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Subject: [PATCH v2] 2.2.1: FEATURES_OK.


Based on MST's ideas, but a bit simpler.  VIRTIO-30.

FEATURES_OK locks feature negotiation in, and must be done first.  This
provides for certainty if we make dramatic changes which need to be known
before the driver touches the virtio rings.

You can read this back: if a device doesn't like the features set you chose,
it may refuse to set that.

DRIVER_OK is made stricter: it *must* be done before the device is live.

The latter requirement means that Linux drivers (for example) will change.
Currently the driver's init function is invoked, then DRIVER_OK is set.
Now the Linux block driver scans the partition table in its init function,
it will have to set DRIVER_OK immediately before that.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@au1.ibm.com>
---
 virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt | 51 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt b/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
index b4298bb..938abb8 100644
--- a/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
+++ b/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ This field is 0 upon reset, otherwise at least one bit should be set:
   may be a significant (or infinite) delay before setting this
   bit.
 
+  FEATURES_OK (8) Indicates that the driver has acknowledged all the
+  features it understands, and feature negotiation is complete.
+
   DRIVER_OK (4) Indicates that the driver is set up and ready to
   drive the device.
 
@@ -444,23 +447,49 @@ how to communicate with the specific device.
 
 3. The DRIVER status bit is set: we know how to drive the device.
 
-4. Device-specific setup, including reading the device feature
-  bits, discovery of virtqueues for the device, optional per-bus
-  setup, and reading and possibly writing the device's virtio
-  configuration space.
+4. Device feature bits are read, and the the subset of feature bits
+   understood by the OS and driver is written to the device.
+
+5. The FEATURES_OK status bit is set.
 
-5. The subset of device feature bits understood by the driver is
-   written to the device.
+6. The status byte is re-read to ensure the FEATURES_OK bit is still
+   set: otherwise, the device does not support our subset of features
+   and the device is unusable.
 
-6. The DRIVER_OK status bit is set.
+7. Device-specific setup, including discovery of virtqueues for the
+   device, optional per-bus setup, reading and possibly writing the
+   device's virtio configuration space, and population of virtqueues.
 
-7. The device can now be used (ie. buffers added to the
-   virtqueues)[4]
+8. The DRIVER_OK status bit is set.  At this point the device is
+   "live".
 
 If any of these steps go irrecoverably wrong, the guest should
 set the FAILED status bit to indicate that it has given up on the
 device (it can reset the device later to restart if desired).
 
+The device must not consume buffers before DRIVER_OK, and the driver
+must not notify the device before it sets DRIVER_OK.
+
+Devices should support all valid combinations of features, but we know
+that implementations may well make assuptions that they will only be
+used by fully-optimized drivers.  The resetting of the FEATURES_OK flag
+provides a semi-graceful failure mode for this case.
+
+2.2.1.1. Legacy Interface: Device Initialization
+---------------------------
+Legacy devices do not support the FEATURES_OK status bit, and thus did
+not have a graceful way for the device to indicate unsupported feature
+combinations.  It also did not provide a clear mechanism to end
+feature negotiation, which meant that devices finalized features on
+first-use, and no features could be introduced which radically changed
+the initial operation of the device.
+
+Legacy device implementations often used the device before setting the
+DRIVER_OK bit.
+
+The result was the steps 5 and 6 were omitted, and steps 7 and 8
+were conflated.
+
 2.2.2. Device Operation
 ----------------------
 
@@ -2863,10 +2892,6 @@ the non-PCI implementations (currently lguest and S/390).
 
 [3] The actual value within this range is ignored
 
-[4] Historically, drivers have used the device before steps 5 and 6.
-This is only allowed if the driver does not use any features
-which would alter this early use of the device.
-
 [5] ie. once you enable MSI-X on the device, the other fields move.
 If you turn it off again, they move back!
 
-- 
1.8.1.2



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