COMMENTS FOR virtio-v1.0-csprd01 ================================ Number: 1 Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 11:01:44 +0100 Link to Mail: https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/virtio-comment/201401/msg00000.html Commenter name: Thomas Huth - The first three chapters sometimes uses the pronoun "we" in sentences. I think this should be avoided, since it is not always clear who is meant with this pronoun: The reader? The driver? The device? - Some of the generic sections still use the term "PCI" though they should not. I tried to mention the related spots below, but I'd like to suggest to scan again the whole document for "we" and "PCI" to be sure to get everything right. Page 8 / Introduction: - "Extensible: Virtio PCI devices contain feature bits ..." => Remove the "PCI" in above sentence. Page 10 / Configuration Space: - "... nor or reads from multiple fields" => that's difficult to parse, is this sentence right? Page 14 / The Virtqueue Available Ring - "The available ring refers to what descriptor chains the driver is offering the device" => Somewhat hard to read, maybe better something like this: "The available ring refers to the descriptor chains that the driver is offering to the device" ? - "The "idx" field indicates where we would put the next descriptor entry in the ring" => "The "idx" field indicates where the driver would put the next descriptor entry in the ring" Page 16 / Device Initialization: - "2. Set the ACKNOWLEDGE status bit: we have noticed the device." => "2. The guest OS sets the ACKNOWLEDGE status bit to indicate that it has noticed the device." - "3. Set the DRIVER status bit: we know how to drive the device." => "3. The driver sets the DRIVER status bit to indicate that it knows how to drive the device" Page 18 / Notifying the device: - "... we go ahead and write to the PCI configuration space." => "... the driver can go ahead and write to the configuration space." - "The avail_event field wraps naturally at 65536 as well, iving the following algorithm ..." => What does "iving" mean? I did not find that in my dictionary. Page 19: - "It can then process used ring entries finally enabling interrupts ..." => This sentence is hard to parse ... is there missing something before "finally"? Proposal: diff --git a/content.tex b/content.tex index 803615d..8850c1a 100644 --- a/content.tex +++ b/content.tex @@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ Interface' in the section title. Configuration space is generally used for rarely-changing or initialization-time parameters. Drivers MUST NOT assume reads from -fields greater than 32 bits wide are atomic, nor or reads from +fields greater than 32 bits wide are atomic, nor reads from multiple fields. Each transport provides a generation count for the configuration @@ -418,11 +418,11 @@ the device MUST ignore the write-only flag (flags\&VRING_DESC_F_WRITE) in the de }; \end{lstlisting} -The available ring refers to what descriptor chains the driver is offering the +The driver uses the available ring to offer buffers to the device: each ring entry refers to the head of a descriptor chain. It is only written by the driver and read by the device. -The “idx” field indicates where we would put the next descriptor +The “idx” field indicates where the driver would put the next descriptor entry in the ring (modulo the queue size). This starts at 0, and increases. If the VIRTIO_RING_F_INDIRECT_DESC feature bit is not negotiated, the @@ -515,9 +515,9 @@ The driver MUST follow this sequence to initialize a device: \begin{enumerate} \item Reset the device. -\item Set the ACKNOWLEDGE status bit: we have noticed the device. +\item Set the ACKNOWLEDGE status bit: the guest OS has notice the device. -\item Set the DRIVER status bit: we know how to drive the device. +\item Set the DRIVER status bit: the guest OS knows how to drive the device. \item Read device feature bits, and write the subset of feature bits understood by the OS and driver to the device. @@ -686,7 +686,7 @@ we use a memory barrier here before reading the flags or the avail_event field. If the VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX feature is not negotiated, and if the -VRING_USED_F_NOTIFY flag is not set, we go ahead and notify the +VRING_USED_F_NOTIFY flag is not set, the driver SHOULD notify the device. If the VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX feature is negotiated, we read the @@ -694,7 +694,7 @@ avail_event field in the available ring structure. If the available index crossed_the avail_event field value since the last notification, we go ahead and write to the PCI configuration space. The avail_event field wraps naturally at 65536 as well, -iving the following algorithm for calculating whether a device needs +giving the following algorithm for calculating whether a device needs notification: \begin{lstlisting} @@ -705,7 +705,7 @@ notification: Once the device has used a buffer (read from or written to it, or parts of both, depending on the nature of the virtqueue and the -device), it sends an interrupt, following an algorithm very +device), it SHOULD send an interrupt, following an algorithm very similar to the algorithm used for the driver to send the device a buffer: @@ -732,11 +732,11 @@ buffer: \end{enumerate} \end{enumerate} -For each ring, the driver should then disable interrupts by writing +For each ring, the driver MAY then disable interrupts by writing VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT flag in avail structure, if required. -It can then process used ring entries finally enabling interrupts -by clearing the VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT flag or updating the -EVENT_IDX field in the available structure. The driver should then +Once it has processed the ring entries, it SHOULD re-enable +interrupts by clearing the VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT flag or updating the +EVENT_IDX field in the available structure. The driver SHOULD then execute a memory barrier, and then recheck the ring empty condition. This is necessary to handle the case where after the last check and before enabling interrupts, an interrupt has been Decision: