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docs: clarify memory region lifecycle 

Now that objects actually obey the rules, document them.

Reviewed-by: Matthew Rosato <mjrosato@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
Paolo Bonzini 2015-02-13 13:42:03 +01:00
parent 5cd5e70159
commit 8b5c216025
1 changed files with 58 additions and 16 deletions
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74
docs/memory.txt
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@ -73,17 +73,66 @@ stability.
Region lifecycle
----------------
A region is created by one of the constructor functions (memory_region_init*())
and attached to an object. It is then destroyed by object_unparent() or simply
when the parent object dies.
A region is created by one of the memory_region_init*() functions and
attached to an object, which acts as its owner or parent. QEMU ensures
that the owner object remains alive as long as the region is visible to
the guest, or as long as the region is in use by a virtual CPU or another
device. For example, the owner object will not die between an
address_space_map operation and the corresponding address_space_unmap.
In between, a region can be added to an address space
by using memory_region_add_subregion() and removed using
memory_region_del_subregion(). Destroying the region implicitly
removes the region from the address space.
After creation, a region can be added to an address space or a
container with memory_region_add_subregion(), and removed using
memory_region_del_subregion().
Various region attributes (read-only, dirty logging, coalesced mmio,
ioeventfd) can be changed during the region lifecycle. They take effect
as soon as the region is made visible. This can be immediately, later,
or never.
Destruction of a memory region happens automatically when the owner
object dies.
If however the memory region is part of a dynamically allocated data
structure, you should call object_unparent() to destroy the memory region
before the data structure is freed. For an example see VFIOMSIXInfo
and VFIOQuirk in hw/vfio/pci.c.
You must not destroy a memory region as long as it may be in use by a
device or CPU. In order to do this, as a general rule do not create or
destroy memory regions dynamically during a device's lifetime, and only
call object_unparent() in the memory region owner's instance_finalize
callback. The dynamically allocated data structure that contains the
memory region then should obviously be freed in the instance_finalize
callback as well.
If you break this rule, the following situation can happen:
- the memory region's owner had a reference taken via memory_region_ref
(for example by address_space_map)
- the region is unparented, and has no owner anymore
- when address_space_unmap is called, the reference to the memory region's
owner is leaked.
There is an exception to the above rule: it is okay to call
object_unparent at any time for an alias or a container region. It is
therefore also okay to create or destroy alias and container regions
dynamically during a device's lifetime.
This exceptional usage is valid because aliases and containers only help
QEMU building the guest's memory map; they are never accessed directly.
memory_region_ref and memory_region_unref are never called on aliases
or containers, and the above situation then cannot happen. Exploiting
this exception is rarely necessary, and therefore it is discouraged,
but nevertheless it is used in a few places.
For regions that "have no owner" (NULL is passed at creation time), the
machine object is actually used as the owner. Since instance_finalize is
never called for the machine object, you must never call object_unparent
on regions that have no owner, unless they are aliases or containers.
Region attributes may be changed at any point; they take effect once
the region becomes exposed to the guest.
Overlapping regions and priority
--------------------------------
@ -215,13 +264,6 @@ BAR containing MMIO registers is mapped after it.
Note that if the guest maps a BAR outside the PCI hole, it would not be
visible as the pci-hole alias clips it to a 0.5GB range.
Attributes
----------
Various region attributes (read-only, dirty logging, coalesced mmio, ioeventfd)
can be changed during the region lifecycle. They take effect once the region
is made visible (which can be immediately, later, or never).
MMIO Operations
---------------