[Xen-devel] [PATCH] x86/extable: Add a comment about early exception handlers

[Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Borislav asked for a comment explaining why all exception handlers are
allowed early.

Signed-off-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 arch/x86/mm/extable.c | 14 ++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/extable.c b/arch/x86/mm/extable.c
index 98b5f45d9d79..36fe03bc81ee 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/extable.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/extable.c
@@ -132,6 +132,20 @@ void __init early_fixup_exception(struct pt_regs *regs, 
int trapnr)
        if (regs->cs != __KERNEL_CS)
                goto fail;
 
+       /*
+        * The full exception fixup machinery is available as soon as
+        * the early IDT is loaded.  This means that it is the
+        * responsibility of extable users to either function correctly
+        * when handlers are invoked early or to simply avoid causing
+        * exceptions before they're ready to handle them.
+        *
+        * This is better than filtering which handlers can be used,
+        * because refusing to call a handler here is guaranteed to
+        * result in a hard-to-debug panic.
+        *
+        * Keep in mind that not all vectors actually get here.  Early
+        * fage faults, for example, are special.
+        */
        if (fixup_exception(regs, trapnr))
                return;
 
-- 
2.5.5


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