diff mbox series

[v2,26/28] arm64/sve: Add documentation

Message ID 1504198860-12951-27-git-send-email-Dave.Martin@arm.com
State New
Headers show
Series ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) | expand

Commit Message

Dave Martin Aug. 31, 2017, 5 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>

---

Changes since v1
----------------

Requested by Alex Bennée:

* Add cross-reference from sigcontext.h to the description of VL/VQ.

Other:

* [ABI fix] Bail out with -EIO if attempting to set the SVE regs for an
unsupported VL, rather than misparsing the regset data.

* Document detection of SVE via CPUID MRS.

* Remove comment about coredump notes being padded for NT_ARM_SVE.
This is no longer the case with variable-size regsets supported
in the core code.

* Fix a missing bullet char
---
 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt              | 477 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h |   3 +
 2 files changed, 480 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt

Comments

Szabolcs Nagy Oct. 5, 2017, 4:39 p.m. UTC | #1
On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
> +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.
> +

based on later text it seems this works if exeve is
called in the same thread as prctl was called in.

this is a bit weird from user-space pov so it may
make sense to state it here explicitly.

> +    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.
> +
> +    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.
Dave Martin Oct. 5, 2017, 5:02 p.m. UTC | #2
On Thu, Oct 05, 2017 at 05:39:24PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:

[...]

> > +	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.
> > +
> 
> based on later text it seems this works if exeve is
> called in the same thread as prctl was called in.
> 
> this is a bit weird from user-space pov so it may
> make sense to state it here explicitly.

True.  Looking at the prctl(2) man page it looks like other per-thread
properties are inherited across execve() in a similar way, but it's at
least worth a mention.  PR_SET_SECCOMP seems to work like this, for
example.

So, the intention is that you do a prctl(...ONEXEC) in the run up to
execve(), rather than doing it at other random times.  The primary
reason for ONEXEC is to avoid the side-effects of actually changing
the VL.


Looking at this though...
I wonder whether PR_SVE_SET_VL(... PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC) should return
the VL set for exec, rather than the current VL (which is unchanged by
definition in this case, thus uninteresting).

This would allow the ONEXEC flag to be used to probe for available VLs
without the other side-effects of changing VL, something like:

	int old = prctl(PR_SVE_GET_VL);
	int ret;

	ret = prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, 144 | PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC);
	if (ret == -1) {
		perror("PR_SVE_SET_VL");
		goto error;
	}

	if ((ret & PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK) == 144)
		have_vl_144 = true;

	if (prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, old | PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC) == -1) {
		perror("PR_SVE_SET_VL");
		goto error;
	}


This does _not_ do the expected thing right now, since there's no
direct way to retrieve thread.sve_vl_onexec directly from the kernel
(and it didn't really seem justified to add one).

Thoughts?

Cheers
---Dave
Szabolcs Nagy Oct. 6, 2017, 3:43 p.m. UTC | #3
On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
> +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


elsewhere in the patch series i see

/proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length

is this supposed to be the same?
Dave Martin Oct. 6, 2017, 5:37 p.m. UTC | #4
On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 04:43:43PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
> > +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
> 
> 
> elsewhere in the patch series i see
> 
> /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
> 
> is this supposed to be the same?

Good spot, thanks!

/proc/cpu/ was the old location: they should both say /proc/abi/.
I'll fix it.

---Dave
Alex Bennée Oct. 9, 2017, 9:34 a.m. UTC | #5
Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:

> On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 04:43:43PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
>> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
>> > +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
>>
>>
>> elsewhere in the patch series i see
>>
>> /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
>>
>> is this supposed to be the same?
>
> Good spot, thanks!
>
> /proc/cpu/ was the old location: they should both say /proc/abi/.
> I'll fix it.

Isn't /sys (or rather sysfs) the preferred location for modern control
knobs that mirror the kernels object model or is SVE a special case for
extending /proc?


>
> ---Dave


--
Alex Bennée
Dave Martin Oct. 9, 2017, 9:49 a.m. UTC | #6
On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 10:34:25AM +0100, Alex Bennée wrote:
> 
> Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 04:43:43PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
> >> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
> >> > +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
> >>
> >>
> >> elsewhere in the patch series i see
> >>
> >> /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
> >>
> >> is this supposed to be the same?
> >
> > Good spot, thanks!
> >
> > /proc/cpu/ was the old location: they should both say /proc/abi/.
> > I'll fix it.
> 
> Isn't /sys (or rather sysfs) the preferred location for modern control
> knobs that mirror the kernels object model or is SVE a special case for
> extending /proc?

I couldn't figure out which kernel object this maps to.  There's no
device, no driver.  This isn't even per-cpu.

sysctl is already used for similar knobs to this one, so I followed that
precedent -- though if someone argues strongly enough it could be
changed.

Are there already examples of arch controls like this in sysfs?  I
wasn't aware of any, but I didn't look all that hard...

Cheers
---Dave
Alex Bennée Oct. 9, 2017, 2:07 p.m. UTC | #7
Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:

> On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 10:34:25AM +0100, Alex Bennée wrote:
>>
>> Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:
>>
>> > On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 04:43:43PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
>> >> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
>> >> > +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
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> elsewhere in the patch series i see
>> >>
>> >> /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
>> >>
>> >> is this supposed to be the same?
>> >
>> > Good spot, thanks!
>> >
>> > /proc/cpu/ was the old location: they should both say /proc/abi/.
>> > I'll fix it.
>>
>> Isn't /sys (or rather sysfs) the preferred location for modern control
>> knobs that mirror the kernels object model or is SVE a special case for
>> extending /proc?
>
> I couldn't figure out which kernel object this maps to.  There's no
> device, no driver.  This isn't even per-cpu.

Hmm I can see:

  /sys/devices/system/cpu

On both my x86 and arm64 systems - but I guess this is more ABIish than
CPU feature related.

> sysctl is already used for similar knobs to this one, so I followed that
> precedent -- though if someone argues strongly enough it could be
> changed.
>
> Are there already examples of arch controls like this in sysfs?  I
> wasn't aware of any, but I didn't look all that hard...

Given the paucity of the /proc/sys/abi on both systems I guess this sort
of knob is rare enough that people haven't expressed a strong preference
for sysfs here. I have no objection to staying with /proc/sys/abi/.

--
Alex Bennée
Dave Martin Oct. 9, 2017, 4:20 p.m. UTC | #8
On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 03:07:23PM +0100, Alex Bennée wrote:
> 
> Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:
> 
> > On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 10:34:25AM +0100, Alex Bennée wrote:
> >>
> >> Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com> writes:
> >>
> >> > On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 04:43:43PM +0100, Szabolcs Nagy wrote:
> >> >> On 31/08/17 18:00, Dave Martin wrote:
> >> >> > +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
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> elsewhere in the patch series i see
> >> >>
> >> >> /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
> >> >>
> >> >> is this supposed to be the same?
> >> >
> >> > Good spot, thanks!
> >> >
> >> > /proc/cpu/ was the old location: they should both say /proc/abi/.
> >> > I'll fix it.
> >>
> >> Isn't /sys (or rather sysfs) the preferred location for modern control
> >> knobs that mirror the kernels object model or is SVE a special case for
> >> extending /proc?
> >
> > I couldn't figure out which kernel object this maps to.  There's no
> > device, no driver.  This isn't even per-cpu.
> 
> Hmm I can see:
> 
>   /sys/devices/system/cpu
> 
> On both my x86 and arm64 systems - but I guess this is more ABIish than
> CPU feature related.
> 
> > sysctl is already used for similar knobs to this one, so I followed that
> > precedent -- though if someone argues strongly enough it could be
> > changed.
> >
> > Are there already examples of arch controls like this in sysfs?  I
> > wasn't aware of any, but I didn't look all that hard...
> 
> Given the paucity of the /proc/sys/abi on both systems I guess this sort
> of knob is rare enough that people haven't expressed a strong preference
> for sysfs here. I have no objection to staying with /proc/sys/abi/.

That was my thinking: sysctls tend to control the kernel, especially
process behaviour, whereas /sys/ controls devices and subsystems.
That's not a concrete rule though and not written down, and doubtless a
major new set of sysctls would be shot down regardless of what they do.

Part of the problem with /proc is that people historically put things in
there that have random ad-hoc behaviour and semantics.  The sysctl
framework at least imposes some sanity here.

There is also some support for specialising sysctls to user namespaces,
which makes some sense in that /proc/sys/abi/* should probably be per-
container -- though whether it's ever considered important enough to
actually be implemented is another question.  I certainly don't attempt
to do it today.

I don't know how sysfs interacts with namespaces, but probably it can.

I guess I'll wait for someone to object loudly...

Cheers
---Dave
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c0f97f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,477 @@ 
+            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.
+
+    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.
+
+* 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 c78cf8e..dc9f5f4 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		0x10	/* number of bytes per quadword */