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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-06 01:02:30 +0000
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Adding upstream version 4.19.249.upstream/4.19.249upstream
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+Buffer Sharing and Synchronization
+==================================
+
+The dma-buf subsystem provides the framework for sharing buffers for
+hardware (DMA) access across multiple device drivers and subsystems, and
+for synchronizing asynchronous hardware access.
+
+This is used, for example, by drm "prime" multi-GPU support, but is of
+course not limited to GPU use cases.
+
+The three main components of this are: (1) dma-buf, representing a
+sg_table and exposed to userspace as a file descriptor to allow passing
+between devices, (2) fence, which provides a mechanism to signal when
+one device as finished access, and (3) reservation, which manages the
+shared or exclusive fence(s) associated with the buffer.
+
+Shared DMA Buffers
+------------------
+
+This document serves as a guide to device-driver writers on what is the dma-buf
+buffer sharing API, how to use it for exporting and using shared buffers.
+
+Any device driver which wishes to be a part of DMA buffer sharing, can do so as
+either the 'exporter' of buffers, or the 'user' or 'importer' of buffers.
+
+Say a driver A wants to use buffers created by driver B, then we call B as the
+exporter, and A as buffer-user/importer.
+
+The exporter
+
+ - implements and manages operations in :c:type:`struct dma_buf_ops
+ <dma_buf_ops>` for the buffer,
+ - allows other users to share the buffer by using dma_buf sharing APIs,
+ - manages the details of buffer allocation, wrapped int a :c:type:`struct
+ dma_buf <dma_buf>`,
+ - decides about the actual backing storage where this allocation happens,
+ - and takes care of any migration of scatterlist - for all (shared) users of
+ this buffer.
+
+The buffer-user
+
+ - is one of (many) sharing users of the buffer.
+ - doesn't need to worry about how the buffer is allocated, or where.
+ - and needs a mechanism to get access to the scatterlist that makes up this
+ buffer in memory, mapped into its own address space, so it can access the
+ same area of memory. This interface is provided by :c:type:`struct
+ dma_buf_attachment <dma_buf_attachment>`.
+
+Any exporters or users of the dma-buf buffer sharing framework must have a
+'select DMA_SHARED_BUFFER' in their respective Kconfigs.
+
+Userspace Interface Notes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Mostly a DMA buffer file descriptor is simply an opaque object for userspace,
+and hence the generic interface exposed is very minimal. There's a few things to
+consider though:
+
+- Since kernel 3.12 the dma-buf FD supports the llseek system call, but only
+ with offset=0 and whence=SEEK_END|SEEK_SET. SEEK_SET is supported to allow
+ the usual size discover pattern size = SEEK_END(0); SEEK_SET(0). Every other
+ llseek operation will report -EINVAL.
+
+ If llseek on dma-buf FDs isn't support the kernel will report -ESPIPE for all
+ cases. Userspace can use this to detect support for discovering the dma-buf
+ size using llseek.
+
+- In order to avoid fd leaks on exec, the FD_CLOEXEC flag must be set
+ on the file descriptor. This is not just a resource leak, but a
+ potential security hole. It could give the newly exec'd application
+ access to buffers, via the leaked fd, to which it should otherwise
+ not be permitted access.
+
+ The problem with doing this via a separate fcntl() call, versus doing it
+ atomically when the fd is created, is that this is inherently racy in a
+ multi-threaded app[3]. The issue is made worse when it is library code
+ opening/creating the file descriptor, as the application may not even be
+ aware of the fd's.
+
+ To avoid this problem, userspace must have a way to request O_CLOEXEC
+ flag be set when the dma-buf fd is created. So any API provided by
+ the exporting driver to create a dmabuf fd must provide a way to let
+ userspace control setting of O_CLOEXEC flag passed in to dma_buf_fd().
+
+- Memory mapping the contents of the DMA buffer is also supported. See the
+ discussion below on `CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects`_ for the full details.
+
+- The DMA buffer FD is also pollable, see `Fence Poll Support`_ below for
+ details.
+
+Basic Operation and Device DMA Access
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
+ :doc: dma buf device access
+
+CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
+ :doc: cpu access
+
+Fence Poll Support
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
+ :doc: fence polling
+
+Kernel Functions and Structures Reference
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-buf.h
+ :internal:
+
+Reservation Objects
+-------------------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
+ :doc: Reservation Object Overview
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/reservation.h
+ :internal:
+
+DMA Fences
+----------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
+ :doc: DMA fences overview
+
+DMA Fences Functions Reference
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence.h
+ :internal:
+
+Seqno Hardware Fences
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/seqno-fence.h
+ :internal:
+
+DMA Fence Array
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-array.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence-array.h
+ :internal:
+
+DMA Fence uABI/Sync File
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/sync_file.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/sync_file.h
+ :internal:
+