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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/specs/vmcoreinfo.rst')
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diff --git a/docs/specs/vmcoreinfo.rst b/docs/specs/vmcoreinfo.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..6541aa116f --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/specs/vmcoreinfo.rst @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +================= +VMCoreInfo device +================= + +The ``-device vmcoreinfo`` will create a ``fw_cfg`` entry for a guest to +store dump details. + +``etc/vmcoreinfo`` +================== + +A guest may use this ``fw_cfg`` entry to add information details to QEMU +dumps. + +The entry of 16 bytes has the following layout, in little-endian:: + + #define VMCOREINFO_FORMAT_NONE 0x0 + #define VMCOREINFO_FORMAT_ELF 0x1 + + struct FWCfgVMCoreInfo { + uint16_t host_format; /* formats host supports */ + uint16_t guest_format; /* format guest supplies */ + uint32_t size; /* size of vmcoreinfo region */ + uint64_t paddr; /* physical address of vmcoreinfo region */ + }; + +Only full write (of 16 bytes) are considered valid for further +processing of entry values. + +A write of 0 in ``guest_format`` will disable further processing of +vmcoreinfo entry values & content. + +You may write a ``guest_format`` that is not supported by the host, in +which case the entry data can be ignored by QEMU (but you may still +access it through a debugger, via ``vmcoreinfo_realize::vmcoreinfo_state``). + +Format & content +================ + +As of QEMU 2.11, only ``VMCOREINFO_FORMAT_ELF`` is supported. + +The entry gives location and size of an ELF note that is appended in +qemu dumps. + +The note format/class must be of the target bitness and the size must +be less than 1Mb. + +If the ELF note name is ``VMCOREINFO``, it is expected to be the Linux +vmcoreinfo note (see `the kernel documentation for its format +<https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-kernel-vmcoreinfo>`_). +In this case, qemu dump code will read the content +as a key=value text file, looking for ``NUMBER(phys_base)`` key +value. The value is expected to be more accurate than architecture +guess of the value. This is useful for KASLR-enabled guest with +ancient tools not handling the ``VMCOREINFO`` note. |