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authorStefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>2024-06-18 12:05:19 +0200
committerMichael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>2024-07-03 18:14:06 -0400
commit4e647fa08586a5ada74cf6d3ae1cdf3a027202cb (patch)
tree396296ac8c5ddfb099d088300a9a99d59a3f5b7c /qemu-options.hx
parent5ab04420c3de11ae4a573b08b53584a2a0c5dd00 (diff)
downloadfocaccia-qemu-4e647fa08586a5ada74cf6d3ae1cdf3a027202cb.tar.gz
focaccia-qemu-4e647fa08586a5ada74cf6d3ae1cdf3a027202cb.zip
hostmem: add a new memory backend based on POSIX shm_open()
shm_open() creates and opens a new POSIX shared memory object.
A POSIX shared memory object allows creating memory backend with an
associated file descriptor that can be shared with external processes
(e.g. vhost-user).

The new `memory-backend-shm` can be used as an alternative when
`memory-backend-memfd` is not available (Linux only), since shm_open()
should be provided by any POSIX-compliant operating system.

This backend mimics memfd, allocating memory that is practically
anonymous. In theory shm_open() requires a name, but this is allocated
for a short time interval and shm_unlink() is called right after
shm_open(). After that, only fd is shared with external processes
(e.g., vhost-user) as if it were associated with anonymous memory.

In the future we may also allow the user to specify the name to be
passed to shm_open(), but for now we keep the backend simple, mimicking
anonymous memory such as memfd.

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> (QAPI schema)
Signed-off-by: Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20240618100519.145853-1-sgarzare@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'qemu-options.hx')
-rw-r--r--qemu-options.hx16
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 8ca7f34ef0..ad6521ef5e 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -5240,6 +5240,22 @@ SRST
 
         The ``share`` boolean option is on by default with memfd.
 
+    ``-object memory-backend-shm,id=id,merge=on|off,dump=on|off,share=on|off,prealloc=on|off,size=size,host-nodes=host-nodes,policy=default|preferred|bind|interleave``
+        Creates a POSIX shared memory backend object, which allows
+        QEMU to share the memory with an external process (e.g. when
+        using vhost-user).
+
+        ``memory-backend-shm`` is a more portable and less featureful version
+        of ``memory-backend-memfd``. It can then be used in any POSIX system,
+        especially when memfd is not supported.
+
+        Please refer to ``memory-backend-file`` for a description of the
+        options.
+
+        The ``share`` boolean option is on by default with shm. Setting it to
+        off will cause a failure during allocation because it is not supported
+        by this backend.
+
     ``-object iommufd,id=id[,fd=fd]``
         Creates an iommufd backend which allows control of DMA mapping
         through the ``/dev/iommu`` device.