Fix the number of bits in the role, and simplify the explanation of why several bits or combinations of bits are redundant. Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx> --- arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 30 ++++++++++++++++++------------ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h index e977634333d4..f69b100b23f4 100644 --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h @@ -291,19 +291,25 @@ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry; * the number of unique SPs that can theoretically be created is 2^n, where n * is the number of bits that are used to compute the role. * - * But, even though there are 18 bits in the mask below, not all combinations - * of modes and flags are possible. The maximum number of possible upper-level - * shadow pages for a single gfn is in the neighborhood of 2^13. + * But, even though there are 19 bits in the mask below, not all combinations + * of modes and flags are possible: * - * - invalid shadow pages are not accounted. - * - level is effectively limited to four combinations, not 16 as the number - * bits would imply, as 4k SPs are not tracked (allowed to go unsync). - * - level is effectively unused for non-PAE paging because there is exactly - * one upper level (see 4k SP exception above). - * - quadrant is used only for non-PAE paging and is exclusive with - * gpte_is_8_bytes. - * - execonly and ad_disabled are used only for nested EPT, which makes it - * exclusive with quadrant. + * - invalid shadow pages are not accounted, so the bits are effectively 18 + * + * - quadrant will only be used if gpte_is_8_bytes=0 (non-PAE paging); + * execonly and ad_disabled are only used for nested EPT which has + * gpte_is_8_bytes=1. Therefore, 2 bits are always unused. + * + * - the 4 bits of level are effectively limited to the values 2/3/4/5, + * as 4k SPs are not tracked (allowed to go unsync). In addition non-PAE + * paging has exactly one upper level, making level completely redundant + * when gpte_is_8_bytes=0. + * + * - on top of this, smep_andnot_wp and smap_andnot_wp are only set if + * cr0_wp=0, therefore these three bits only give rise to 5 possibilities. + * + * Therefore, the maximum number of possible upper-level shadow pages for a + * single gfn is a bit less than 2^13. */ union kvm_mmu_page_role { u32 word; -- 2.27.0