169 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
169 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
Buffer Sharing and Synchronization
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==================================
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The dma-buf subsystem provides the framework for sharing buffers for
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hardware (DMA) access across multiple device drivers and subsystems, and
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for synchronizing asynchronous hardware access.
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This is used, for example, by drm "prime" multi-GPU support, but is of
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course not limited to GPU use cases.
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The three main components of this are: (1) dma-buf, representing a
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sg_table and exposed to userspace as a file descriptor to allow passing
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between devices, (2) fence, which provides a mechanism to signal when
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one device as finished access, and (3) reservation, which manages the
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shared or exclusive fence(s) associated with the buffer.
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Shared DMA Buffers
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------------------
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This document serves as a guide to device-driver writers on what is the dma-buf
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buffer sharing API, how to use it for exporting and using shared buffers.
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Any device driver which wishes to be a part of DMA buffer sharing, can do so as
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either the 'exporter' of buffers, or the 'user' or 'importer' of buffers.
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Say a driver A wants to use buffers created by driver B, then we call B as the
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exporter, and A as buffer-user/importer.
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The exporter
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- implements and manages operations in :c:type:`struct dma_buf_ops
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<dma_buf_ops>` for the buffer,
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- allows other users to share the buffer by using dma_buf sharing APIs,
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- manages the details of buffer allocation, wrapped int a :c:type:`struct
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dma_buf <dma_buf>`,
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- decides about the actual backing storage where this allocation happens,
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- and takes care of any migration of scatterlist - for all (shared) users of
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this buffer.
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The buffer-user
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- is one of (many) sharing users of the buffer.
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- doesn't need to worry about how the buffer is allocated, or where.
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- and needs a mechanism to get access to the scatterlist that makes up this
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buffer in memory, mapped into its own address space, so it can access the
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same area of memory. This interface is provided by :c:type:`struct
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dma_buf_attachment <dma_buf_attachment>`.
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Any exporters or users of the dma-buf buffer sharing framework must have a
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'select DMA_SHARED_BUFFER' in their respective Kconfigs.
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Userspace Interface Notes
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Mostly a DMA buffer file descriptor is simply an opaque object for userspace,
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and hence the generic interface exposed is very minimal. There's a few things to
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consider though:
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- Since kernel 3.12 the dma-buf FD supports the llseek system call, but only
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with offset=0 and whence=SEEK_END|SEEK_SET. SEEK_SET is supported to allow
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the usual size discover pattern size = SEEK_END(0); SEEK_SET(0). Every other
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llseek operation will report -EINVAL.
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If llseek on dma-buf FDs isn't support the kernel will report -ESPIPE for all
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cases. Userspace can use this to detect support for discovering the dma-buf
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size using llseek.
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- In order to avoid fd leaks on exec, the FD_CLOEXEC flag must be set
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on the file descriptor. This is not just a resource leak, but a
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potential security hole. It could give the newly exec'd application
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access to buffers, via the leaked fd, to which it should otherwise
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not be permitted access.
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The problem with doing this via a separate fcntl() call, versus doing it
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atomically when the fd is created, is that this is inherently racy in a
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multi-threaded app[3]. The issue is made worse when it is library code
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opening/creating the file descriptor, as the application may not even be
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aware of the fd's.
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To avoid this problem, userspace must have a way to request O_CLOEXEC
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flag be set when the dma-buf fd is created. So any API provided by
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the exporting driver to create a dmabuf fd must provide a way to let
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userspace control setting of O_CLOEXEC flag passed in to dma_buf_fd().
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- Memory mapping the contents of the DMA buffer is also supported. See the
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discussion below on `CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects`_ for the full details.
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- The DMA buffer FD is also pollable, see `Fence Poll Support`_ below for
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details.
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Basic Operation and Device DMA Access
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
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:doc: dma buf device access
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CPU Access to DMA Buffer Objects
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
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:doc: cpu access
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Fence Poll Support
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
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:doc: fence polling
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Kernel Functions and Structures Reference
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-buf.h
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:internal:
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Reservation Objects
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-------------------
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
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:doc: Reservation Object Overview
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/reservation.h
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:internal:
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DMA Fences
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----------
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
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:doc: DMA fences overview
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DMA Fences Functions Reference
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence.h
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:internal:
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Seqno Hardware Fences
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/seqno-fence.h
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:internal:
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DMA Fence Array
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-array.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/dma-fence-array.h
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:internal:
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DMA Fence uABI/Sync File
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/dma-buf/sync_file.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/sync_file.h
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:internal:
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