Rewrite the help message for KVM_SW_PROTECTED_VM to make it clear that
software-protected VMs are a development and testing vehicle for
guest_memfd(), and that attempting to use KVM_SW_PROTECTED_VM for anything
remotely resembling a "real" VM will fail. E.g. any memory accesses from
KVM will incorrectly access shared memory, nested TDP is wildly broken,
and so on and so forth.
Update KVM's API documentation with similar warnings to discourage anyone
from attempting to run anything but selftests with KVM_X86_SW_PROTECTED_VM.
Fixes: 89ea60c2c7b5 ("KVM: x86: Add support for "protected VMs" that can utilize private memory")
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst | 5 +++++
arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig | 7 ++++---
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
index bd93cafd3e4e..0b5a33ee71ee 100644
--- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
@@ -8820,6 +8820,11 @@ means the VM type with value @n is supported. Possible values of @n are::
#define KVM_X86_DEFAULT_VM 0
#define KVM_X86_SW_PROTECTED_VM 1
+Note, KVM_X86_SW_PROTECTED_VM is currently only for development and testing.
+Do not use KVM_X86_SW_PROTECTED_VM for "real" VMs, and especially not in
+production. The behavior and effective ABI for software-protected VMs is
+unstable.
+
9. Known KVM API problems
=========================
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig b/arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig
index 5895aee5dfef..4336b3fff0cf 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig
@@ -81,9 +81,10 @@ config KVM_SW_PROTECTED_VM
depends on KVM && X86_64
select KVM_GENERIC_PRIVATE_MEM
help
- Enable support for KVM software-protected VMs. Currently "protected"
- means the VM can be backed with memory provided by
- KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD.
+ Enable support for KVM software-protected VMs. Currently, software-
+ protected VMs are purely a development and testing vehicle for
+ KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD. Attempting to run a "real" VM workload as a
+ software-protected VM will fail miserably.
If unsure, say "N".
--
2.44.0.rc0.258.g7320e95886-goog
