Subject: [PATCH v7 1/7] ptp: vmclock: add vm generation counter

From: Takahiro Itazuri <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:36:00 +0000

From: Babis Chalios <[email-masked]>

Similar to live migration, loading a VM from some saved state (aka
snapshot) is also an event that calls for clock adjustments in the
guest. However, guests might want to take more actions as a response to
such events, e.g. as discarding UUIDs, resetting network connections,
reseeding entropy pools, etc. These are actions that guests don't
typically take during live migration, so add a new field in the
vmclock_abi called vm_generation_counter which informs the guest about
such events.

Hypervisor advertises support for vm_generation_counter through the
VMCLOCK_FLAG_VM_GEN_COUNTER_PRESENT flag. Users need to check the
presence of this bit in vmclock_abi flags field before using this flag.

Signed-off-by: Babis Chalios <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <[email-masked]>
Reviewed-by: David Woodhouse <[email-masked]>
Tested-by: Takahiro Itazur <[email-masked]>
---
 include/uapi/linux/vmclock-abi.h | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/vmclock-abi.h b/include/uapi/linux/vmclock-abi.h
index 2d99b29ac..937fe00e4 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/vmclock-abi.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/vmclock-abi.h
@@ -115,6 +115,12 @@ struct vmclock_abi {
 	 * bit again after the update, using the about-to-be-valid fields.
 	 */
 #define VMCLOCK_FLAG_TIME_MONOTONIC		(1 << 7)
+	/*
+	 * If the VM_GEN_COUNTER_PRESENT flag is set, the hypervisor will
+	 * bump the vm_generation_counter field every time the guest is
+	 * loaded from some save state (restored from a snapshot).
+	 */
+#define VMCLOCK_FLAG_VM_GEN_COUNTER_PRESENT     (1 << 8)
 
 	__u8 pad[2];
 	__u8 clock_status;
@@ -177,6 +183,15 @@ struct vmclock_abi {
 	__le64 time_frac_sec;		/* Units of 1/2^64 of a second */
 	__le64 time_esterror_nanosec;
 	__le64 time_maxerror_nanosec;
+
+	/*
+	 * This field changes to another non-repeating value when the guest
+	 * has been loaded from a snapshot. In addition to handling a
+	 * disruption in time (which will also be signalled through the
+	 * disruption_marker field), a guest may wish to discard UUIDs,
+	 * reset network connections, reseed entropy, etc.
+	 */
+	__le64 vm_generation_counter;
 };
 
 #endif /*  __VMCLOCK_ABI_H__ */
-- 
2.50.1