read/write to virtual address

[Adam Lackorzynski]

Hi,

On Thu Feb 16, 2017 at 13:14:07 +0100, Daniel Krefft wrote:
> We want to know, at which place within the operating system/kernel
> (l4re/fiasco.oc) memory access takes place. This means, which concrete
> functions address the MMU (load/store) or handle the read/write virtual
> memory operations?

I'm sorry I still have a hard time to make sense out of your question.
I'll try to explain where my difficulties come from. In code like
"c = a + b;" we have 2 loads and 1 store. Those happen in virtual memory
and are generated by the compiler. Thus load and store instructions are
everywhere, both in the kernel and in any user-level application and
thus the answer to you question could be: memory accesses are all over
the place.



Adam

> On 16.02.2017 00:18, Adam Lackorzynski wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > On Wed Feb 15, 2017 at 09:55:19 +0100, Daniel Krefft wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> we came across two functions (read/write) that are defined in the l4
> >> base API documentation:
> >>
> >> https://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4Re/doc/group__l4__mem__op__api.html
> >>
> >> 1) What does the description "functionality to access user task memory
> >> from the kernel" mean? This could be interpreted as accessing user-space
> >> memory from within the kernel?!
> > 
> > As the description says through this functions is it possible to
> > read/write from/to device memory in the case the device only allows
> > access from privileged processor more. There are some of those devices
> > out there where even the switch to allow access from user-mode is
> > broken. I guess nobody ever noticed. Those functions are only required
> > for those specific devices where it's necessary, i.e. not in any normal
> > operation. But yes, they fall under the category you describe.
> > 
> >> 2) Are there any equivalent memory read/write functions inside the l4re
> >> that also take a virtual address as a parameter?
> > 
> > Yes, there are, for example, utility functions for accessing device
> > memory. However I'm not sure you're looking for something like this as
> > this is all within the same address space and any code in there can
> > read/write anywhere in that address space (given paging permits).
> > There's no functionality to read/write memory in other address spaces
> > directly.
> > 
> > 
> > Adam
> > 
> >> To clarify, all intended operations (read/write) should not modify
> >> user-space memory from inside the kernel or vice versa. User-space
> >> defined read/write functions should operate in user-space exclusively.
> >>
> >> Best
> >> Daniel
> >>
> >> On 14.02.2017 23:29, Adam Lackorzynski wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> On Tue Feb 14, 2017 at 10:38:26 +0100, Daniel Krefft wrote:
> >>>> while working on a checkpoint/restore mechanism for fiasco.oc, we want
> >>>> to trace read and write (kernel) calls to (virtual) memory.
> >>>>
> >>>> 1) Where are these calls defined? We're just able to find ARM specific
> >>>> calls inside the kernel, which allow writing and reading to/from a
> >>>> virtual address
> >>>>
> >>>> 2) Are these calls (if existent) platform agnostic (user-space)? Is
> >>>> there any kind of interface?
> >>>
> >>> I do not quite get the question. The kernel (Fiasco) is running in
> >>> virtual memory, also when running in the kernel, i.e. any load/store
> >>> operation that is in the code is through virtual memory.
> >>> Do you want to trace any read/write issued by the kernel to user-level
> >>> memory? I'm afraid, the kernel does not do that, i.e. it never touches
> >>> user-level memory (except the specially treated UTCB memory).
> >>> Could you please describe your question more verbosely?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Adam
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> l4-hackers mailing list
> >>> l4-hackers at os.inf.tu-dresden.de
> >>> http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/mailman/listinfo/l4-hackers
> >>>
> >>
> >> -- 
> >> Daniel Krefft MSc.
> >> Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
> >>
> >> Technische Universitaet Muenchen
> >> Fakultaet fuer Informatik
> >> Lehrstuhl fuer Betriebssysteme
> >>
> >> Arcisstrasse 21
> >> 80333 Muenchen
> >>
> >> Tel. +49 89 289 18791
> >>
> >> daniel.krefft at tum.de
> >> www.os.in.tum.de/personen/krefft
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> l4-hackers mailing list
> >> l4-hackers at os.inf.tu-dresden.de
> >> http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/mailman/listinfo/l4-hackers
> > 
> > Adam
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Krefft MSc.
> Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
> 
> Technische Universitaet Muenchen
> Fakultaet fuer Informatik
> Lehrstuhl fuer Betriebssysteme
> 
> Arcisstrasse 21
> 80333 Muenchen
> 
> Tel. +49 89 289 18791
> 
> daniel.krefft at tum.de
> www.os.in.tum.de/personen/krefft
> 
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