hostmem: add a new memory backend based on POSIX shm_open()
authorStefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>
Tue, 18 Jun 2024 10:05:19 +0000 (12:05 +0200)
committerMichael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
Wed, 3 Jul 2024 22:14:06 +0000 (18:14 -0400)
commit4e647fa08586a5ada74cf6d3ae1cdf3a027202cb
tree396296ac8c5ddfb099d088300a9a99d59a3f5b7c
parent5ab04420c3de11ae4a573b08b53584a2a0c5dd00
hostmem: add a new memory backend based on POSIX shm_open()

shm_open() creates and opens a new POSIX shared memory object.
A POSIX shared memory object allows creating memory backend with an
associated file descriptor that can be shared with external processes
(e.g. vhost-user).

The new `memory-backend-shm` can be used as an alternative when
`memory-backend-memfd` is not available (Linux only), since shm_open()
should be provided by any POSIX-compliant operating system.

This backend mimics memfd, allocating memory that is practically
anonymous. In theory shm_open() requires a name, but this is allocated
for a short time interval and shm_unlink() is called right after
shm_open(). After that, only fd is shared with external processes
(e.g., vhost-user) as if it were associated with anonymous memory.

In the future we may also allow the user to specify the name to be
passed to shm_open(), but for now we keep the backend simple, mimicking
anonymous memory such as memfd.

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> (QAPI schema)
Signed-off-by: Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20240618100519.145853-1-sgarzare@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
backends/hostmem-shm.c [new file with mode: 0644]
backends/meson.build
docs/system/devices/vhost-user.rst
qapi/qom.json
qemu-options.hx