docs: reorganize tcg-plugins.rst

Clean up the heading levels to use === --- ~~~, and create a new "writing
plugins" section.

Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
Paolo Bonzini 2021-09-07 17:06:07 +02:00
parent 768f14f94e
commit e9adb4ace2

View file

@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
Copyright (c) 2019, Linaro Limited
Written by Emilio Cota and Alex Bennée
================
QEMU TCG Plugins
================
@ -16,60 +15,8 @@ only monitor it passively. However they can do this down to an
individual instruction granularity including potentially subscribing
to all load and store operations.
API Stability
=============
This is a new feature for QEMU and it does allow people to develop
out-of-tree plugins that can be dynamically linked into a running QEMU
process. However the project reserves the right to change or break the
API should it need to do so. The best way to avoid this is to submit
your plugin upstream so they can be updated if/when the API changes.
API versioning
--------------
All plugins need to declare a symbol which exports the plugin API
version they were built against. This can be done simply by::
QEMU_PLUGIN_EXPORT int qemu_plugin_version = QEMU_PLUGIN_VERSION;
The core code will refuse to load a plugin that doesn't export a
``qemu_plugin_version`` symbol or if plugin version is outside of QEMU's
supported range of API versions.
Additionally the ``qemu_info_t`` structure which is passed to the
``qemu_plugin_install`` method of a plugin will detail the minimum and
current API versions supported by QEMU. The API version will be
incremented if new APIs are added. The minimum API version will be
incremented if existing APIs are changed or removed.
Exposure of QEMU internals
--------------------------
The plugin architecture actively avoids leaking implementation details
about how QEMU's translation works to the plugins. While there are
conceptions such as translation time and translation blocks the
details are opaque to plugins. The plugin is able to query select
details of instructions and system configuration only through the
exported *qemu_plugin* functions.
Query Handle Lifetime
---------------------
Each callback provides an opaque anonymous information handle which
can usually be further queried to find out information about a
translation, instruction or operation. The handles themselves are only
valid during the lifetime of the callback so it is important that any
information that is needed is extracted during the callback and saved
by the plugin.
API
===
.. kernel-doc:: include/qemu/qemu-plugin.h
Usage
=====
-----
Any QEMU binary with TCG support has plugins enabled by default.
Earlier releases needed to be explicitly enabled with::
@ -87,8 +34,45 @@ Arguments are plugin specific and can be used to modify their
behaviour. In this case the howvec plugin is being asked to use inline
ops to count and break down the hint instructions by type.
Plugin Life cycle
=================
Writing plugins
---------------
API versioning
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a new feature for QEMU and it does allow people to develop
out-of-tree plugins that can be dynamically linked into a running QEMU
process. However the project reserves the right to change or break the
API should it need to do so. The best way to avoid this is to submit
your plugin upstream so they can be updated if/when the API changes.
All plugins need to declare a symbol which exports the plugin API
version they were built against. This can be done simply by::
QEMU_PLUGIN_EXPORT int qemu_plugin_version = QEMU_PLUGIN_VERSION;
The core code will refuse to load a plugin that doesn't export a
``qemu_plugin_version`` symbol or if plugin version is outside of QEMU's
supported range of API versions.
Additionally the ``qemu_info_t`` structure which is passed to the
``qemu_plugin_install`` method of a plugin will detail the minimum and
current API versions supported by QEMU. The API version will be
incremented if new APIs are added. The minimum API version will be
incremented if existing APIs are changed or removed.
Lifetime of the query handle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each callback provides an opaque anonymous information handle which
can usually be further queried to find out information about a
translation, instruction or operation. The handles themselves are only
valid during the lifetime of the callback so it is important that any
information that is needed is extracted during the callback and saved
by the plugin.
Plugin life cycle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First the plugin is loaded and the public qemu_plugin_install function
is called. The plugin will then register callbacks for various plugin
@ -111,11 +95,26 @@ callback which can then ensure atomicity itself.
Finally when QEMU exits all the registered *atexit* callbacks are
invoked.
Exposure of QEMU internals
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The plugin architecture actively avoids leaking implementation details
about how QEMU's translation works to the plugins. While there are
conceptions such as translation time and translation blocks the
details are opaque to plugins. The plugin is able to query select
details of instructions and system configuration only through the
exported *qemu_plugin* functions.
API
~~~
.. kernel-doc:: include/qemu/qemu-plugin.h
Internals
=========
---------
Locking
-------
~~~~~~~
We have to ensure we cannot deadlock, particularly under MTTCG. For
this we acquire a lock when called from plugin code. We also keep the
@ -142,7 +141,7 @@ requested. The plugin isn't completely uninstalled until the safe work
has executed while all vCPUs are quiescent.
Example Plugins
===============
---------------
There are a number of plugins included with QEMU and you are
encouraged to contribute your own plugins plugins upstream. There is a