virtio: Add text copy of spec to Documentation/virtual.

As suggested by Christoph Hellwig.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>

2 files changed, 2203 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/00-INDEX b/Documentation/virtual/00-INDEX
index fe0251c4cfb7..8e601991d91c 100644
--- a/Documentation/virtual/00-INDEX
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/00-INDEX
@@ -8,3 +8,6 @@ lguest/
 	- Extremely simple hypervisor for experimental/educational use.
 uml/
 	- User Mode Linux, builds/runs Linux kernel as a userspace program.
+virtio.txt
+	- Text version of draft virtio spec.
+          See http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/virtio-spec
diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/virtio-spec.txt b/Documentation/virtual/virtio-spec.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a350ae135b8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/virtio-spec.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2200 @@
+[Generated file: see http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/virtio-spec/]
+Virtio PCI Card Specification
+v0.9.1 DRAFT
+-
+
+Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>IBM Corporation (Editor)
+
+2011 August 1.
+
+Purpose and Description
+
+This document describes the specifications of the “virtio” family
+of PCI[LaTeX Command: nomenclature] devices. These are devices
+are found in virtual environments[LaTeX Command: nomenclature],
+yet by design they are not all that different from physical PCI
+devices, and this document treats them as such. This allows the
+guest to use standard PCI drivers and discovery mechanisms.
+
+The purpose of virtio and this specification is that virtual
+environments and guests should have a straightforward, efficient,
+standard and extensible mechanism for virtual devices, rather
+than boutique per-environment or per-OS mechanisms.
+
+  Straightforward: Virtio PCI devices use normal PCI mechanisms
+  of interrupts and DMA which should be familiar to any device
+  driver author. There is no exotic page-flipping or COW
+  mechanism: it's just a PCI device.[footnote:
+This lack of page-sharing implies that the implementation of the
+device (e.g. the hypervisor or host) needs full access to the
+guest memory. Communication with untrusted parties (i.e.
+inter-guest communication) requires copying.
+]
+
+  Efficient: Virtio PCI devices consist of rings of descriptors
+  for input and output, which are neatly separated to avoid cache
+  effects from both guest and device writing to the same cache
+  lines.
+
+  Standard: Virtio PCI makes no assumptions about the environment
+  in which it operates, beyond supporting PCI. In fact the virtio
+  devices specified in the appendices do not require PCI at all:
+  they have been implemented on non-PCI buses.[footnote:
+The Linux implementation further separates the PCI virtio code
+from the specific virtio drivers: these drivers are shared with
+the non-PCI implementations (currently lguest and S/390).
+]
+
+  Extensible: Virtio PCI devices contain feature bits which are
+  acknowledged by the guest operating system during device setup.
+  This allows forwards and backwards compatibility: the device
+  offers all the features it knows about, and the driver
+  acknowledges those it understands and wishes to use.
+
+  Virtqueues
+
+The mechanism for bulk data transport on virtio PCI devices is
+pretentiously called a virtqueue. Each device can have zero or
+more virtqueues: for example, the network device has one for
+transmit and one for receive.
+
+Each virtqueue occupies two or more physically-contiguous pages
+(defined, for the purposes of this specification, as 4096 bytes),
+and consists of three parts:
+
+
++-------------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+
+| Descriptor Table  |   Available Ring     (padding)    | Used Ring |
++-------------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+
+
+
+When the driver wants to send buffers to the device, it puts them
+in one or more slots in the descriptor table, and writes the
+descriptor indices into the available ring. It then notifies the
+device. When the device has finished with the buffers, it writes
+the descriptors into the used ring, and sends an interrupt.
+
+Specification
+
+  PCI Discovery
+
+Any PCI device with Vendor ID 0x1AF4, and Device ID 0x1000
+through 0x103F inclusive is a virtio device[footnote:
+The actual value within this range is ignored
+]. The device must also have a Revision ID of 0 to match this
+specification.
+
+The Subsystem Device ID indicates which virtio device is
+supported by the device. The Subsystem Vendor ID should reflect
+the PCI Vendor ID of the environment (it's currently only used
+for informational purposes by the guest).
+
+
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+| Subsystem Device ID  |   Virtio Device    | Specification |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          1           |   network card     |  Appendix C   |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          2           |   block device     |  Appendix D   |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          3           |      console       |  Appendix E   |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          4           |  entropy source    |  Appendix F   |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          5           | memory ballooning  |  Appendix G   |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          6           |     ioMemory       |       -       |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+|          9           |   9P transport     |       -       |
++----------------------+--------------------+---------------+
+
+
+  Device Configuration
+
+To configure the device, we use the first I/O region of the PCI
+device. This contains a virtio header followed by a
+device-specific region.
+
+There may be different widths of accesses to the I/O region; the “
+natural” access method for each field in the virtio header must
+be used (i.e. 32-bit accesses for 32-bit fields, etc), but the
+device-specific region can be accessed using any width accesses,
+and should obtain the same results.
+
+Note that this is possible because while the virtio header is PCI
+(i.e. little) endian, the device-specific region is encoded in
+the native endian of the guest (where such distinction is
+applicable).
+
+  Device Initialization Sequence
+
+We start with an overview of device initialization, then expand
+on the details of the device and how each step is preformed.
+
+  Reset the device. This is not required on initial start up.
+
+  The ACKNOWLEDGE status bit is set: we have noticed the device.
+
+  The DRIVER status bit is set: we know how to drive the device.
+
+  Device-specific setup, including reading the Device Feature
+  Bits, discovery of virtqueues for the device, optional MSI-X
+  setup, and reading and possibly writing the virtio
+  configuration space.
+
+  The subset of Device Feature Bits understood by the driver is
+  written to the device.
+
+  The DRIVER_OK status bit is set.
+
+  The device can now be used (ie. buffers added to the
+  virtqueues)[footnote:
+Historically, drivers have used the device before steps 5 and 6.
+This is only allowed if the driver does not use any features
+which would alter this early use of the device.
+]
+
+If any of these steps go irrecoverably wrong, the guest should
+set the FAILED status bit to indicate that it has given up on the
+device (it can reset the device later to restart if desired).
+
+We now cover the fields required for general setup in detail.
+
+  Virtio Header
+
+The virtio header looks as follows:
+
+
++------------++---------------------+---------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------+
+| Bits       || 32                  | 32                  | 32       | 16     | 16      | 16      | 8       | 8      |
++------------++---------------------+---------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------+
+| Read/Write || R                   | R+W                 | R+W      | R      | R+W     | R+W     | R+W     | R      |
++------------++---------------------+---------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------+
+| Purpose    || Device              | Guest               | Queue    | Queue  | Queue   | Queue   | Device  | ISR    |
+|            || Features bits 0:31  | Features bits 0:31  | Address  | Size   | Select  | Notify  | Status  | Status |
++------------++---------------------+---------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------+
+
+
+If MSI-X is enabled for the device, two additional fields
+immediately follow this header:
+
+
++------------++----------------+--------+
+| Bits       || 16             | 16     |
+              +----------------+--------+
++------------++----------------+--------+
+| Read/Write || R+W            | R+W    |
++------------++----------------+--------+
+| Purpose    || Configuration  | Queue  |
+| (MSI-X)    || Vector         | Vector |
++------------++----------------+--------+
+
+
+Finally, if feature bits (VIRTIO_F_FEATURES_HI) this is
+immediately followed by two additional fields:
+
+
++------------++----------------------+----------------------
+| Bits       || 32                   | 32
++------------++----------------------+----------------------
+| Read/Write || R                    | R+W
++------------++----------------------+----------------------
+| Purpose    || Device               | Guest
+|            || Features bits 32:63  | Features bits 32:63
++------------++----------------------+----------------------
+
+
+Immediately following these general headers, there may be
+device-specific headers:
+
+
++------------++--------------------+
+| Bits       || Device Specific    |
+              +--------------------+
++------------++--------------------+
+| Read/Write || Device Specific    |
++------------++--------------------+
+| Purpose    || Device Specific... |
+|            ||                    |
++------------++--------------------+
+
+
+  Device Status
+
+The Device Status field is updated by the guest to indicate its
+progress. This provides a simple low-level diagnostic: it's most
+useful to imagine them hooked up to traffic lights on the console
+indicating the status of each device.
+
+The device can be reset by writing a 0 to this field, otherwise
+at least one bit should be set:
+
+  ACKNOWLEDGE (1) Indicates that the guest OS has found the
+  device and recognized it as a valid virtio device.
+
+  DRIVER (2) Indicates that the guest OS knows how to drive the
+  device. Under Linux, drivers can be loadable modules so there
+  may be a significant (or infinite) delay before setting this
+  bit.
+
+  DRIVER_OK (3) Indicates that the driver is set up and ready to
+  drive the device.
+
+  FAILED (8) Indicates that something went wrong in the guest,
+  and it has given up on the device. This could be an internal
+  error, or the driver didn't like the device for some reason, or
+  even a fatal error during device operation. The device must be
+  reset before attempting to re-initialize.
+
+  Feature Bits
+
+The least significant 31 bits of the first configuration field
+indicates the features that the device supports (the high bit is
+reserved, and will be used to indicate the presence of future
+feature bits elsewhere). If more than 31 feature bits are
+supported, the device indicates so by setting feature bit 31 (see
+[cha:Reserved-Feature-Bits]). The bits are allocated as follows:
+
+  0 to 23 Feature bits for the specific device type
+
+  24 to 40 Feature bits reserved for extensions to the queue and
+  feature negotiation mechanisms
+
+  41 to 63 Feature bits reserved for future extensions
+
+For example, feature bit 0 for a network device (i.e. Subsystem
+Device ID 1) indicates that the device supports checksumming of
+packets.
+
+The feature bits are negotiated: the device lists all the
+features it understands in the Device Features field, and the
+guest writes the subset that it understands into the Guest
+Features field. The only way to renegotiate is to reset the
+device.
+
+In particular, new fields in the device configuration header are
+indicated by offering a feature bit, so the guest can check
+before accessing that part of the configuration space.
+
+This allows for forwards and backwards compatibility: if the
+device is enhanced with a new feature bit, older guests will not
+write that feature bit back to the Guest Features field and it
+can go into backwards compatibility mode. Similarly, if a guest
+is enhanced with a feature that the device doesn't support, it
+will not see that feature bit in the Device Features field and
+can go into backwards compatibility mode (or, for poor
+implementations, set the FAILED Device Status bit).
+
+Access to feature bits 32 to 63 is enabled by Guest by setting
+feature bit 31. If this bit is unset, Device must assume that all
+feature bits > 31 are unset.
+
+  Configuration/Queue Vectors
+
+When MSI-X capability is present and enabled in the device
+(through standard PCI configuration space) 4 bytes at byte offset
+20 are used to map configuration change and queue interrupts to
+MSI-X vectors. In this case, the ISR Status field is unused, and
+device specific configuration starts at byte offset 24 in virtio
+header structure. When MSI-X capability is not enabled, device
+specific configuration starts at byte offset 20 in virtio header.
+
+Writing a valid MSI-X Table entry number, 0 to 0x7FF, to one of
+Configuration/Queue Vector registers, maps interrupts triggered
+by the configuration change/selected queue events respectively to
+the corresponding MSI-X vector. To disable interrupts for a
+specific event type, unmap it by writing a special NO_VECTOR
+value:
+
+/* Vector value used to disable MSI for queue */
+
+#define VIRTIO_MSI_NO_VECTOR            0xffff
+
+Reading these registers returns vector mapped to a given event,
+or NO_VECTOR if unmapped. All queue and configuration change
+events are unmapped by default.
+
+Note that mapping an event to vector might require allocating
+internal device resources, and might fail. Devices report such
+failures by returning the NO_VECTOR value when the relevant
+Vector field is read. After mapping an event to vector, the
+driver must verify success by reading the Vector field value: on
+success, the previously written value is returned, and on
+failure, NO_VECTOR is returned. If a mapping failure is detected,
+the driver can retry mapping with fewervectors, or disable MSI-X.
+
+  Virtqueue Configuration
+
+As a device can have zero or more virtqueues for bulk data
+transport (for example, the network driver has two), the driver
+needs to configure them as part of the device-specific
+configuration.
+
+This is done as follows, for each virtqueue a device has:
+
+  Write the virtqueue index (first queue is 0) to the Queue
+  Select field.
+
+  Read the virtqueue size from the Queue Size field, which is
+  always a power of 2. This controls how big the virtqueue is
+  (see below). If this field is 0, the virtqueue does not exist.
+
+  Allocate and zero virtqueue in contiguous physical memory, on a
+  4096 byte alignment. Write the physical address, divided by
+  4096 to the Queue Address field.[footnote:
+The 4096 is based on the x86 page size, but it's also large
+enough to ensure that the separate parts of the virtqueue are on
+separate cache lines.
+]
+
+  Optionally, if MSI-X capability is present and enabled on the
+  device, select a vector to use to request interrupts triggered
+  by virtqueue events. Write the MSI-X Table entry number
+  corresponding to this vector in Queue Vector field. Read the
+  Queue Vector field: on success, previously written value is
+  returned; on failure, NO_VECTOR value is returned.
+
+The Queue Size field controls the total number of bytes required
+for the virtqueue according to the following formula:
+
+#define ALIGN(x) (((x) + 4095) & ~4095)
+
+static inline unsigned vring_size(unsigned int qsz)
+
+{
+
+     return ALIGN(sizeof(struct vring_desc)*qsz + sizeof(u16)*(2
++ qsz))
+
+          + ALIGN(sizeof(struct vring_used_elem)*qsz);
+
+}
+
+This currently wastes some space with padding, but also allows
+future extensions. The virtqueue layout structure looks like this
+(qsz is the Queue Size field, which is a variable, so this code
+won't compile):
+
+struct vring {
+
+    /* The actual descriptors (16 bytes each) */
+
+    struct vring_desc desc[qsz];
+
+
+
+    /* A ring of available descriptor heads with free-running
+index. */
+
+    struct vring_avail avail;
+
+
+
+    // Padding to the next 4096 boundary.
+
+    char pad[];
+
+
+
+    // A ring of used descriptor heads with free-running index.
+
+    struct vring_used used;
+
+};
+
+  A Note on Virtqueue Endianness
+
+Note that the endian of these fields and everything else in the
+virtqueue is the native endian of the guest, not little-endian as
+PCI normally is. This makes for simpler guest code, and it is
+assumed that the host already has to be deeply aware of the guest
+endian so such an “endian-aware” device is not a significant
+issue.
+
+  Descriptor Table
+
+The descriptor table refers to the buffers the guest is using for
+the device. The addresses are physical addresses, and the buffers
+can be chained via the next field. Each descriptor describes a
+buffer which is read-only or write-only, but a chain of
+descriptors can contain both read-only and write-only buffers.
+
+No descriptor chain may be more than 2^32 bytes long in total.struct vring_desc {
+
+    /* Address (guest-physical). */
+
+    u64 addr;
+
+    /* Length. */
+
+    u32 len;
+
+/* This marks a buffer as continuing via the next field. */
+
+#define VRING_DESC_F_NEXT   1
+
+/* This marks a buffer as write-only (otherwise read-only). */
+
+#define VRING_DESC_F_WRITE     2
+
+/* This means the buffer contains a list of buffer descriptors.
+*/
+
+#define VRING_DESC_F_INDIRECT   4
+
+    /* The flags as indicated above. */
+
+    u16 flags;
+
+    /* Next field if flags & NEXT */
+
+    u16 next;
+
+};
+
+The number of descriptors in the table is specified by the Queue
+Size field for this virtqueue.
+
+  <sub:Indirect-Descriptors>Indirect Descriptors
+
+Some devices benefit by concurrently dispatching a large number
+of large requests. The VIRTIO_RING_F_INDIRECT_DESC feature can be
+used to allow this (see [cha:Reserved-Feature-Bits]). To increase
+ring capacity it is possible to store a table of indirect
+descriptors anywhere in memory, and insert a descriptor in main
+virtqueue (with flags&INDIRECT on) that refers to memory buffer
+containing this indirect descriptor table; fields addr and len
+refer to the indirect table address and length in bytes,
+respectively. The indirect table layout structure looks like this
+(len is the length of the descriptor that refers to this table,
+which is a variable, so this code won't compile):
+
+struct indirect_descriptor_table {
+
+    /* The actual descriptors (16 bytes each) */
+
+    struct vring_desc desc[len / 16];
+
+};
+
+The first indirect descriptor is located at start of the indirect
+descriptor table (index 0), additional indirect descriptors are
+chained by next field. An indirect descriptor without next field
+(with flags&NEXT off) signals the end of the indirect descriptor
+table, and transfers control back to the main virtqueue. An
+indirect descriptor can not refer to another indirect descriptor
+table (flags&INDIRECT must be off). A single indirect descriptor
+table can include both read-only and write-only descriptors;
+write-only flag (flags&WRITE) in the descriptor that refers to it
+is ignored.
+
+  Available Ring
+
+The available ring refers to what descriptors we are offering the
+device: it refers to the head of a descriptor chain. The “flags”
+field is currently 0 or 1: 1 indicating that we do not need an
+interrupt when the device consumes a descriptor from the
+available ring. Alternatively, the guest can ask the device to
+delay interrupts until an entry with an index specified by the “
+used_event” field is written in the used ring (equivalently,
+until the idx field in the used ring will reach the value
+used_event + 1). The method employed by the device is controlled
+by the VIRTIO_RING_F_EVENT_IDX feature bit (see [cha:Reserved-Feature-Bits]
+). This interrupt suppression is merely an optimization; it may
+not suppress interrupts entirely.
+
+The “idx” field indicates where we would put the next descriptor
+entry (modulo the ring size). This starts at 0, and increases.
+
+struct vring_avail {
+
+#define VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT      1
+
+   u16 flags;
+
+   u16 idx;
+
+   u16 ring[qsz]; /* qsz is the Queue Size field read from device
+*/
+
+   u16 used_event;
+
+};
+
+  Used Ring
+
+The used ring is where the device returns buffers once it is done
+with them. The flags field can be used by the device to hint that
+no notification is necessary when the guest adds to the available
+ring. Alternatively, the “avail_event” field can be used by the
+device to hint that no notification is necessary until an entry
+with an index specified by the “avail_event” is written in the
+available ring (equivalently, until the idx field in the
+available ring will reach the value avail_event + 1). The method
+employed by the device is controlled by the guest through the
+VIRTIO_RING_F_EVENT_IDX feature bit (see [cha:Reserved-Feature-Bits]
+). [footnote:
+These fields are kept here because this is the only part of the
+virtqueue written by the device
+].
+
+Each entry in the ring is a pair: the head entry of the
+descriptor chain describing the buffer (this matches an entry
+placed in the available ring by the guest earlier), and the total
+of bytes written into the buffer. The latter is extremely useful
+for guests using untrusted buffers: if you do not know exactly
+how much has been written by the device, you usually have to zero
+the buffer to ensure no data leakage occurs.
+
+/* u32 is used here for ids for padding reasons. */
+
+struct vring_used_elem {
+
+    /* Index of start of used descriptor chain. */
+
+    u32 id;
+
+    /* Total length of the descriptor chain which was used
+(written to) */
+
+    u32 len;
+
+};
+
+
+
+struct vring_used {
+
+#define VRING_USED_F_NO_NOTIFY  1
+
+    u16 flags;
+
+    u16 idx;
+
+    struct vring_used_elem ring[qsz];
+
+    u16 avail_event;
+
+};
+
+  Helpers for Managing Virtqueues
+
+The Linux Kernel Source code contains the definitions above and
+helper routines in a more usable form, in
+include/linux/virtio_ring.h. This was explicitly licensed by IBM
+and Red Hat under the (3-clause) BSD license so that it can be
+freely used by all other projects, and is reproduced (with slight
+variation to remove Linux assumptions) in Appendix A.
+
+  Device Operation
+
+There are two parts to device operation: supplying new buffers to
+the device, and processing used buffers from the device. As an
+example, the virtio network device has two virtqueues: the
+transmit virtqueue and the receive virtqueue. The driver adds
+outgoing (read-only) packets to the transmit virtqueue, and then
+frees them after they are used. Similarly, incoming (write-only)
+buffers are added to the receive virtqueue, and processed after
+they are used.
+
+  Supplying Buffers to The Device
+
+Actual transfer of buffers from the guest OS to the device
+operates as follows:
+
+  Place the buffer(s) into free descriptor(s).
+
+  If there are no free descriptors, the guest may choose to
+    notify the device even if notifications are suppressed (to
+    reduce latency).[footnote:
+The Linux drivers do this only for read-only buffers: for
+write-only buffers, it is assumed that the driver is merely
+trying to keep the receive buffer ring full, and no notification
+of this expected condition is necessary.
+]
+
+  Place the id of the buffer in the next ring entry of the
+  available ring.
+
+  The steps (1) and (2) may be performed repeatedly if batching
+  is possible.
+
+  A memory barrier should be executed to ensure the device sees
+  the updated descriptor table and available ring before the next
+  step.
+
+  The available “idx” field should be increased by the number of
+  entries added to the available ring.
+
+  A memory barrier should be executed to ensure that we update
+  the idx field before checking for notification suppression.
+
+  If notifications are not suppressed, the device should be
+  notified of the new buffers.
+
+Note that the above code does not take precautions against the
+available ring buffer wrapping around: this is not possible since
+the ring buffer is the same size as the descriptor table, so step
+(1) will prevent such a condition.
+
+In addition, the maximum queue size is 32768 (it must be a power
+of 2 which fits in 16 bits), so the 16-bit “idx” value can always
+distinguish between a full and empty buffer.
+
+Here is a description of each stage in more detail.
+
+  Placing Buffers Into The Descriptor Table
+
+A buffer consists of zero or more read-only physically-contiguous
+elements followed by zero or more physically-contiguous
+write-only elements (it must have at least one element). This
+algorithm maps it into the descriptor table:
+
+  for each buffer element, b:
+
+  Get the next free descriptor table entry, d
+
+  Set d.addr to the physical address of the start of b
+
+  Set d.len to the length of b.
+
+  If b is write-only, set d.flags to VRING_DESC_F_WRITE,
+    otherwise 0.
+
+  If there is a buffer element after this:
+
+    Set d.next to the index of the next free descriptor element.
+
+    Set the VRING_DESC_F_NEXT bit in d.flags.
+
+In practice, the d.next fields are usually used to chain free
+descriptors, and a separate count kept to check there are enough
+free descriptors before beginning the mappings.
+
+  Updating The Available Ring
+
+The head of the buffer we mapped is the first d in the algorithm
+above. A naive implementation would do the following:
+
+avail->ring[avail->idx % qsz] = head;
+
+However, in general we can add many descriptors before we update
+the “idx” field (at which point they become visible to the
+device), so we keep a counter of how many we've added:
+
+avail->ring[(avail->idx + added++) % qsz] = head;
+
+  Updating The Index Field
+
+Once the idx field of the virtqueue is updated, the device will
+be able to access the descriptor entries we've created and the
+memory they refer to. This is why a memory barrier is generally
+used before the idx update, to ensure it sees the most up-to-date
+copy.
+
+The idx field always increments, and we let it wrap naturally at
+65536:
+
+avail->idx += added;
+
+  <sub:Notifying-The-Device>Notifying The Device
+
+Device notification occurs by writing the 16-bit virtqueue index
+of this virtqueue to the Queue Notify field of the virtio header
+in the first I/O region of the PCI device. This can be expensive,
+however, so the device can suppress such notifications if it
+doesn't need them. We have to be careful to expose the new idx
+value before checking the suppression flag: it's OK to notify
+gratuitously, but not to omit a required notification. So again,
+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 write to
+the PCI configuration space.
+
+If the VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX feature is negotiated, we read the
+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:
+
+(u16)(new_idx - avail_event - 1) < (u16)(new_idx - old_idx)
+
+  <sub:Receiving-Used-Buffers>Receiving Used Buffers From The
+  Device
+
+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
+similar to the algorithm used for the driver to send the device a
+buffer:
+
+  Write the head descriptor number to the next field in the used
+  ring.
+
+  Update the used ring idx.
+
+  Determine whether an interrupt is necessary:
+
+  If the VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX feature is not negotiated: check
+    if f the VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT flag is not set in avail-
+    >flags
+
+  If the VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX feature is negotiated: check
+    whether the used index crossed the used_event field value
+    since the last update. The used_event field wraps naturally
+    at 65536 as well:(u16)(new_idx - used_event - 1) < (u16)(new_idx - old_idx)
+
+  If an interrupt is necessary:
+
+  If MSI-X capability is disabled:
+
+    Set the lower bit of the ISR Status field for the device.
+
+    Send the appropriate PCI interrupt for the device.
+
+  If MSI-X capability is enabled:
+
+    Request the appropriate MSI-X interrupt message for the
+      device, Queue Vector field sets the MSI-X Table entry
+      number.
+
+    If Queue Vector field value is NO_VECTOR, no interrupt
+      message is requested for this event.
+
+The guest interrupt handler should:
+
+  If MSI-X capability is disabled: read the ISR Status field,
+  which will reset it to zero. If the lower bit is zero, the
+  interrupt was not for this device. Otherwise, the guest driver
+  should look through the used rings of each virtqueue for the
+  device, to see if any progress has been made by the device
+  which requires servicing.
+
+  If MSI-X capability is enabled: look through the used rings of
+  each virtqueue mapped to the specific MSI-X vector for the
+  device, to see if any progress has been made by the device
+  which requires servicing.
+
+For each ring, guest should 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, Guest 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
+suppressed by the device:
+
+vring_disable_interrupts(vq);
+
+for (;;) {
+
+    if (vq->last_seen_used != vring->used.idx) {
+
+		vring_enable_interrupts(vq);
+
+		mb();
+
+		if (vq->last_seen_used != vring->used.idx)
+
+			break;
+
+    }
+
+    struct vring_used_elem *e =
+vring.used->ring[vq->last_seen_used%vsz];
+
+    process_buffer(e);
+
+    vq->last_seen_used++;
+
+}
+
+  Dealing With Configuration Changes
+
+Some virtio PCI devices can change the device configuration
+state, as reflected in the virtio header in the PCI configuration
+space. In this case:
+
+  If MSI-X capability is disabled: an interrupt is delivered and
+  the second highest bit is set in the ISR Status field to
+  indicate that the driver should re-examine the configuration
+  space.Note that a single interrupt can indicate both that one
+  or more virtqueue has been used and that the configuration
+  space has changed: even if the config bit is set, virtqueues
+  must be scanned.
+
+  If MSI-X capability is enabled: an interrupt message is
+  requested. The Configuration Vector field sets the MSI-X Table
+  entry number to use. If Configuration Vector field value is
+  NO_VECTOR, no interrupt message is requested for this event.
+
+Creating New Device Types
+
+Various considerations are necessary when creating a new device
+type:
+
+  How Many Virtqueues?
+
+It is possible that a very simple device will operate entirely
+through its configuration space, but most will need at least one
+virtqueue in which it will place requests. A device with both
+input and output (eg. console and network devices described here)
+need two queues: one which the driver fills with buffers to
+receive input, and one which the driver places buffers to
+transmit output.
+
+  What Configuration Space Layout?
+
+Configuration space is generally used for rarely-changing or
+initialization-time parameters. But it is a limited resource, so
+it might be better to use a virtqueue to update configuration
+information (the network device does this for filtering,
+otherwise the table in the config space could potentially be very
+large).
+
+Note that this space is generally the guest's native endian,
+rather than PCI's little-endian.
+
+  What Device Number?
+
+Currently device numbers are assigned quite freely: a simple
+request mail to the author of this document or the Linux
+virtualization mailing list[footnote:
+
+https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/virtualization
+] will be sufficient to secure a unique one.
+
+Meanwhile for experimental drivers, use 65535 and work backwards.
+
+  How many MSI-X vectors?
+
+Using the optional MSI-X capability devices can speed up
+interrupt processing by removing the need to read ISR Status
+register by guest driver (which might be an expensive operation),
+reducing interrupt sharing between devices and queues within the
+device, and handling interrupts from multiple CPUs. However, some
+systems impose a limit (which might be as low as 256) on the
+total number of MSI-X vectors that can be allocated to all
+devices. Devices and/or device drivers should take this into
+account, limiting the number of vectors used unless the device is
+expected to cause a high volume of interrupts. Devices can
+control the number of vectors used by limiting the MSI-X Table
+Size or not presenting MSI-X capability in PCI configuration
+space. Drivers can control this by mapping events to as small
+number of vectors as possible, or disabling MSI-X capability
+altogether.
+
+  Message Framing
+
+The descriptors used for a buffer should not effect the semantics
+of the message, except for the total length of the buffer. For
+example, a network buffer consists of a 10 byte header followed
+by the network packet. Whether this is presented in the ring
+descriptor chain as (say) a 10 byte buffer and a 1514 byte
+buffer, or a single 1524 byte buffer, or even three buffers,
+should have no effect.
+
+In particular, no implementation should use the descriptor
+boundaries to determine the size of any header in a request.[footnote:
+The current qemu device implementations mistakenly insist that
+the first descriptor cover the header in these cases exactly, so
+a cautious driver should arrange it so.
+]
+
+  Device Improvements
+
+Any change to configuration space, or new virtqueues, or
+behavioural changes, should be indicated by negotiation of a new
+feature bit. This establishes clarity[footnote:
+Even if it does mean documenting design or implementation
+mistakes!
+] and avoids future expansion problems.
+
+Clusters of functionality which are always implemented together
+can use a single bit, but if one feature makes sense without the
+others they should not be gratuitously grouped together to
+conserve feature bits. We can always extend the spec when the
+first person needs more than 24 feature bits for their device.
+
+[LaTeX Command: printnomenclature]
+
+Appendix A: virtio_ring.h
+
+#ifndef VIRTIO_RING_H
+
+#define VIRTIO_RING_H
+
+/* An interface for efficient virtio implementation.
+
+ *
+
+ * This header is BSD licensed so anyone can use the definitions
+
+ * to implement compatible drivers/servers.
+
+ *
+
+ * Copyright 2007, 2009, IBM Corporation
+
+ * Copyright 2011, Red Hat, Inc
+
+ * All rights reserved.
+
+ *
+
+ * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
+without
+
+ * modification, are permitted provided that the following
+conditions
+
+ * are met:
+
+ * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above
+copyright
+
+ *    notice, this list of conditions and the following
+disclaimer.
+
+ * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
+copyright
+
+ *    notice, this list of conditions and the following
+disclaimer in the
+
+ *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the
+distribution.
+
+ * 3. Neither the name of IBM nor the names of its contributors
+
+ *    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
+this software
+
+ *    without specific prior written permission.
+
+ * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
+CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
+
+ * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
+TO, THE
+
+ * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+
+ * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL IBM OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
+LIABLE
+
+ * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
+CONSEQUENTIAL
+
+ * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
+SUBSTITUTE GOODS
+
+ * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
+INTERRUPTION)
+
+ * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
+CONTRACT, STRICT
+
+ * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
+IN ANY WAY
+
+ * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF
+
+ * SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+ */
+
+
+
+/* This marks a buffer as continuing via the next field. */
+
+#define VRING_DESC_F_NEXT       1
+
+/* This marks a buffer as write-only (otherwise read-only). */
+
+#define VRING_DESC_F_WRITE      2
+
+
+
+/* The Host uses this in used->flags to advise the Guest: don't
+kick me
+
+ * when you add a buffer.  It's unreliable, so it's simply an
+
+ * optimization.  Guest will still kick if it's out of buffers.
+*/
+
+#define VRING_USED_F_NO_NOTIFY  1
+
+/* The Guest uses this in avail->flags to advise the Host: don't
+
+ * interrupt me when you consume a buffer.  It's unreliable, so
+it's
+
+ * simply an optimization.  */
+
+#define VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT      1
+
+
+
+/* Virtio ring descriptors: 16 bytes.
+
+ * These can chain together via "next". */
+
+struct vring_desc {
+
+        /* Address (guest-physical). */
+
+        uint64_t addr;
+
+        /* Length. */
+
+        uint32_t len;
+
+        /* The flags as indicated above. */
+
+        uint16_t flags;
+
+        /* We chain unused descriptors via this, too */
+
+        uint16_t next;
+
+};
+
+
+
+struct vring_avail {
+
+        uint16_t flags;
+
+        uint16_t idx;
+
+        uint16_t ring[];
+
+        uint16_t used_event;
+
+};
+
+
+
+/* u32 is used here for ids for padding reasons. */
+
+struct vring_used_elem {
+
+        /* Index of start of used descriptor chain. */
+
+        uint32_t id;
+
+        /* Total length of the descriptor chain which was written
+to. */
+
+        uint32_t len;
+
+};
+
+
+
+struct vring_used {
+
+        uint16_t flags;
+
+        uint16_t idx;
+
+        struct vring_used_elem ring[];
+
+        uint16_t avail_event;
+
+};
+
+
+
+struct vring {
+
+        unsigned int num;
+
+
+
+        struct vring_desc *desc;
+
+        struct vring_avail *avail;
+
+        struct vring_used *used;
+
+};
+
+
+
+/* The standard layout for the ring is a continuous chunk of
+memory which
+
+ * looks like this.  We assume num is a power of 2.
+
+ *
+
+ * struct vring {
+
+ *      // The actual descriptors (16 bytes each)
+
+ *      struct vring_desc desc[num];
+
+ *
+
+ *      // A ring of available descriptor heads with free-running
+index.
+
+ *      __u16 avail_flags;
+
+ *      __u16 avail_idx;
+
+ *      __u16 available[num];
+
+ *
+
+ *      // Padding to the next align boundary.
+
+ *      char pad[];
+
+ *
+
+ *      // A ring of used descriptor heads with free-running
+index.
+
+ *      __u16 used_flags;
+
+ *      __u16 EVENT_IDX;
+
+ *      struct vring_used_elem used[num];
+
+ * };
+
+ * Note: for virtio PCI, align is 4096.
+
+ */
+
+static inline void vring_init(struct vring *vr, unsigned int num,
+void *p,
+
+                              unsigned long align)
+
+{
+
+        vr->num = num;
+
+        vr->desc = p;
+
+        vr->avail = p + num*sizeof(struct vring_desc);
+
+        vr->used = (void *)(((unsigned long)&vr->avail->ring[num]
+
+                              + align-1)
+
+                            & ~(align - 1));
+
+}
+
+
+
+static inline unsigned vring_size(unsigned int num, unsigned long
+align)
+
+{
+
+        return ((sizeof(struct vring_desc)*num +
+sizeof(uint16_t)*(2+num)
+
+                 + align - 1) & ~(align - 1))
+
+                + sizeof(uint16_t)*3 + sizeof(struct
+vring_used_elem)*num;
+
+}
+
+
+
+static inline int vring_need_event(uint16_t event_idx, uint16_t
+new_idx, uint16_t old_idx)
+
+{
+
+         return (uint16_t)(new_idx - event_idx - 1) <
+(uint16_t)(new_idx - old_idx);
+
+}
+
+#endif /* VIRTIO_RING_H */
+
+<cha:Reserved-Feature-Bits>Appendix B: Reserved Feature Bits
+
+Currently there are five device-independent feature bits defined:
+
+  VIRTIO_F_NOTIFY_ON_EMPTY (24) Negotiating this feature
+  indicates that the driver wants an interrupt if the device runs
+  out of available descriptors on a virtqueue, even though
+  interrupts are suppressed using the VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT
+  flag or the used_event field. An example of this is the
+  networking driver: it doesn't need to know every time a packet
+  is transmitted, but it does need to free the transmitted
+  packets a finite time after they are transmitted. It can avoid
+  using a timer if the device interrupts it when all the packets
+  are transmitted.
+
+  VIRTIO_F_RING_INDIRECT_DESC (28) Negotiating this feature
+  indicates that the driver can use descriptors with the
+  VRING_DESC_F_INDIRECT flag set, as described in [sub:Indirect-Descriptors]
+  .
+
+  VIRTIO_F_RING_EVENT_IDX(29) This feature enables the used_event
+  and the avail_event fields. If set, it indicates that the
+  device should ignore the flags field in the available ring
+  structure. Instead, the used_event field in this structure is
+  used by guest to suppress device interrupts. Further, the
+  driver should ignore the flags field in the used ring
+  structure. Instead, the avail_event field in this structure is
+  used by the device to suppress notifications. If unset, the
+  driver should ignore the used_event field; the device should
+  ignore the avail_event field; the flags field is used
+
+  VIRTIO_F_BAD_FEATURE(30) This feature should never be
+  negotiated by the guest; doing so is an indication that the
+  guest is faulty[footnote:
+An experimental virtio PCI driver contained in Linux version
+2.6.25 had this problem, and this feature bit can be used to
+detect it.
+]
+
+  VIRTIO_F_FEATURES_HIGH(31) This feature indicates that the
+  device supports feature bits 32:63. If unset, feature bits
+  32:63 are unset.
+
+Appendix C: Network Device
+
+The virtio network device is a virtual ethernet card, and is the
+most complex of the devices supported so far by virtio. It has
+enhanced rapidly and demonstrates clearly how support for new
+features should be added to an existing device. Empty buffers are
+placed in one virtqueue for receiving packets, and outgoing
+packets are enqueued into another for transmission in that order.
+A third command queue is used to control advanced filtering
+features.
+
+  Configuration
+
+  Subsystem Device ID 1
+
+  Virtqueues 0:receiveq. 1:transmitq. 2:controlq[footnote:
+Only if VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_VQ set
+]
+
+  Feature bits
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_CSUM (0) Device handles packets with partial
+    checksum
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM (1) Guest handles packets with partial
+    checksum
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_MAC (5) Device has given MAC address.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GSO (6) (Deprecated) device handles packets with
+    any GSO type.[footnote:
+It was supposed to indicate segmentation offload support, but
+upon further investigation it became clear that multiple bits
+were required.
+]
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO4 (7) Guest can receive TSOv4.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO6 (8) Guest can receive TSOv6.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_ECN (9) Guest can receive TSO with ECN.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_UFO (10) Guest can receive UFO.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO4 (11) Device can receive TSOv4.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO6 (12) Device can receive TSOv6.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_ECN (13) Device can receive TSO with ECN.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_UFO (14) Device can receive UFO.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF (15) Guest can merge receive buffers.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_STATUS (16) Configuration status field is
+    available.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_VQ (17) Control channel is available.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_RX (18) Control channel RX mode support.
+
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_VLAN (19) Control channel VLAN filtering.
+
+  Device configuration layout Two configuration fields are
+  currently defined. The mac address field always exists (though
+  is only valid if VIRTIO_NET_F_MAC is set), and the status field
+  only exists if VIRTIO_NET_F_STATUS is set. Only one bit is
+  currently defined for the status field: VIRTIO_NET_S_LINK_UP. #define VIRTIO_NET_S_LINK_UP	1
+
+
+
+struct virtio_net_config {
+
+    u8 mac[6];
+
+    u16 status;
+
+};
+
+  Device Initialization
+
+  The initialization routine should identify the receive and
+  transmission virtqueues.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_MAC feature bit is set, the configuration
+  space “mac” entry indicates the “physical” address of the the
+  network card, otherwise a private MAC address should be
+  assigned. All guests are expected to negotiate this feature if
+  it is set.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_VQ feature bit is negotiated, identify
+  the control virtqueue.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_STATUS feature bit is negotiated, the link
+  status can be read from the bottom bit of the “status” config
+  field. Otherwise, the link should be assumed active.
+
+  The receive virtqueue should be filled with receive buffers.
+  This is described in detail below in “Setting Up Receive
+  Buffers”.
+
+  A driver can indicate that it will generate checksumless
+  packets by negotating the VIRTIO_NET_F_CSUM feature. This “
+  checksum offload” is a common feature on modern network cards.
+
+  If that feature is negotiated, a driver can use TCP or UDP
+  segmentation offload by negotiating the VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO4
+  (IPv4 TCP), VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO6 (IPv6 TCP) and
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_UFO (UDP fragmentation) features. It should
+  not send TCP packets requiring segmentation offload which have
+  the Explicit Congestion Notification bit set, unless the
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_ECN feature is negotiated.[footnote:
+This is a common restriction in real, older network cards.
+]
+
+  The converse features are also available: a driver can save the
+  virtual device some work by negotiating these features.[footnote:
+For example, a network packet transported between two guests on
+the same system may not require checksumming at all, nor
+segmentation, if both guests are amenable.
+] The VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM feature indicates that partially
+  checksummed packets can be received, and if it can do that then
+  the VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO4, VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO6,
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_UFO and VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_ECN are the input
+  equivalents of the features described above. See “Receiving
+  Packets” below.
+
+  Device Operation
+
+Packets are transmitted by placing them in the transmitq, and
+buffers for incoming packets are placed in the receiveq. In each
+case, the packet itself is preceeded by a header:
+
+struct virtio_net_hdr {
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_NEEDS_CSUM    1
+
+	u8 flags;
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_NONE        0
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_TCPV4       1
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_UDP		 3
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_TCPV6       4
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_ECN      0x80
+
+	u8 gso_type;
+
+	u16 hdr_len;
+
+	u16 gso_size;
+
+	u16 csum_start;
+
+	u16 csum_offset;
+
+/* Only if VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF: */
+
+	u16 num_buffers
+
+};
+
+The controlq is used to control device features such as
+filtering.
+
+  Packet Transmission
+
+Transmitting a single packet is simple, but varies depending on
+the different features the driver negotiated.
+
+  If the driver negotiated VIRTIO_NET_F_CSUM, and the packet has
+  not been fully checksummed, then the virtio_net_hdr's fields
+  are set as follows. Otherwise, the packet must be fully
+  checksummed, and flags is zero.
+
+  flags has the VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_NEEDS_CSUM set,
+
+  <ite:csum_start-is-set>csum_start is set to the offset within
+    the packet to begin checksumming, and
+
+  csum_offset indicates how many bytes after the csum_start the
+    new (16 bit ones' complement) checksum should be placed.[footnote:
+For example, consider a partially checksummed TCP (IPv4) packet.
+It will have a 14 byte ethernet header and 20 byte IP header
+followed by the TCP header (with the TCP checksum field 16 bytes
+into that header). csum_start will be 14+20 = 34 (the TCP
+checksum includes the header), and csum_offset will be 16. The
+value in the TCP checksum field will be the sum of the TCP pseudo
+header, so that replacing it by the ones' complement checksum of
+the TCP header and body will give the correct result.
+]
+
+  <enu:If-the-driver>If the driver negotiated
+  VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_TSO4, TSO6 or UFO, and the packet requires
+  TCP segmentation or UDP fragmentation, then the “gso_type”
+  field is set to VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_TCPV4, TCPV6 or UDP.
+  (Otherwise, it is set to VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_NONE). In this
+  case, packets larger than 1514 bytes can be transmitted: the
+  metadata indicates how to replicate the packet header to cut it
+  into smaller packets. The other gso fields are set:
+
+  hdr_len is a hint to the device as to how much of the header
+    needs to be kept to copy into each packet, usually set to the
+    length of the headers, including the transport header.[footnote:
+Due to various bugs in implementations, this field is not useful
+as a guarantee of the transport header size.
+]
+
+  gso_size is the size of the packet beyond that header (ie.
+    MSS).
+
+  If the driver negotiated the VIRTIO_NET_F_HOST_ECN feature, the
+    VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_ECN bit may be set in “gso_type” as well,
+    indicating that the TCP packet has the ECN bit set.[footnote:
+This case is not handled by some older hardware, so is called out
+specifically in the protocol.
+]
+
+  If the driver negotiated the VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF feature,
+  the num_buffers field is set to zero.
+
+  The header and packet are added as one output buffer to the
+  transmitq, and the device is notified of the new entry (see [sub:Notifying-The-Device]
+  ).[footnote:
+Note that the header will be two bytes longer for the
+VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF case.
+]
+
+  Packet Transmission Interrupt
+
+Often a driver will suppress transmission interrupts using the
+VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT flag (see [sub:Receiving-Used-Buffers]
+) and check for used packets in the transmit path of following
+packets. However, it will still receive interrupts if the
+VIRTIO_F_NOTIFY_ON_EMPTY feature is negotiated, indicating that
+the transmission queue is completely emptied.
+
+The normal behavior in this interrupt handler is to retrieve and
+new descriptors from the used ring and free the corresponding
+headers and packets.
+
+  Setting Up Receive Buffers
+
+It is generally a good idea to keep the receive virtqueue as
+fully populated as possible: if it runs out, network performance
+will suffer.
+
+If the VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO4, VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO6 or
+VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_UFO features are used, the Guest will need to
+accept packets of up to 65550 bytes long (the maximum size of a
+TCP or UDP packet, plus the 14 byte ethernet header), otherwise
+1514 bytes. So unless VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF is negotiated, every
+buffer in the receive queue needs to be at least this length [footnote:
+Obviously each one can be split across multiple descriptor
+elements.
+].
+
+If VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF is negotiated, each buffer must be at
+least the size of the struct virtio_net_hdr.
+
+  Packet Receive Interrupt
+
+When a packet is copied into a buffer in the receiveq, the
+optimal path is to disable further interrupts for the receiveq
+(see [sub:Receiving-Used-Buffers]) and process packets until no
+more are found, then re-enable them.
+
+Processing packet involves:
+
+  If the driver negotiated the VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF feature,
+  then the “num_buffers” field indicates how many descriptors
+  this packet is spread over (including this one). This allows
+  receipt of large packets without having to allocate large
+  buffers. In this case, there will be at least “num_buffers” in
+  the used ring, and they should be chained together to form a
+  single packet. The other buffers will not begin with a struct
+  virtio_net_hdr.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF feature was not negotiated, or
+  the “num_buffers” field is one, then the entire packet will be
+  contained within this buffer, immediately following the struct
+  virtio_net_hdr.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM feature was negotiated, the
+  VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_NEEDS_CSUM bit in the “flags” field may be
+  set: if so, the checksum on the packet is incomplete and the “
+  csum_start” and “csum_offset” fields indicate how to calculate
+  it (see [ite:csum_start-is-set]).
+
+  If the VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_TSO4, TSO6 or UFO options were
+  negotiated, then the “gso_type” may be something other than
+  VIRTIO_NET_HDR_GSO_NONE, and the “gso_size” field indicates the
+  desired MSS (see [enu:If-the-driver]).Control Virtqueue
+
+The driver uses the control virtqueue (if VIRTIO_NET_F_VTRL_VQ is
+negotiated) to send commands to manipulate various features of
+the device which would not easily map into the configuration
+space.
+
+All commands are of the following form:
+
+struct virtio_net_ctrl {
+
+	u8 class;
+
+	u8 command;
+
+	u8 command-specific-data[];
+
+	u8 ack;
+
+};
+
+
+
+/* ack values */
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_OK     0
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_ERR    1
+
+The class, command and command-specific-data are set by the
+driver, and the device sets the ack byte. There is little it can
+do except issue a diagnostic if the ack byte is not
+VIRTIO_NET_OK.
+
+  Packet Receive Filtering
+
+If the VIRTIO_NET_F_CTRL_RX feature is negotiated, the driver can
+send control commands for promiscuous mode, multicast receiving,
+and filtering of MAC addresses.
+
+Note that in general, these commands are best-effort: unwanted
+packets may still arrive.
+
+  Setting Promiscuous Mode
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX    0
+
+ #define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX_PROMISC      0
+
+ #define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX_ALLMULTI     1
+
+The class VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX has two commands:
+VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX_PROMISC turns promiscuous mode on and off, and
+VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_RX_ALLMULTI turns all-multicast receive on and
+off. The command-specific-data is one byte containing 0 (off) or
+1 (on).
+
+  Setting MAC Address Filtering
+
+struct virtio_net_ctrl_mac {
+
+	u32 entries;
+
+	u8 macs[entries][ETH_ALEN];
+
+};
+
+
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_MAC    1
+
+ #define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_MAC_TABLE_SET        0
+
+The device can filter incoming packets by any number of
+destination MAC addresses.[footnote:
+Since there are no guarentees, it can use a hash filter
+orsilently switch to allmulti or promiscuous mode if it is given
+too many addresses.
+] This table is set using the class VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_MAC and the
+command VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_MAC_TABLE_SET. The command-specific-data
+is two variable length tables of 6-byte MAC addresses. The first
+table contains unicast addresses, and the second contains
+multicast addresses.
+
+  VLAN Filtering
+
+If the driver negotiates the VIRTION_NET_F_CTRL_VLAN feature, it
+can control a VLAN filter table in the device.
+
+#define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_VLAN       2
+
+ #define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_VLAN_ADD             0
+
+ #define VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_VLAN_DEL             1
+
+Both the VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_VLAN_ADD and VIRTIO_NET_CTRL_VLAN_DEL
+command take a 16-bit VLAN id as the command-specific-data.
+
+Appendix D: Block Device
+
+The virtio block device is a simple virtual block device (ie.
+disk). Read and write requests (and other exotic requests) are
+placed in the queue, and serviced (probably out of order) by the
+device except where noted.
+
+  Configuration
+
+  Subsystem Device ID 2
+
+  Virtqueues 0:requestq.
+
+  Feature bits
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_BARRIER (0) Host supports request barriers.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_SIZE_MAX (1) Maximum size of any single segment is
+    in “size_max”.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_SEG_MAX (2) Maximum number of segments in a
+    request is in “seg_max”.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_GEOMETRY (4) Disk-style geometry specified in “
+    geometry”.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_RO (5) Device is read-only.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_BLK_SIZE (6) Block size of disk is in “blk_size”.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_SCSI (7) Device supports scsi packet commands.
+
+  VIRTIO_BLK_F_FLUSH (9) Cache flush command support.
+
+
+
+  Device configuration layout The capacity of the device
+  (expressed in 512-byte sectors) is always present. The
+  availability of the others all depend on various feature bits
+  as indicated above. struct virtio_blk_config {
+
+	u64 capacity;
+
+	u32 size_max;
+
+	u32 seg_max;
+
+	struct virtio_blk_geometry {
+
+		u16 cylinders;
+
+		u8 heads;
+
+		u8 sectors;
+
+	} geometry;
+
+	u32 blk_size;
+
+
+
+};
+
+  Device Initialization
+
+  The device size should be read from the “capacity”
+  configuration field. No requests should be submitted which goes
+  beyond this limit.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_BLK_F_BLK_SIZE feature is negotiated, the
+  blk_size field can be read to determine the optimal sector size
+  for the driver to use. This does not effect the units used in
+  the protocol (always 512 bytes), but awareness of the correct
+  value can effect performance.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_BLK_F_RO feature is set by the device, any write
+  requests will fail.
+
+
+
+  Device Operation
+
+The driver queues requests to the virtqueue, and they are used by
+the device (not necessarily in order). Each request is of form:
+
+struct virtio_blk_req {
+
+
+
+	u32 type;
+
+	u32 ioprio;
+
+	u64 sector;
+
+	char data[][512];
+
+	u8 status;
+
+};
+
+If the device has VIRTIO_BLK_F_SCSI feature, it can also support
+scsi packet command requests, each of these requests is of form:struct virtio_scsi_pc_req {
+
+	u32 type;
+
+	u32 ioprio;
+
+	u64 sector;
+
+    char cmd[];
+
+	char data[][512];
+
+#define SCSI_SENSE_BUFFERSIZE   96
+
+    u8 sense[SCSI_SENSE_BUFFERSIZE];
+
+    u32 errors;
+
+    u32 data_len;
+
+    u32 sense_len;
+
+    u32 residual;
+
+	u8 status;
+
+};
+
+The type of the request is either a read (VIRTIO_BLK_T_IN), a
+write (VIRTIO_BLK_T_OUT), a scsi packet command
+(VIRTIO_BLK_T_SCSI_CMD or VIRTIO_BLK_T_SCSI_CMD_OUT[footnote:
+the SCSI_CMD and SCSI_CMD_OUT types are equivalent, the device
+does not distinguish between them
+]) or a flush (VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH or VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH_OUT[footnote:
+the FLUSH and FLUSH_OUT types are equivalent, the device does not
+distinguish between them
+]). If the device has VIRTIO_BLK_F_BARRIER feature the high bit
+(VIRTIO_BLK_T_BARRIER) indicates that this request acts as a
+barrier and that all preceeding requests must be complete before
+this one, and all following requests must not be started until
+this is complete. Note that a barrier does not flush caches in
+the underlying backend device in host, and thus does not serve as
+data consistency guarantee. Driver must use FLUSH request to
+flush the host cache.
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_IN           0
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_OUT          1
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_SCSI_CMD     2
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_SCSI_CMD_OUT 3
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH        4
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH_OUT    5
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_T_BARRIER	 0x80000000
+
+The ioprio field is a hint about the relative priorities of
+requests to the device: higher numbers indicate more important
+requests.
+
+The sector number indicates the offset (multiplied by 512) where
+the read or write is to occur. This field is unused and set to 0
+for scsi packet commands and for flush commands.
+
+The cmd field is only present for scsi packet command requests,
+and indicates the command to perform. This field must reside in a
+single, separate read-only buffer; command length can be derived
+from the length of this buffer.
+
+Note that these first three (four for scsi packet commands)
+fields are always read-only: the data field is either read-only
+or write-only, depending on the request. The size of the read or
+write can be derived from the total size of the request buffers.
+
+The sense field is only present for scsi packet command requests,
+and indicates the buffer for scsi sense data.
+
+The data_len field is only present for scsi packet command
+requests, this field is deprecated, and should be ignored by the
+driver. Historically, devices copied data length there.
+
+The sense_len field is only present for scsi packet command
+requests and indicates the number of bytes actually written to
+the sense buffer.
+
+The residual field is only present for scsi packet command
+requests and indicates the residual size, calculated as data
+length - number of bytes actually transferred.
+
+The final status byte is written by the device: either
+VIRTIO_BLK_S_OK for success, VIRTIO_BLK_S_IOERR for host or guest
+error or VIRTIO_BLK_S_UNSUPP for a request unsupported by host:#define VIRTIO_BLK_S_OK        0
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_S_IOERR     1
+
+#define VIRTIO_BLK_S_UNSUPP    2
+
+Historically, devices assumed that the fields type, ioprio and
+sector reside in a single, separate read-only buffer; the fields
+errors, data_len, sense_len and residual reside in a single,
+separate write-only buffer; the sense field in a separate
+write-only buffer of size 96 bytes, by itself; the fields errors,
+data_len, sense_len and residual in a single write-only buffer;
+and the status field is a separate read-only buffer of size 1
+byte, by itself.
+
+Appendix E: Console Device
+
+The virtio console device is a simple device for data input and
+output. A device may have one or more ports. Each port has a pair
+of input and output virtqueues. Moreover, a device has a pair of
+control IO virtqueues. The control virtqueues are used to
+communicate information between the device and the driver about
+ports being opened and closed on either side of the connection,
+indication from the host about whether a particular port is a
+console port, adding new ports, port hot-plug/unplug, etc., and
+indication from the guest about whether a port or a device was
+successfully added, port open/close, etc.. For data IO, one or
+more empty buffers are placed in the receive queue for incoming
+data and outgoing characters are placed in the transmit queue.
+
+  Configuration
+
+  Subsystem Device ID 3
+
+  Virtqueues 0:receiveq(port0). 1:transmitq(port0), 2:control
+  receiveq[footnote:
+Ports 2 onwards only if VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_MULTIPORT is set
+], 3:control transmitq, 4:receiveq(port1), 5:transmitq(port1),
+  ...
+
+  Feature bits
+
+  VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_SIZE (0) Configuration cols and rows fields
+    are valid.
+
+  VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_MULTIPORT(1) Device has support for multiple
+    ports; configuration fields nr_ports and max_nr_ports are
+    valid and control virtqueues will be used.
+
+  Device configuration layout The size of the console is supplied
+  in the configuration space if the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_SIZE feature
+  is set. Furthermore, if the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_MULTIPORT feature
+  is set, the maximum number of ports supported by the device can
+  be fetched.struct virtio_console_config {
+
+	u16 cols;
+
+	u16 rows;
+
+
+
+	u32 max_nr_ports;
+
+};
+
+  Device Initialization
+
+  If the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_SIZE feature is negotiated, the driver
+  can read the console dimensions from the configuration fields.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_MULTIPORT feature is negotiated, the
+  driver can spawn multiple ports, not all of which may be
+  attached to a console. Some could be generic ports. In this
+  case, the control virtqueues are enabled and according to the
+  max_nr_ports configuration-space value, the appropriate number
+  of virtqueues are created. A control message indicating the
+  driver is ready is sent to the host. The host can then send
+  control messages for adding new ports to the device. After
+  creating and initializing each port, a
+  VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_READY control message is sent to the host
+  for that port so the host can let us know of any additional
+  configuration options set for that port.
+
+  The receiveq for each port is populated with one or more
+  receive buffers.
+
+  Device Operation
+
+  For output, a buffer containing the characters is placed in the
+  port's transmitq.[footnote:
+Because this is high importance and low bandwidth, the current
+Linux implementation polls for the buffer to be used, rather than
+waiting for an interrupt, simplifying the implementation
+significantly. However, for generic serial ports with the
+O_NONBLOCK flag set, the polling limitation is relaxed and the
+consumed buffers are freed upon the next write or poll call or
+when a port is closed or hot-unplugged.
+]
+
+  When a buffer is used in the receiveq (signalled by an
+  interrupt), the contents is the input to the port associated
+  with the virtqueue for which the notification was received.
+
+  If the driver negotiated the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_SIZE feature, a
+  configuration change interrupt may occur. The updated size can
+  be read from the configuration fields.
+
+  If the driver negotiated the VIRTIO_CONSOLE_F_MULTIPORT
+  feature, active ports are announced by the host using the
+  VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_ADD control message. The same message is
+  used for port hot-plug as well.
+
+  If the host specified a port `name', a sysfs attribute is
+  created with the name filled in, so that udev rules can be
+  written that can create a symlink from the port's name to the
+  char device for port discovery by applications in the guest.
+
+  Changes to ports' state are effected by control messages.
+  Appropriate action is taken on the port indicated in the
+  control message. The layout of the structure of the control
+  buffer and the events associated are:struct virtio_console_control {
+
+	uint32_t id;    /* Port number */
+
+	uint16_t event; /* The kind of control event */
+
+	uint16_t value; /* Extra information for the event */
+
+};
+
+
+
+/* Some events for the internal messages (control packets) */
+
+
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_DEVICE_READY     0
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_ADD         1
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_REMOVE      2
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_READY       3
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_CONSOLE_PORT     4
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_RESIZE           5
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_OPEN        6
+
+#define VIRTIO_CONSOLE_PORT_NAME        7
+
+Appendix F: Entropy Device
+
+The virtio entropy device supplies high-quality randomness for
+guest use.
+
+  Configuration
+
+  Subsystem Device ID 4
+
+  Virtqueues 0:requestq.
+
+  Feature bits None currently defined
+
+  Device configuration layout None currently defined.
+
+  Device Initialization
+
+  The virtqueue is initialized
+
+  Device Operation
+
+When the driver requires random bytes, it places the descriptor
+of one or more buffers in the queue. It will be completely filled
+by random data by the device.
+
+Appendix G: Memory Balloon Device
+
+The virtio memory balloon device is a primitive device for
+managing guest memory: the device asks for a certain amount of
+memory, and the guest supplies it (or withdraws it, if the device
+has more than it asks for). This allows the guest to adapt to
+changes in allowance of underlying physical memory. If the
+feature is negotiated, the device can also be used to communicate
+guest memory statistics to the host.
+
+  Configuration
+
+  Subsystem Device ID 5
+
+  Virtqueues 0:inflateq. 1:deflateq. 2:statsq.[footnote:
+Only if VIRTIO_BALLON_F_STATS_VQ set
+]
+
+  Feature bits
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_MUST_TELL_HOST (0) Host must be told before
+    pages from the balloon are used.
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_STATS_VQ (1) A virtqueue for reporting guest
+    memory statistics is present.
+
+  Device configuration layout Both fields of this configuration
+  are always available. Note that they are little endian, despite
+  convention that device fields are guest endian:struct virtio_balloon_config {
+
+	u32 num_pages;
+
+	u32 actual;
+
+};
+
+  Device Initialization
+
+  The inflate and deflate virtqueues are identified.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_STATS_VQ feature bit is negotiated:
+
+  Identify the stats virtqueue.
+
+  Add one empty buffer to the stats virtqueue and notify the
+    host.
+
+Device operation begins immediately.
+
+  Device Operation
+
+  Memory Ballooning The device is driven by the receipt of a
+  configuration change interrupt.
+
+  The “num_pages” configuration field is examined. If this is
+  greater than the “actual” number of pages, memory must be given
+  to the balloon. If it is less than the “actual” number of
+  pages, memory may be taken back from the balloon for general
+  use.
+
+  To supply memory to the balloon (aka. inflate):
+
+  The driver constructs an array of addresses of unused memory
+    pages. These addresses are divided by 4096[footnote:
+This is historical, and independent of the guest page size
+] and the descriptor describing the resulting 32-bit array is
+    added to the inflateq.
+
+  To remove memory from the balloon (aka. deflate):
+
+  The driver constructs an array of addresses of memory pages it
+    has previously given to the balloon, as described above. This
+    descriptor is added to the deflateq.
+
+  If the VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_MUST_TELL_HOST feature is set, the
+    guest may not use these requested pages until that descriptor
+    in the deflateq has been used by the device.
+
+  Otherwise, the guest may begin to re-use pages previously given
+    to the balloon before the device has acknowledged their
+    withdrawl. [footnote:
+In this case, deflation advice is merely a courtesy
+]
+
+  In either case, once the device has completed the inflation or
+  deflation, the “actual” field of the configuration should be
+  updated to reflect the new number of pages in the balloon.[footnote:
+As updates to configuration space are not atomic, this field
+isn't particularly reliable, but can be used to diagnose buggy
+guests.
+]
+
+  Memory Statistics
+
+The stats virtqueue is atypical because communication is driven
+by the device (not the driver). The channel becomes active at
+driver initialization time when the driver adds an empty buffer
+and notifies the device. A request for memory statistics proceeds
+as follows:
+
+  The device pushes the buffer onto the used ring and sends an
+  interrupt.
+
+  The driver pops the used buffer and discards it.
+
+  The driver collects memory statistics and writes them into a
+  new buffer.
+
+  The driver adds the buffer to the virtqueue and notifies the
+  device.
+
+  The device pops the buffer (retaining it to initiate a
+  subsequent request) and consumes the statistics.
+
+  Memory Statistics Format Each statistic consists of a 16 bit
+  tag and a 64 bit value. Both quantities are represented in the
+  native endian of the guest. All statistics are optional and the
+  driver may choose which ones to supply. To guarantee backwards
+  compatibility, unsupported statistics should be omitted.
+
+  struct virtio_balloon_stat {
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_SWAP_IN  0
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_SWAP_OUT 1
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MAJFLT   2
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MINFLT   3
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MEMFREE  4
+
+#define VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MEMTOT   5
+
+	u16 tag;
+
+	u64 val;
+
+} __attribute__((packed));
+
+  Tags
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_SWAP_IN The amount of memory that has been
+  swapped in (in bytes).
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_SWAP_OUT The amount of memory that has been
+  swapped out to disk (in bytes).
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MAJFLT The number of major page faults that
+  have occurred.
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MINFLT The number of minor page faults that
+  have occurred.
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MEMFREE The amount of memory not being used
+  for any purpose (in bytes).
+
+  VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_MEMTOT The total amount of memory available
+  (in bytes).
+