Re: [PATCH] cpu: Add starts_halted() method

[Peter Maydell]

On Wed, 8 Jul 2020 at 18:36, Eduardo Habkost <ehabkost@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jul 08, 2020 at 06:09:49PM +0100, Peter Maydell wrote:
> > Exactly. It appears that there's a bug in our mechanisms,
> > which is why I'm suggesting that the right thing is
> > to fix that bug rather than marking the CPU as halted
> > earlier in the reset process so that the KVM_RUN happens
> > to do nothing...
>
> I agree this is necessary, but it doesn't seem sufficient.
>
> Having cpu_reset() set halted=0 on spapr (and probably other
> machines) is also a bug, as it could still trigger unwanted
> KVM_RUN when cpu_reset() returns (and before machine code sets
> halted=1).

The Arm handling of starting-halted sets halted=1 within cpu_reset,
based on whether the CPU object was created with a
"start-powered-off" property.

I'm not sure in practice that anything can get in asynchronously
and cause a KVM_RUN in between spapr_reset_vcpu() calling
cpu_reset() and it setting cs->halted (and the other stuff),
though. This function ought to be called with the iothread
lock held, so KVM_RUN will only happen if it calls some
other function which incorrectly lets the CPU run.

thanks
-- PMM