diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/arch/x86')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/arch/x86/cpuinfo.rst | 69 |
1 files changed, 36 insertions, 33 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/arch/x86/cpuinfo.rst b/Documentation/arch/x86/cpuinfo.rst index 6ef426a52cdc..f80e2a558d2a 100644 --- a/Documentation/arch/x86/cpuinfo.rst +++ b/Documentation/arch/x86/cpuinfo.rst @@ -79,8 +79,9 @@ feature flags. How are feature flags created? ============================== -a: Feature flags can be derived from the contents of CPUID leaves. ------------------------------------------------------------------- +Feature flags can be derived from the contents of CPUID leaves +-------------------------------------------------------------- + These feature definitions are organized mirroring the layout of CPUID leaves and grouped in words with offsets as mapped in enum cpuid_leafs in cpufeatures.h (see arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeatures.h for details). @@ -89,8 +90,9 @@ cpufeatures.h, and if it is detected at run time, the flags will be displayed accordingly in /proc/cpuinfo. For example, the flag "avx2" comes from X86_FEATURE_AVX2 in cpufeatures.h. -b: Flags can be from scattered CPUID-based features. ----------------------------------------------------- +Flags can be from scattered CPUID-based features +------------------------------------------------ + Hardware features enumerated in sparsely populated CPUID leaves get software-defined values. Still, CPUID needs to be queried to determine if a given feature is present. This is done in init_scattered_cpuid_features(). @@ -104,8 +106,9 @@ has only one feature and would waste 31 bits of space in the x86_capability[] array. Since there is a struct cpuinfo_x86 for each possible CPU, the wasted memory is not trivial. -c: Flags can be created synthetically under certain conditions for hardware features. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Flags can be created synthetically under certain conditions for hardware features +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Examples of conditions include whether certain features are present in MSR_IA32_CORE_CAPS or specific CPU models are identified. If the needed conditions are met, the features are enabled by the set_cpu_cap or @@ -114,8 +117,8 @@ the feature X86_FEATURE_SPLIT_LOCK_DETECT will be enabled and "split_lock_detect" will be displayed. The flag "ring3mwait" will be displayed only when running on INTEL_XEON_PHI_[KNL|KNM] processors. -d: Flags can represent purely software features. ------------------------------------------------- +Flags can represent purely software features +-------------------------------------------- These flags do not represent hardware features. Instead, they represent a software feature implemented in the kernel. For example, Kernel Page Table Isolation is purely software feature and its feature flag X86_FEATURE_PTI is @@ -130,14 +133,18 @@ x86_cap/bug_flags[] arrays in kernel/cpu/capflags.c. The names in the resulting x86_cap/bug_flags[] are used to populate /proc/cpuinfo. The naming of flags in the x86_cap/bug_flags[] are as follows: -a: The name of the flag is from the string in X86_FEATURE_<name> by default. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -By default, the flag <name> in /proc/cpuinfo is extracted from the respective -X86_FEATURE_<name> in cpufeatures.h. For example, the flag "avx2" is from -X86_FEATURE_AVX2. +Flags do not appear by default in /proc/cpuinfo +----------------------------------------------- + +Feature flags are omitted by default from /proc/cpuinfo as it does not make +sense for the feature to be exposed to userspace in most cases. For example, +X86_FEATURE_ALWAYS is defined in cpufeatures.h but that flag is an internal +kernel feature used in the alternative runtime patching functionality. So the +flag does not appear in /proc/cpuinfo. + +Specify a flag name if absolutely needed +---------------------------------------- -b: The naming can be overridden. --------------------------------- If the comment on the line for the #define X86_FEATURE_* starts with a double-quote character (""), the string inside the double-quote characters will be the name of the flags. For example, the flag "sse4_1" comes from @@ -148,36 +155,31 @@ needed. For instance, /proc/cpuinfo is a userspace interface and must remain constant. If, for some reason, the naming of X86_FEATURE_<name> changes, one shall override the new naming with the name already used in /proc/cpuinfo. -c: The naming override can be "", which means it will not appear in /proc/cpuinfo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -The feature shall be omitted from /proc/cpuinfo if it does not make sense for -the feature to be exposed to userspace. For example, X86_FEATURE_ALWAYS is -defined in cpufeatures.h but that flag is an internal kernel feature used -in the alternative runtime patching functionality. So, its name is overridden -with "". Its flag will not appear in /proc/cpuinfo. - Flags are missing when one or more of these happen ================================================== -a: The hardware does not enumerate support for it. --------------------------------------------------- +The hardware does not enumerate support for it +---------------------------------------------- + For example, when a new kernel is running on old hardware or the feature is not enabled by boot firmware. Even if the hardware is new, there might be a problem enabling the feature at run time, the flag will not be displayed. -b: The kernel does not know about the flag. -------------------------------------------- +The kernel does not know about the flag +--------------------------------------- + For example, when an old kernel is running on new hardware. -c: The kernel disabled support for it at compile-time. ------------------------------------------------------- +The kernel disabled support for it at compile-time +-------------------------------------------------- + For example, if 5-level-paging is not enabled when building (i.e., CONFIG_X86_5LEVEL is not selected) the flag "la57" will not show up [#f1]_. Even though the feature will still be detected via CPUID, the kernel disables it by clearing via setup_clear_cpu_cap(X86_FEATURE_LA57). -d: The feature is disabled at boot-time. ----------------------------------------- +The feature is disabled at boot-time +------------------------------------ A feature can be disabled either using a command-line parameter or because it failed to be enabled. The command-line parameter clearcpuid= can be used to disable features using the feature number as defined in @@ -190,8 +192,9 @@ disable specific features. The list of parameters includes, but is not limited to, nofsgsbase, nosgx, noxsave, etc. 5-level paging can also be disabled using "no5lvl". -e: The feature was known to be non-functional. ----------------------------------------------- +The feature was known to be non-functional +------------------------------------------ + The feature was known to be non-functional because a dependency was missing at runtime. For example, AVX flags will not show up if XSAVE feature is disabled since they depend on XSAVE feature. Another example would be broken |