
5014 vsmt_mode being returned when the KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT capability is
5015 subsequently queried for the VM. This capability is only supported by
5016 HV KVM, and can only be set before any VCPUs have been created.
5017 The KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT_POSSIBLE capability indicates which virtual SMT
5018 modes are available.
5020 7.12 KVM_CAP_PPC_FWNMI
5025 With this capability a machine check exception in the guest address
5026 space will cause KVM to exit the guest with NMI exit reason. This
5027 enables QEMU to build error log and branch to guest kernel registered
5028 machine check handling routine. Without this capability KVM will
5029 branch to guests' 0x200 interrupt vector.
5031 7.13 KVM_CAP_X86_DISABLE_EXITS
5034 Parameters: args[0] defines which exits are disabled
5035 Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when args[0] contains invalid exits
5037 Valid bits in args[0] are
5039 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_MWAIT (1 << 0)
5040 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_HLT (1 << 1)
5041 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_PAUSE (1 << 2)
5042 #define KVM_X86_DISABLE_EXITS_CSTATE (1 << 3)
5044 Enabling this capability on a VM provides userspace with a way to no
5045 longer intercept some instructions for improved latency in some
5046 workloads, and is suggested when vCPUs are associated to dedicated
5047 physical CPUs. More bits can be added in the future; userspace can
5048 just pass the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION result to KVM_ENABLE_CAP to disable
5051 Do not enable KVM_FEATURE_PV_UNHALT if you disable HLT exits.
5053 7.14 KVM_CAP_S390_HPAGE_1M
5057 Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL if hpage module parameter was not set
5058 or cmma is enabled, or the VM has the KVM_VM_S390_UCONTROL
5061 With this capability the KVM support for memory backing with 1m pages
5062 through hugetlbfs can be enabled for a VM. After the capability is
5063 enabled, cmma can't be enabled anymore and pfmfi and the storage key
5064 interpretation are disabled. If cmma has already been enabled or the
5065 hpage module parameter is not set to 1, -EINVAL is returned.
5067 While it is generally possible to create a huge page backed VM without
5068 this capability, the VM will not be able to run.
5070 7.15 KVM_CAP_MSR_PLATFORM_INFO
5073 Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5075 With this capability, a guest may read the MSR_PLATFORM_INFO MSR. Otherwise,
5076 a #GP would be raised when the guest tries to access. Currently, this
5077 capability does not enable write permissions of this MSR for the guest.
5079 7.16 KVM_CAP_PPC_NESTED_HV
5083 Returns: 0 on success, -EINVAL when the implementation doesn't support
5084 nested-HV virtualization.
5086 HV-KVM on POWER9 and later systems allows for "nested-HV"
5087 virtualization, which provides a way for a guest VM to run guests that
5088 can run using the CPU's supervisor mode (privileged non-hypervisor
5089 state). Enabling this capability on a VM depends on the CPU having
5090 the necessary functionality and on the facility being enabled with a
5091 kvm-hv module parameter.
5093 7.17 KVM_CAP_EXCEPTION_PAYLOAD
5096 Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5098 With this capability enabled, CR2 will not be modified prior to the
5099 emulated VM-exit when L1 intercepts a #PF exception that occurs in
5100 L2. Similarly, for kvm-intel only, DR6 will not be modified prior to
5101 the emulated VM-exit when L1 intercepts a #DB exception that occurs in
5102 L2. As a result, when KVM_GET_VCPU_EVENTS reports a pending #PF (or
5103 #DB) exception for L2, exception.has_payload will be set and the
5104 faulting address (or the new DR6 bits*) will be reported in the
5105 exception_payload field. Similarly, when userspace injects a #PF (or
5106 #DB) into L2 using KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS, it is expected to set
5107 exception.has_payload and to put the faulting address (or the new DR6
5108 bits*) in the exception_payload field.
5110 This capability also enables exception.pending in struct
5111 kvm_vcpu_events, which allows userspace to distinguish between pending
5112 and injected exceptions.
5115 * For the new DR6 bits, note that bit 16 is set iff the #DB exception
5118 7.18 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2
5120 Architectures: x86, arm, arm64, mips
5121 Parameters: args[0] whether feature should be enabled or not
5123 With this capability enabled, KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG will not automatically
5124 clear and write-protect all pages that are returned as dirty.
5125 Rather, userspace will have to do this operation separately using
5126 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG.
5128 At the cost of a slightly more complicated operation, this provides better
5129 scalability and responsiveness for two reasons. First,
5130 KVM_CLEAR_DIRTY_LOG ioctl can operate on a 64-page granularity rather
5131 than requiring to sync a full memslot; this ensures that KVM does not
5132 take spinlocks for an extended period of time. Second, in some cases a
5133 large amount of time can pass between a call to KVM_GET_DIRTY_LOG and
5134 userspace actually using the data in the page. Pages can be modified
5135 during this time, which is inefficint for both the guest and userspace:
5136 the guest will incur a higher penalty due to write protection faults,
5137 while userspace can see false reports of dirty pages. Manual reprotection
5138 helps reducing this time, improving guest performance and reducing the
5139 number of dirty log false positives.
5141 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 was previously available under the name
5142 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT, but the implementation had bugs that make
5143 it hard or impossible to use it correctly. The availability of
5144 KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT2 signals that those bugs are fixed.
5145 Userspace should not try to use KVM_CAP_MANUAL_DIRTY_LOG_PROTECT.
5147 8. Other capabilities.
5148 ----------------------
5150 This section lists capabilities that give information about other
5151 features of the KVM implementation.
5153 8.1 KVM_CAP_PPC_HWRNG
5157 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
5158 available, means that that the kernel has an implementation of the
5159 H_RANDOM hypercall backed by a hardware random-number generator.
5160 If present, the kernel H_RANDOM handler can be enabled for guest use
5161 with the KVM_CAP_PPC_ENABLE_HCALL capability.
5163 8.2 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC
5166 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
5167 available, means that that the kernel has an implementation of the
5168 Hyper-V Synthetic interrupt controller(SynIC). Hyper-V SynIC is
5169 used to support Windows Hyper-V based guest paravirt drivers(VMBus).
5171 In order to use SynIC, it has to be activated by setting this
5172 capability via KVM_ENABLE_CAP ioctl on the vcpu fd. Note that this
5173 will disable the use of APIC hardware virtualization even if supported
5174 by the CPU, as it's incompatible with SynIC auto-EOI behavior.
5176 8.3 KVM_CAP_PPC_RADIX_MMU
5180 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
5181 available, means that that the kernel can support guests using the
5182 radix MMU defined in Power ISA V3.00 (as implemented in the POWER9
5185 8.4 KVM_CAP_PPC_HASH_MMU_V3
5189 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is
5190 available, means that that the kernel can support guests using the
5191 hashed page table MMU defined in Power ISA V3.00 (as implemented in
5192 the POWER9 processor), including in-memory segment tables.
5198 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on the main kvm handle indicates that
5199 it is available, means that full hardware assisted virtualization capabilities
5200 of the hardware are available for use through KVM. An appropriate
5201 KVM_VM_MIPS_* type must be passed to KVM_CREATE_VM to create a VM which
5204 If KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a kvm VM handle indicates that this capability is
5205 available, it means that the VM is using full hardware assisted virtualization
5206 capabilities of the hardware. This is useful to check after creating a VM with
5207 KVM_VM_MIPS_DEFAULT.
5209 The value returned by KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION should be compared against known
5210 values (see below). All other values are reserved. This is to allow for the
5211 possibility of other hardware assisted virtualization implementations which
5212 may be incompatible with the MIPS VZ ASE.
5214 0: The trap & emulate implementation is in use to run guest code in user
5215 mode. Guest virtual memory segments are rearranged to fit the guest in the
5216 user mode address space.
5218 1: The MIPS VZ ASE is in use, providing full hardware assisted
5219 virtualization, including standard guest virtual memory segments.
5225 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on the main kvm handle indicates that
5226 it is available, means that the trap & emulate implementation is available to
5227 run guest code in user mode, even if KVM_CAP_MIPS_VZ indicates that hardware
5228 assisted virtualisation is also available. KVM_VM_MIPS_TE (0) must be passed
5229 to KVM_CREATE_VM to create a VM which utilises it.
5231 If KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a kvm VM handle indicates that this capability is
5232 available, it means that the VM is using trap & emulate.
5234 8.7 KVM_CAP_MIPS_64BIT
5238 This capability indicates the supported architecture type of the guest, i.e. the
5239 supported register and address width.
5241 The values returned when this capability is checked by KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION on a
5242 kvm VM handle correspond roughly to the CP0_Config.AT register field, and should
5243 be checked specifically against known values (see below). All other values are
5246 0: MIPS32 or microMIPS32.
5247 Both registers and addresses are 32-bits wide.
5248 It will only be possible to run 32-bit guest code.
5250 1: MIPS64 or microMIPS64 with access only to 32-bit compatibility segments.
5251 Registers are 64-bits wide, but addresses are 32-bits wide.
5252 64-bit guest code may run but cannot access MIPS64 memory segments.
5253 It will also be possible to run 32-bit guest code.
5255 2: MIPS64 or microMIPS64 with access to all address segments.
5256 Both registers and addresses are 64-bits wide.
5257 It will be possible to run 64-bit or 32-bit guest code.
5259 8.9 KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ
5261 Architectures: arm, arm64
5262 This capability, if KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION indicates that it is available, means
5263 that if userspace creates a VM without an in-kernel interrupt controller, it
5264 will be notified of changes to the output level of in-kernel emulated devices,
5265 which can generate virtual interrupts, presented to the VM.
5266 For such VMs, on every return to userspace, the kernel
5267 updates the vcpu's run->s.regs.device_irq_level field to represent the actual
5268 output level of the device.
5270 Whenever kvm detects a change in the device output level, kvm guarantees at
5271 least one return to userspace before running the VM. This exit could either
5272 be a KVM_EXIT_INTR or any other exit event, like KVM_EXIT_MMIO. This way,
5273 userspace can always sample the device output level and re-compute the state of
5274 the userspace interrupt controller. Userspace should always check the state
5275 of run->s.regs.device_irq_level on every kvm exit.
5276 The value in run->s.regs.device_irq_level can represent both level and edge
5277 triggered interrupt signals, depending on the device. Edge triggered interrupt
5278 signals will exit to userspace with the bit in run->s.regs.device_irq_level
5279 set exactly once per edge signal.
5281 The field run->s.regs.device_irq_level is available independent of
5282 run->kvm_valid_regs or run->kvm_dirty_regs bits.
5284 If KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ is supported, the KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION ioctl returns a
5285 number larger than 0 indicating the version of this capability is implemented
5286 and thereby which bits in in run->s.regs.device_irq_level can signal values.
5288 Currently the following bits are defined for the device_irq_level bitmap:
5290 KVM_CAP_ARM_USER_IRQ >= 1:
5292 KVM_ARM_DEV_EL1_VTIMER - EL1 virtual timer
5293 KVM_ARM_DEV_EL1_PTIMER - EL1 physical timer
5294 KVM_ARM_DEV_PMU - ARM PMU overflow interrupt signal
5296 Future versions of kvm may implement additional events. These will get
5297 indicated by returning a higher number from KVM_CHECK_EXTENSION and will be
5300 8.10 KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT_POSSIBLE
5304 Querying this capability returns a bitmap indicating the possible
5305 virtual SMT modes that can be set using KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT. If bit N
5306 (counting from the right) is set, then a virtual SMT mode of 2^N is
5309 8.11 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC2
5313 This capability enables a newer version of Hyper-V Synthetic interrupt
5314 controller (SynIC). The only difference with KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SYNIC is that KVM
5315 doesn't clear SynIC message and event flags pages when they are enabled by
5316 writing to the respective MSRs.
5318 8.12 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_VP_INDEX
5322 This capability indicates that userspace can load HV_X64_MSR_VP_INDEX msr. Its
5323 value is used to denote the target vcpu for a SynIC interrupt. For
5324 compatibilty, KVM initializes this msr to KVM's internal vcpu index. When this
5325 capability is absent, userspace can still query this msr's value.
5327 8.13 KVM_CAP_S390_AIS_MIGRATION
5332 This capability indicates if the flic device will be able to get/set the
5333 AIS states for migration via the KVM_DEV_FLIC_AISM_ALL attribute and allows
5334 to discover this without having to create a flic device.
5336 8.14 KVM_CAP_S390_PSW
5340 This capability indicates that the PSW is exposed via the kvm_run structure.
5342 8.15 KVM_CAP_S390_GMAP
5346 This capability indicates that the user space memory used as guest mapping can
5347 be anywhere in the user memory address space, as long as the memory slots are
5348 aligned and sized to a segment (1MB) boundary.
5350 8.16 KVM_CAP_S390_COW
5354 This capability indicates that the user space memory used as guest mapping can
5355 use copy-on-write semantics as well as dirty pages tracking via read-only page
5358 8.17 KVM_CAP_S390_BPB
5362 This capability indicates that kvm will implement the interfaces to handle
5363 reset, migration and nested KVM for branch prediction blocking. The stfle
5364 facility 82 should not be provided to the guest without this capability.
5366 8.18 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_TLBFLUSH
5370 This capability indicates that KVM supports paravirtualized Hyper-V TLB Flush
5372 HvFlushVirtualAddressSpace, HvFlushVirtualAddressSpaceEx,
5373 HvFlushVirtualAddressList, HvFlushVirtualAddressListEx.
5375 8.19 KVM_CAP_ARM_INJECT_SERROR_ESR
5377 Architectures: arm, arm64
5379 This capability indicates that userspace can specify (via the
5380 KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS ioctl) the syndrome value reported to the guest when it
5381 takes a virtual SError interrupt exception.
5382 If KVM advertises this capability, userspace can only specify the ISS field for
5383 the ESR syndrome. Other parts of the ESR, such as the EC are generated by the
5384 CPU when the exception is taken. If this virtual SError is taken to EL1 using
5385 AArch64, this value will be reported in the ISS field of ESR_ELx.
5387 See KVM_CAP_VCPU_EVENTS for more details.
5388 8.20 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_SEND_IPI
5392 This capability indicates that KVM supports paravirtualized Hyper-V IPI send
5394 HvCallSendSyntheticClusterIpi, HvCallSendSyntheticClusterIpiEx.
5395 8.21 KVM_CAP_HYPERV_DIRECT_TLBFLUSH
5399 This capability indicates that KVM running on top of Hyper-V hypervisor
5400 enables Direct TLB flush for its guests meaning that TLB flush
5401 hypercalls are handled by Level 0 hypervisor (Hyper-V) bypassing KVM.
5402 Due to the different ABI for hypercall parameters between Hyper-V and
5403 KVM, enabling this capability effectively disables all hypercall
5404 handling by KVM (as some KVM hypercall may be mistakenly treated as TLB
5405 flush hypercalls by Hyper-V) so userspace should disable KVM identification
5406 in CPUID and only exposes Hyper-V identification. In this case, guest
5407 thinks it's running on Hyper-V and only use Hyper-V hypercalls.