Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] KVM: arm64: Align KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT error codes with documentation

From: Alexandru Elisei <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2026 09:45:46 +0100

Hi Sean,

(Resending this because I managed to mess up the headers, sorry for the
duplicate).

Thanks for the explanations!

On Wed, May 06, 2026 at 05:44:50AM -0700, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> On Wed, May 06, 2026, Alexandru Elisei wrote:
> > The documentation for KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT states:
> > 
> > 'Note!  KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT is unique among all KVM exit reasons in that
> > it accompanies a return code of '-1', not '0'!  errno will always be set to
> > EFAULT or EHWPOISON when KVM exits with KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT, userspace
> > should assume kvm_run.exit_reason is stale/undefined for all other error
> > numbers'.
> > 
> > where a return code of '-1' is special because according to man 2 ioctl:
> > 
> > 'On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error'.
> > 
> > Putting the two together means that the ioctl KVM_RUN must 1) complete with
> > an error and 2) that error must must be either EFAULT or EHWPOISON for
> > userspace to detect a KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT VCPU exit.
> 
> Yes and no.  The key escape valve we (very deliberately) gave ourselves is this:
> 
>   userspace should assume kvm_run.exit_reason is stale/undefined for all other
>   error numbers.
> 
> As arm64 already does, that clause allows KVM to "speculatively" set exit_reason
> to KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT.  Which is by design.  The userspace flow is intended
> to be "if KVM_RUN returns EFAULT or EHWPOISON, then check for KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT
> to see if KVM provided more information about why the EFAULT/EHWPOISON error was
> returned".

Hm... In general, "speculatively" populating exit_reason with
KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT when userspace is not intended to use that information
looks a bit dubious to me. Why do the work if userspace is not supposed to use
the information?

Regarding gmem_abort(). As I see it, if today someone writes userspace that
relies on any of the undocumented error codes propagated from kvm_gmem_get_pfn()
to handle KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT, that means that KVM can never use those error
codes for any other exit_reason in the future, because that userspace will
break.

I'm sure this was all carefully considered when designing the interface, I was
just curious how this particular problem has been solved.

> 
> > On a kvm_gmem_get_pfn() error, gmem_abort() prepares the
> > KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT exit_reason and propagates the error back to
> > userspace. kvm_gmem_get_pfn() does not massage the error code, and if the
> > error is not -EFAULT or -EHWPOISON, userspace implementing the ABI fails to
> > detect the memory fault exit.
> > 
> > Things get more complicated with kvm_handle_vncr_abort().
> > kvm_translate_vncr(), similar to gmem_abort(), prepares the VCPU to exit
> > with KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT and propagates the error code from
> > kvm_gmem_get_pfn(). Then kvm_handle_vncr_abort() does a number of things
> > based on this specific error code:
> > 
> > - If it's -EAGAIN, KVM resumes the guest. Note that KVM, when handling a
> >   *host* fault on a guest_memfd backed VMA, retries the fault handling if
> >   kvm_gmem_get_pfn() returns -EAGAIN.
> 
> Totally fine.
> 
> > - If it's -ENOMEM, -EFAULT, -EIO or -EHWPOISON, it returns to userspace
> >   with 0 (success), meaning that, according to the documentation, userspace
> >   will not detect the memory fault exit.
> 
> Also totally fine, and working as intended.  KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT is provided
> for scenarios where (a) the issue is likely related to the GPA and (b) userspace
> can remedy the underlying issue using the information provided in kvm_run.memory_fault.

If KVM_RUN always returns 0 when exit_reason = KVM_EXIT_MEMORY_FAULT, which is what
kvm_handle_vncr_abort() does, how will userspace ever be able to handle the
fault?

Thanks,
Alex