On Thu, Mar 03, 2022, Sean Christopherson wrote: > On Wed, Mar 02, 2022, Mingwei Zhang wrote: > > On Sat, Feb 26, 2022, Sean Christopherson wrote: > > > diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/tdp_mmu.c b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/tdp_mmu.c > > > index 12866113fb4f..e35bd88d92fd 100644 > > > --- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/tdp_mmu.c > > > +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/tdp_mmu.c > > > @@ -93,7 +93,15 @@ void kvm_tdp_mmu_put_root(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_mmu_page *root, > > > list_del_rcu(&root->link); > > > spin_unlock(&kvm->arch.tdp_mmu_pages_lock); > > > > > > - zap_gfn_range(kvm, root, 0, -1ull, false, false, shared); > > > + /* > > > + * A TLB flush is not necessary as KVM performs a local TLB flush when > > > + * allocating a new root (see kvm_mmu_load()), and when migrating vCPU > > > + * to a different pCPU. Note, the local TLB flush on reuse also > > > + * invalidates any paging-structure-cache entries, i.e. TLB entries for > > > + * intermediate paging structures, that may be zapped, as such entries > > > + * are associated with the ASID on both VMX and SVM. > > > + */ > > > + (void)zap_gfn_range(kvm, root, 0, -1ull, false, false, shared); > > > > Understood that we could avoid the TLB flush here. Just curious why the > > "(void)" is needed here? Is it for compile time reason? > > Nope, no functional purpose, though there might be some "advanced" warning or > static checkers that care. > > The "(void)" is to communicate to human readers that the result is intentionally > ignored, e.g. to reduce the probability of someone "fixing" the code by acting on > the result of zap_gfn_range(). The comment should suffice, but it's nice to have > the code be self-documenting as much as possible. Right, I got the point. Thanks. Coming back. It seems that I pretended to understand that we should avoid the TLB flush without really knowing why. I mean, leaving (part of the) stale TLB entries unflushed will still be dangerous right? Or am I missing something that guarantees to flush the local TLB before returning to the guest? For instance, kvm_mmu_{re,}load()?