summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/x86/entry_64.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/x86/entry_64.rst110
1 files changed, 110 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/x86/entry_64.rst b/Documentation/x86/entry_64.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a48b3f6eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/x86/entry_64.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==============
+Kernel Entries
+==============
+
+This file documents some of the kernel entries in
+arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S. A lot of this explanation is adapted from
+an email from Ingo Molnar:
+
+http://lkml.kernel.org/r/<20110529191055.GC9835%40elte.hu>
+
+The x86 architecture has quite a few different ways to jump into
+kernel code. Most of these entry points are registered in
+arch/x86/kernel/traps.c and implemented in arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S
+for 64-bit, arch/x86/entry/entry_32.S for 32-bit and finally
+arch/x86/entry/entry_64_compat.S which implements the 32-bit compatibility
+syscall entry points and thus provides for 32-bit processes the
+ability to execute syscalls when running on 64-bit kernels.
+
+The IDT vector assignments are listed in arch/x86/include/asm/irq_vectors.h.
+
+Some of these entries are:
+
+ - system_call: syscall instruction from 64-bit code.
+
+ - entry_INT80_compat: int 0x80 from 32-bit or 64-bit code; compat syscall
+ either way.
+
+ - entry_INT80_compat, ia32_sysenter: syscall and sysenter from 32-bit
+ code
+
+ - interrupt: An array of entries. Every IDT vector that doesn't
+ explicitly point somewhere else gets set to the corresponding
+ value in interrupts. These point to a whole array of
+ magically-generated functions that make their way to do_IRQ with
+ the interrupt number as a parameter.
+
+ - APIC interrupts: Various special-purpose interrupts for things
+ like TLB shootdown.
+
+ - Architecturally-defined exceptions like divide_error.
+
+There are a few complexities here. The different x86-64 entries
+have different calling conventions. The syscall and sysenter
+instructions have their own peculiar calling conventions. Some of
+the IDT entries push an error code onto the stack; others don't.
+IDT entries using the IST alternative stack mechanism need their own
+magic to get the stack frames right. (You can find some
+documentation in the AMD APM, Volume 2, Chapter 8 and the Intel SDM,
+Volume 3, Chapter 6.)
+
+Dealing with the swapgs instruction is especially tricky. Swapgs
+toggles whether gs is the kernel gs or the user gs. The swapgs
+instruction is rather fragile: it must nest perfectly and only in
+single depth, it should only be used if entering from user mode to
+kernel mode and then when returning to user-space, and precisely
+so. If we mess that up even slightly, we crash.
+
+So when we have a secondary entry, already in kernel mode, we *must
+not* use SWAPGS blindly - nor must we forget doing a SWAPGS when it's
+not switched/swapped yet.
+
+Now, there's a secondary complication: there's a cheap way to test
+which mode the CPU is in and an expensive way.
+
+The cheap way is to pick this info off the entry frame on the kernel
+stack, from the CS of the ptregs area of the kernel stack::
+
+ xorl %ebx,%ebx
+ testl $3,CS+8(%rsp)
+ je error_kernelspace
+ SWAPGS
+
+The expensive (paranoid) way is to read back the MSR_GS_BASE value
+(which is what SWAPGS modifies)::
+
+ movl $1,%ebx
+ movl $MSR_GS_BASE,%ecx
+ rdmsr
+ testl %edx,%edx
+ js 1f /* negative -> in kernel */
+ SWAPGS
+ xorl %ebx,%ebx
+ 1: ret
+
+If we are at an interrupt or user-trap/gate-alike boundary then we can
+use the faster check: the stack will be a reliable indicator of
+whether SWAPGS was already done: if we see that we are a secondary
+entry interrupting kernel mode execution, then we know that the GS
+base has already been switched. If it says that we interrupted
+user-space execution then we must do the SWAPGS.
+
+But if we are in an NMI/MCE/DEBUG/whatever super-atomic entry context,
+which might have triggered right after a normal entry wrote CS to the
+stack but before we executed SWAPGS, then the only safe way to check
+for GS is the slower method: the RDMSR.
+
+Therefore, super-atomic entries (except NMI, which is handled separately)
+must use idtentry with paranoid=1 to handle gsbase correctly. This
+triggers three main behavior changes:
+
+ - Interrupt entry will use the slower gsbase check.
+ - Interrupt entry from user mode will switch off the IST stack.
+ - Interrupt exit to kernel mode will not attempt to reschedule.
+
+We try to only use IST entries and the paranoid entry code for vectors
+that absolutely need the more expensive check for the GS base - and we
+generate all 'normal' entry points with the regular (faster) paranoid=0
+variant.