diff mbox series

[v3,26/28] arm64/sve: Add documentation

Message ID 1507660725-7986-27-git-send-email-Dave.Martin@arm.com
State New
Headers show
Series ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) | expand

Commit Message

Dave Martin Oct. 10, 2017, 6:38 p.m. UTC
This patch adds basic documentation of the user/kernel interface
provided by the for SVE.

Signed-off-by: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com>
Cc: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Alan Hayward <alan.hayward@arm.com>

---

Changes since v2
----------------

Changes requested by Alan Hayward:

 * Added a note that the caller of PTRACE_SETREGSET will need to do a
   GETREGSET if complete certainty about the resulting VL is desired.

ABI changes:

 * Documented the changed return value value semantics for PR_SET_SET_VL
   when the PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag is passed.
---
 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt              | 484 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h |   3 +
 2 files changed, 487 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt

Comments

Szabolcs Nagy Oct. 11, 2017, 9:50 a.m. UTC | #1
On 10/10/17 19:38, Dave Martin wrote:
> This patch adds basic documentation of the user/kernel interface
> provided by the for SVE.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com>
> Cc: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>
> Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
> Cc: Alan Hayward <alan.hayward@arm.com>
> 
> ---
> 
> Changes since v2
> ----------------
> 
> Changes requested by Alan Hayward:
> 
>  * Added a note that the caller of PTRACE_SETREGSET will need to do a
>    GETREGSET if complete certainty about the resulting VL is desired.
> 
> ABI changes:
> 
>  * Documented the changed return value value semantics for PR_SET_SET_VL
>    when the PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag is passed.
> ---
...
> +prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, unsigned long arg)
> +
> +    Sets the vector length of the calling thread and related flags, where
> +    arg == vl | flags.
> +
> +    vl is the desired vector length, where sve_vl_valid(vl) must be true.
> +
> +    flags:
> +
> +	PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT
> +
> +	    Inherit the current vector length across execve().  Otherwise, the
> +	    vector length is reset to the system default at execve().  (See
> +	    Section 9.)
> +
> +	PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
> +
> +	    Defer the requested vector length change until the next execve().
> +	    This allows launching of a new program with a different vector
> +	    length, while avoiding runtime side effects in the caller.
> +
> +	    This also overrides the effect of PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT for the
> +	    first execve().
> +
> +	    Without PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC, any outstanding deferred vector
> +	    length change is cancelled.
> +

"next execve" is still ambiguous. (execve has process
global effect so it may plausibly mean next in the
process or next in the calling thread)

"any outstanding deferred vector length change" is
ambiguous. (it may be for all threads in a process or
in the calling thread only)

> +    Return value: a nonnegative on success, or a negative value on error:
> +	EINVAL: SVE not supported, invalid vector length requested, or
> +	    invalid flags.
> +
> +    On success, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the largest
> +    value supported by the system that is less than or equal to vl.
> +    If vl == SVE_VL_MAX, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the
> +    largest value supported by the system.
> +
> +    The returned value describes the resulting configuration, encoded as for
> +    PR_SVE_GET_VL.  The vector length reported in this value is the new current
> +    vector length for this thread if PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC was not passed in the
> +    input arg; otherwise, the reported vector length is the deferred vector
> +    length that will be applied at the next exec.
> +
...
> +9.  System runtime configuration
> +--------------------------------
> +
> +* To mitigate the ABI impact of expansion of the signal frame, a policy
> +  mechanism is provided for administrators, distro maintainers and developers
> +  to set the default vector length for userspace processes:
> +
> +/proc/cpu/sve_default_vector_length
> +

still wrong.
Szabolcs Nagy Oct. 11, 2017, 11:30 a.m. UTC | #2
On 11/10/17 12:08, Dave Martin wrote:
> How does this look:
> 

looks reasonable.
Catalin Marinas Oct. 13, 2017, 2:24 p.m. UTC | #3
On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 07:38:43PM +0100, Dave P Martin wrote:
> +4.  Signal handling
> +-------------------
> +
> +* A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal
> +  delivery. [1]
> +
> +* This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context.  The FPSR and FPCR registers
> +  are only present in fpsimd_context.  For convenience, the content of V0..V31
> +  is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context.
> +
> +* The signal frame record for SVE always contains basic metadata, in particular
> +  the thread's vector length (in sve_context.vl).
> +
> +* The SVE registers may or may not be included in the record, depending on
> +  whether the registers are live for the thread.  The registers are present if
> +  and only if:
> +  sve_context.head.size >= SVE_SIG_CONTEXT_SIZE(sve_vq_from_vl(sve_context.vl)).
> +
> +* If the registers are present, the remainder of the record has a vl-dependent
> +  size and layout.  Macros SIG_SVE_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to
> +  the members.

s/SIG_SVE_/SVE_SIG_/

> +
> +* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
> +  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
> +  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
> +  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.

Does this document require that the user stack is sufficiently large or
should we cap the vector length (prior to the last two RFC patches)?

> +
> +
> +5.  Signal return
> +-----------------
> +
> +When returning from a signal handler:
> +
> +* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is
> +  present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section,
> +  then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values.
> +
> +* If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register
> +  data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified
> +  data.  However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31
> +  are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[]
> +  and not from sve_context.  The remaining bits are restored from sve_context.
> +
> +* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
> +  irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.

Could we relax this? I'm not sure it's worth it.
Dave Martin Oct. 13, 2017, 5:17 p.m. UTC | #4
On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 03:24:21PM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 07:38:43PM +0100, Dave P Martin wrote:
> > +4.  Signal handling
> > +-------------------
> > +
> > +* A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal
> > +  delivery. [1]
> > +
> > +* This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context.  The FPSR and FPCR registers
> > +  are only present in fpsimd_context.  For convenience, the content of V0..V31
> > +  is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context.
> > +
> > +* The signal frame record for SVE always contains basic metadata, in particular
> > +  the thread's vector length (in sve_context.vl).
> > +
> > +* The SVE registers may or may not be included in the record, depending on
> > +  whether the registers are live for the thread.  The registers are present if
> > +  and only if:
> > +  sve_context.head.size >= SVE_SIG_CONTEXT_SIZE(sve_vq_from_vl(sve_context.vl)).
> > +
> > +* If the registers are present, the remainder of the record has a vl-dependent
> > +  size and layout.  Macros SIG_SVE_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to
> > +  the members.
> 
> s/SIG_SVE_/SVE_SIG_/

Oops, good spot.  Fixed.

> > +* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
> > +  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
> > +  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
> > +  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
> 
> Does this document require that the user stack is sufficiently large or
> should we cap the vector length (prior to the last two RFC patches)?

We don't know how much free stack space there actually is until the
signal is delivered.

If the initial user stack at process startup is <8K the user process has
more serious problems than can be solved by clamping the vector length.

After process startup we are committed to some VL, and silently clamping
it at signal delivery time is a potential programmer's model / ABI break
... there would be no guaranteed way to return from the signal handler
successfully.  That may not be what you meant though ...?

In the sigaltstack() case we do know how much space there is in advance,
but at the time of a sigaltstack() call if any, we may be still be
committed to some VL.  The thread is allowed to assume the VL is
unchanged across syscalls even though the SVE register data is not
guaranteed to be preserved.

Possibly sigaltstack() should fail with ENOMEM if ss_size is too small
for the maximum VL supported by the system, but strictly speaking that
violates POSIX if ss_size >= MINSIGSTKSZ.  Also, knowing that the stack
is big enough for the kernel-generated still doesn't guarantee that
the handler's own stack needs are satisfied, so this check is of
limited use.


So, my current policy is an extension of the existing one: the stack
must have enough space for the signal frame, or attempted signal
delivery will SEGV the task -- the kernel doesn't try to work around
this in advance.

This isn't fantastic, but I haven't come up with a better answer so far.
I'm open to ideas :)

> > +
> > +
> > +5.  Signal return
> > +-----------------
> > +
> > +When returning from a signal handler:
> > +
> > +* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is
> > +  present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section,
> > +  then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values.
> > +
> > +* If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register
> > +  data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified
> > +  data.  However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31
> > +  are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[]
> > +  and not from sve_context.  The remaining bits are restored from sve_context.
> > +
> > +* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
> > +  irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.
> 
> Could we relax this? I'm not sure it's worth it.

It would be cleaner, but I think it's an ABI break.  Consider a non-SVE
program that gets linked (perhaps dynamically) against a library variant
that happens to use SVE:


void segv_handler(...)
{
	/* examine signal frame FPSIMD_MAGIC to print a crash dump */
}

void f(double d, double *p)
{
	some_library_function_that_uses_sve_internally();
	*p = d;
}


segv_handler() could previously safely assume that the FPSIMD_MAGIC block
was present in the frame and may now just crash or print garbage if this
block isn't found.  But even if it does fail safe, functionality is lost
-- the crash dump cannot now include the value of d becuase the non-SVE-
aware main program doesn't know how to fish it out of the signal frame.

I would be all in favour of getting rid of FPSIMD_MAGIC in this instance
and avoiding the duplication and awkward sigreturn semantics, but I
don't see how we would get away with it without breaking existing
software.

Cheers
---Dave
Dave Martin Oct. 13, 2017, 5:35 p.m. UTC | #5
On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 03:24:21PM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 07:38:43PM +0100, Dave P Martin wrote:

[...]

> > +* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
> > +  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
> > +  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
> > +  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
> 
> Does this document require that the user stack is sufficiently large or
> should we cap the vector length (prior to the last two RFC patches)?

Oh, I think I missed your point here.

I don't think it's worth capping the vector length beyond what the
series alread does: the last two patches provide a way to find out how
big the signal frame could be, but software still needs porting either
way if it enables large vectors via prctl or ptrace.

Conversely, software basing its stack allocations on SIGSTKSZ (16K) will
probably get away with it: this seems to be the common choice when
allocating stacks.  Apart from models, we're not likely to see SVE
implementations with huge vector lengths for a while yet.


In any case, /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length proves a
discretionary global clamp that can be set by the distro or admin.  This
will prevent programs from seeing large frames unless the VL is set
explicitly to something > 64 bytes via prctl/ptrace (which current
software won't do).

[...]

Cheers
---Dave
Catalin Marinas Oct. 18, 2017, 9:32 a.m. UTC | #6
On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 06:17:59PM +0100, Dave P Martin wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 03:24:21PM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 07:38:43PM +0100, Dave P Martin wrote:
> > > +* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
> > > +  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
> > > +  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
> > > +  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
> > 
> > Does this document require that the user stack is sufficiently large or
> > should we cap the vector length (prior to the last two RFC patches)?
> 
> We don't know how much free stack space there actually is until the
> signal is delivered.
[...]
> Possibly sigaltstack() should fail with ENOMEM if ss_size is too small
> for the maximum VL supported by the system, but strictly speaking that
> violates POSIX if ss_size >= MINSIGSTKSZ.

We also don't know whether the application is going to use SVE or not,
so MINSIGSTKSZ could be just fine. I don't have a better idea here
without the last two RFC patches. So just ignore my comment.

> > > +5.  Signal return
> > > +-----------------
> > > +
> > > +When returning from a signal handler:
> > > +
> > > +* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is
> > > +  present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section,
> > > +  then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values.
> > > +
> > > +* If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register
> > > +  data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified
> > > +  data.  However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31
> > > +  are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[]
> > > +  and not from sve_context.  The remaining bits are restored from sve_context.
> > > +
> > > +* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
> > > +  irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.
> > 
> > Could we relax this? I'm not sure it's worth it.
> 
> It would be cleaner, but I think it's an ABI break.  Consider a non-SVE
> program that gets linked (perhaps dynamically) against a library variant
> that happens to use SVE:

I agree that in general the kernel always needs to provide user space
with FPSIMD_MAGIC. I was wondering whether on sigreturn the kernel may
choose not to enforce this. But I'm not sure we have a scenario where it
actually matters (IIUC set/getcontext is done in user space anyway).
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e8f009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,484 @@ 
+            Scalable Vector Extension support for AArch64 Linux
+            ===================================================
+
+Author: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com>
+Date:   4 August 2017
+
+This document outlines briefly the interface provided to userspace by Linux in
+order to support use of the ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE).
+
+This is an outline of the most important features and issues only and not
+intended to be exhaustive.
+
+This document does not aim to describe the SVE architecture or programmer's
+model.  To aid understanding, a minimal description of relevant programmer's
+model features for SVE is included in Appendix A.
+
+
+1.  General
+-----------
+
+* SVE registers Z0..Z31, P0..P15 and FFR and the current vector length VL, are
+  tracked per-thread.
+
+* The presence of SVE is reported to userspace via HWCAP_SVE in the aux vector
+  AT_HWCAP entry.  Presence of this flag implies the presence of the SVE
+  instructions and registers, and the Linux-specific system interfaces
+  described in this document.  SVE is reported in /proc/cpuinfo as "sve".
+
+* Support for the execution of SVE instructions in userspace can also be
+  detected by reading the CPU ID register ID_AA64PFR0_EL1 using an MRS
+  instruction, and checking that the value of the SVE field is nonzero. [3]
+
+  It does not guarantee the presence of the system interfaces described in the
+  following sections: software that needs to verify that those interfaces are
+  present must check for HWCAP_SVE instead.
+
+* Debuggers should restrict themselves to interacting with the target via the
+  NT_ARM_SVE regset.  The recommended way of detecting support for this regset
+  is to connect to a target process first and then attempt a
+  ptrace(PTRACE_GETREGSET, pid, NT_ARM_SVE, &iov).
+
+
+2.  Vector length terminology
+-----------------------------
+
+The size of an SVE vector (Z) register is referred to as the "vector length".
+
+To avoid confusion about the units used to express vector length, the kernel
+adopts the following conventions:
+
+* Vector length (VL) = size of a Z-register in bytes
+
+* Vector quadwords (VQ) = size of a Z-register in units of 128 bits
+
+(So, VL = 16 * VQ.)
+
+The VQ convention is used where the underlying granularity is important, such
+as in data structure definitions.  In most other situations, the VL convention
+is used.  This is consistent with the meaning of the "VL" pseudo-register in
+the SVE instruction set architecture.
+
+
+3.  System call behaviour
+-------------------------
+
+* On syscall, V0..V31 are preserved (as without SVE).  Thus, bits [127:0] of
+  Z0..Z31 are preserved.  All other bits of Z0..Z31, and all of P0..P15 and FFR
+  become unspecified on return from a syscall.
+
+* The SVE registers are not used to pass arguments to or receive results from
+  any syscall.
+
+* In practice the affected registers/bits will be preserved or will be replaced
+  with zeros on return from a syscall, but userspace should not make
+  assumptions about this.  The kernel behaviour may vary on a case-by-case
+  basis.
+
+
+4.  Signal handling
+-------------------
+
+* A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal
+  delivery. [1]
+
+* This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context.  The FPSR and FPCR registers
+  are only present in fpsimd_context.  For convenience, the content of V0..V31
+  is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context.
+
+* The signal frame record for SVE always contains basic metadata, in particular
+  the thread's vector length (in sve_context.vl).
+
+* The SVE registers may or may not be included in the record, depending on
+  whether the registers are live for the thread.  The registers are present if
+  and only if:
+  sve_context.head.size >= SVE_SIG_CONTEXT_SIZE(sve_vq_from_vl(sve_context.vl)).
+
+* If the registers are present, the remainder of the record has a vl-dependent
+  size and layout.  Macros SIG_SVE_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to
+  the members.
+
+* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
+  space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
+  __reserved[] referencing this space.  sve_context is then written in the
+  extra space.  Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
+
+
+5.  Signal return
+-----------------
+
+When returning from a signal handler:
+
+* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is
+  present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section,
+  then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values.
+
+* If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register
+  data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified
+  data.  However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31
+  are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[]
+  and not from sve_context.  The remaining bits are restored from sve_context.
+
+* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
+  irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.
+
+* The vector length cannot be changed via signal return.  If sve_context.vl in
+  the signal frame does not match the current vector length, the signal return
+  attempt is treated as illegal, resulting in a forced SIGSEGV.
+
+
+6.  prctl extensions
+--------------------
+
+Some new prctl() calls are added to allow programs to manage the SVE vector
+length:
+
+prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, unsigned long arg)
+
+    Sets the vector length of the calling thread and related flags, where
+    arg == vl | flags.
+
+    vl is the desired vector length, where sve_vl_valid(vl) must be true.
+
+    flags:
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    Inherit the current vector length across execve().  Otherwise, the
+	    vector length is reset to the system default at execve().  (See
+	    Section 9.)
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
+
+	    Defer the requested vector length change until the next execve().
+	    This allows launching of a new program with a different vector
+	    length, while avoiding runtime side effects in the caller.
+
+	    This also overrides the effect of PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT for the
+	    first execve().
+
+	    Without PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC, any outstanding deferred vector
+	    length change is cancelled.
+
+    Return value: a nonnegative on success, or a negative value on error:
+	EINVAL: SVE not supported, invalid vector length requested, or
+	    invalid flags.
+
+    On success, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the largest
+    value supported by the system that is less than or equal to vl.
+    If vl == SVE_VL_MAX, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the
+    largest value supported by the system.
+
+    The returned value describes the resulting configuration, encoded as for
+    PR_SVE_GET_VL.  The vector length reported in this value is the new current
+    vector length for this thread if PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC was not passed in the
+    input arg; otherwise, the reported vector length is the deferred vector
+    length that will be applied at the next exec.
+
+    Changing the vector length causes all of P0..P15, FFR and all bits of
+    Z0..V31 except for Z0 bits [127:0] .. Z31 bits [127:0] to become
+    unspecified.  Calling PR_SVE_SET_VL with vl equal to the thread's current
+    vector length does not constitute a change to the vector length for this
+    purpose.
+
+
+prctl(PR_SVE_GET_VL)
+
+    Gets the vector length of the calling thread.
+
+    The following flag may be OR-ed into the result:
+
+	PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    Vector length will be inherited across execve().
+
+    There is no way to determine whether there is an outstanding deferred
+    vector length change (which would only normally be the case between a
+    fork() or vfork() and the corresponding execve() in typical use).
+
+    To extract the vector length from the result, and it with
+    PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK.
+
+    Return value: a nonnegative value on success, or a negative value on error:
+	EINVAL: SVE not supported.
+
+
+7.  ptrace extensions
+---------------------
+
+* A new regset NT_ARM_SVE is defined for use with PTRACE_GETREGSET and
+  PTRACE_SETREGSET.
+
+  Refer to [2] for definitions.
+
+The regset data starts with struct user_sve_header, containing:
+
+    size
+
+	Size of the complete regset, in bytes.
+	This depends on vl and possibly on other things in the future.
+
+	If a call to PTRACE_GETREGSET requests less data than the value of
+	size, the caller can allocate a larger buffer and retry in order to
+	read the complete regset.
+
+    max_size
+
+	Maximum size in bytes that the regset can grow to for the target
+	thread.  The regset won't grow bigger than this even if the target
+	thread changes its vector length etc.
+
+    vl
+
+	Target thread's current vector length, in bytes.
+
+    max_vl
+
+	Maximum possible vector length for the target thread.
+
+    flags
+
+	either
+
+	    SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD
+
+		SVE registers are not live (GETREGSET) or are to be made
+		non-live (SETREGSET).
+
+		The payload is of type struct user_fpsimd_state, with the same
+		meaning as for NT_PRFPREG, starting at offset
+		SVE_PT_FPSIMD_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header.
+
+		Extra data might be appended in the future: the size of the
+		payload should be obtained using SVE_PT_FPSIMD_SIZE(vq, flags).
+
+		vq should be obtained using sve_vq_from_vl(vl).
+
+		or
+
+	    SVE_PT_REGS_SVE
+
+		SVE registers are live (GETREGSET) or are to be made live
+		(SETREGSET).
+
+		The payload contains the SVE register data, starting at offset
+		SVE_PT_SVE_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header, and with
+		size SVE_PT_SVE_SIZE(vq, flags);
+
+	... OR-ed with zero or more of the following flags, which have the same
+	meaning and behaviour as the corresponding PR_SET_VL_* flags:
+
+	    SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT
+
+	    SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC (SETREGSET only).
+
+* The effects of changing the vector length and/or flags are equivalent to
+  those documented for PR_SVE_SET_VL.
+
+  The caller must make a further GETREGSET call if it needs to know what VL is
+  actually set by SETREGSET, unless is it known in advance that the requested
+  VL is supported.
+
+* In the SVE_PT_REGS_SVE case, the size and layout of the payload depends on
+  the header fields.  The SVE_PT_SVE_*() macros are provided to facilitate
+  access to the members.
+
+* In either case, for SETREGSET it is permissible to omit the payload, in which
+  case only the vector length and flags are changed (along with any
+  consequences of those changes).
+
+* For SETREGSET, if an SVE_PT_REGS_SVE payload is present and the
+  requested VL is not supported, the effect will be the same as if the
+  payload were omitted, except that an EIO error is reported.  No
+  attempt is made to translate the payload data to the correct layout
+  for the vector length actually set.  The thread's FPSIMD state is
+  preserved, but the remaining bits of the SVE registers become
+  unspecified.  It is up to the caller to translate the payload layout
+  for the actual VL and retry.
+
+* The effect of writing a partial, incomplete payload is unspecified.
+
+
+8.  ELF coredump extensions
+---------------------------
+
+* A NT_ARM_SVE note will be added to each coredump for each thread of the
+  dumped process.  The contents will be equivalent to the data that would have
+  been read if a PTRACE_GETREGSET of NT_ARM_SVE were executed for each thread
+  when the coredump was generated.
+
+
+9.  System runtime configuration
+--------------------------------
+
+* To mitigate the ABI impact of expansion of the signal frame, a policy
+  mechanism is provided for administrators, distro maintainers and developers
+  to set the default vector length for userspace processes:
+
+/proc/cpu/sve_default_vector_length
+
+    Writing the text representation of an integer to this file sets the system
+    default vector length to the specified value, unless the value is greater
+    than the maximum vector length supported by the system in which case the
+    default vector length is set to that maximum.
+
+    The result can be determined by reopening the file and reading its
+    contents.
+
+    At boot, the default vector length is initially set to 64 or the maximum
+    supported vector length, whichever is smaller.  This determines the initial
+    vector length of the init process (PID 1).
+
+    Reading this file returns the current system default vector length.
+
+* At every execve() call, the new vector length of the new process is set to
+  the system default vector length, unless
+
+    * PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT (or equivalently SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT) is set for the
+      calling thread, or
+
+    * a deferred vector length change is pending, established via the
+      PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag (or SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC).
+
+* Modifying the system default vector length does not affect the vector length
+  of any existing process or thread that does not make an execve() call.
+
+
+Appendix A.  SVE programmer's model (informative)
+=================================================
+
+This section provides a minimal description of the additions made by SVE to the
+ARMv8-A programmer's model that are relevant to this document.
+
+Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
+to replace any architectural specification.
+
+A.1.  Registers
+---------------
+
+In A64 state, SVE adds the following:
+
+* 32 8VL-bit vector registers Z0..Z31
+  For each Zn, Zn bits [127:0] alias the ARMv8-A vector register Vn.
+
+  A register write using a Vn register name zeros all bits of the corresponding
+  Zn except for bits [127:0].
+
+* 16 VL-bit predicate registers P0..P15
+
+* 1 VL-bit special-purpose predicate register FFR (the "first-fault register")
+
+* a VL "pseudo-register" that determines the size of each vector register
+
+  The SVE instruction set architecture provides no way to write VL directly.
+  Instead, it can be modified only by EL1 and above, by writing appropriate
+  system registers.
+
+* The value of VL can be configured at runtime by EL1 and above:
+  16 <= VL <= VLmax, where VL must be a multiple of 16.
+
+* The maximum vector length is determined by the hardware:
+  16 <= VLmax <= 256.
+
+  (The SVE architecture specifies 256, but permits future architecture
+  revisions to raise this limit.)
+
+* FPSR and FPCR are retained from ARMv8-A, and interact with SVE floating-point
+  operations in a similar way to the way in which they interact with ARMv8
+  floating-point operations.
+
+         8VL-1                       128               0  bit index
+        +----          ////            -----------------+
+     Z0 |                               :       V0      |
+      :                                          :
+     Z7 |                               :       V7      |
+     Z8 |                               :     * V8      |
+      :                                       :  :
+    Z15 |                               :     *V15      |
+    Z16 |                               :      V16      |
+      :                                          :
+    Z31 |                               :      V31      |
+        +----          ////            -----------------+
+                                                 31    0
+         VL-1                  0                +-------+
+        +----       ////      --+          FPSR |       |
+     P0 |                       |               +-------+
+      : |                       |         *FPCR |       |
+    P15 |                       |               +-------+
+        +----       ////      --+
+    FFR |                       |               +-----+
+        +----       ////      --+            VL |     |
+                                                +-----+
+
+(*) callee-save:
+    This only applies to bits [63:0] of Z-/V-registers.
+    FPCR contains callee-save and caller-save bits.  See [4] for details.
+
+
+A.2.  Procedure call standard
+-----------------------------
+
+The ARMv8-A base procedure call standard is extended as follows with respect to
+the additional SVE register state:
+
+* All SVE register bits that are not shared with FP/SIMD are caller-save.
+
+* Z8 bits [63:0] .. Z15 bits [63:0] are callee-save.
+
+  This follows from the way these bits are mapped to V8..V15, which are caller-
+  save in the base procedure call standard.
+
+
+Appendix B.  ARMv8-A FP/SIMD programmer's model
+===============================================
+
+Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
+to replace any architectural specification.
+
+Refer to [4] for for more information.
+
+ARMv8-A defines the following floating-point / SIMD register state:
+
+* 32 128-bit vector registers V0..V31
+* 2 32-bit status/control registers FPSR, FPCR
+
+         127           0  bit index
+        +---------------+
+     V0 |               |
+      : :               :
+     V7 |               |
+   * V8 |               |
+   :  : :               :
+   *V15 |               |
+    V16 |               |
+      : :               :
+    V31 |               |
+        +---------------+
+
+                 31    0
+                +-------+
+           FPSR |       |
+                +-------+
+          *FPCR |       |
+                +-------+
+
+(*) callee-save:
+    This only applies to bits [63:0] of V-registers.
+    FPCR contains a mixture of callee-save and caller-save bits.
+
+
+References
+==========
+
+[1] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
+    AArch64 Linux signal ABI definitions
+
+[2] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/ptrace.h
+    AArch64 Linux ptrace ABI definitions
+
+[3] linux/Documentation/arm64/cpu-feature-registers.txt
+
+[4] ARM IHI0055C
+    http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ihi0055c/IHI0055C_beta_aapcs64.pdf
+    http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.subset.swdev.abi/index.html
+    Procedure Call Standard for the ARM 64-bit Architecture (AArch64)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h b/arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
index 7654a81..3c0b484 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
@@ -133,6 +133,9 @@  struct sve_context {
  * The SVE architecture leaves space for future expansion of the
  * vector length beyond its initial architectural limit of 2048 bits
  * (16 quadwords).
+ *
+ * See linux/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt for a description of the VL/VQ
+ * terminology.
  */
 #define SVE_VQ_BYTES		16	/* number of bytes per quadword */