Ubuntu Manpage: s390_guarded_storage - operations with z/Architecture guarded storage facility

NAME

       s390_guarded_storage - operations with z/Architecture guarded storage facility

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <asm/guarded_storage.h> /* Definition of GS_* constants */
       #include <sys/syscall.h>         /* Definition of SYS_* constants */
       #include <unistd.h>

       int syscall(SYS_s390_guarded_storage, int command,
                   struct gs_cb *gs_cb);

       Note: glibc provides no wrapper for s390_guarded_storage(), necessitating the use of syscall(2).

DESCRIPTION

The s390_guarded_storage() system call enables the use of the Guarded Storage Facility (a z/Architecture-
specific feature) for user-space processes.

The guarded storage facility is a hardware feature that allows marking up to 64 memory regions (as of
z14) as guarded; reading a pointer with a newly introduced "Load Guarded" (LGG) or "Load Logical and
Shift Guarded" (LLGFSG) instructions will cause a range check on the loaded value and invoke a
(previously set up) user-space handler if one of the guarded regions is affected.

The command argument indicates which function to perform. The following commands are supported:

GS_ENABLE
Enable the guarded storage facility for the calling task. The initial content of the guarded
storage control block will be all zeros. After enablement, user-space code can use the "Load
Guarded Storage Controls" (LGSC) instruction (or the load_gs_cb() function wrapper provided in the
asm/guarded_storage.h header) to load an arbitrary control block. While a task is enabled, the
kernel will save and restore the calling content of the guarded storage registers on context
switch.

GS_DISABLE
Disables the use of the guarded storage facility for the calling task. The kernel will cease to
save and restore the content of the guarded storage registers, the task-specific content of these
registers is lost.

GS_SET_BC_CB
Set a broadcast guarded storage control block to the one provided in the gs_cb argument. This is
called per thread and associates a specific guarded storage control block with the calling task.
This control block will be used in the broadcast command GS_BROADCAST.

GS_CLEAR_BC_CB
Clears the broadcast guarded storage control block. The guarded storage control block will no
longer have the association established by the GS_SET_BC_CB command.

GS_BROADCAST
Sends a broadcast to all thread siblings of the calling task. Every sibling that has established
a broadcast guarded storage control block will load this control block and will be enabled for
guarded storage. The broadcast guarded storage control block is consumed; a second broadcast
without a refresh of the stored control block with GS_SET_BC_CB will not have any effect.

The gs_cb argument specifies the address of a guarded storage control block structure and is currently
used only by the GS_SET_BC_CB command; all other aforementioned commands ignore this argument.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, the return value of s390_guarded_storage() is 0.

       On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       EFAULT command was GS_SET_BC_CB and the copying of the guarded storage control block structure pointed by
              the gs_cb argument has failed.

       EINVAL The value provided in the command argument was not valid.

       ENOMEM command  was one of GS_ENABLE or GS_SET_BC_CB, and the allocation of a new guarded storage control
              block has failed.

       EOPNOTSUPP
              The guarded storage facility is not supported by the hardware.

STANDARDS

       Linux on s390.

HISTORY

       Linux 4.12.  System z14.

NOTES

       The description of the guarded storage facility along  with  related  instructions  and  Guarded  Storage
       Control  Block and Guarded Storage Event Parameter List structure layouts is available in "z/Architecture
       Principles of Operations" beginning from the twelfth edition.

       The gs_cb structure has a field gsepla (Guarded Storage Event Parameter List Address), which is  a  user-
       space  pointer  to  a  Guarded  Storage  Event Parameter List structure (that contains the address of the
       aforementioned event handler in the gseha field), and its layout is available as a gs_epl structure  type
       definition in the asm/guarded_storage.h header.