linux/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/kho.rst

.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later

====================
Kexec Handover Usage
====================

Kexec HandOver (KHO) is a mechanism that allows Linux to preserve memory
regions, which could contain serialized system states, across kexec.

This document expects that you are familiar with the base KHO
:ref:`concepts <kho-concepts>`. If you have not read
them yet, please do so now.

Prerequisites
=============

KHO is available when the kernel is compiled with ``CONFIG_KEXEC_HANDOVER``
set to y. Every KHO producer may have its own config option that you
need to enable if you would like to preserve their respective state across
kexec.

To use KHO, please boot the kernel with the ``kho=on`` command line
parameter. You may use ``kho_scratch`` parameter to define size of the
scratch regions. For example ``kho_scratch=16M,512M,256M`` will reserve a
16 MiB low memory scratch area, a 512 MiB global scratch region, and 256 MiB
per NUMA node scratch regions on boot.

Perform a KHO kexec
===================

First, before you perform a KHO kexec, you need to move the system into
the :ref:`KHO finalization phase <kho-finalization-phase>` ::

  $ echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/finalize

After this command, the KHO FDT is available in
``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/fdt``. Other subsystems may also register
their own preserved sub FDTs under
``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/sub_fdts/``.

Next, load the target payload and kexec into it. It is important that you
use the ``-s`` parameter to use the in-kernel kexec file loader, as user
space kexec tooling currently has no support for KHO with the user space
based file loader ::

  # kexec -l /path/to/bzImage --initrd /path/to/initrd -s
  # kexec -e

The new kernel will boot up and contain some of the previous kernel's state.

For example, if you used ``reserve_mem`` command line parameter to create
an early memory reservation, the new kernel will have that memory at the
same physical address as the old kernel.

Abort a KHO exec
================

You can move the system out of KHO finalization phase again by calling ::

  $ echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/active

After this command, the KHO FDT is no longer available in
``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/fdt``.

debugfs Interfaces
==================

Currently KHO creates the following debugfs interfaces. Notice that these
interfaces may change in the future. They will be moved to sysfs once KHO is
stabilized.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/finalize``
    Kexec HandOver (KHO) allows Linux to transition the state of
    compatible drivers into the next kexec'ed kernel. To do so,
    device drivers will instruct KHO to preserve memory regions,
    which could contain serialized kernel state.
    While the state is serialized, they are unable to perform
    any modifications to state that was serialized, such as
    handed over memory allocations.

    When this file contains "1", the system is in the transition
    state. When contains "0", it is not. To switch between the
    two states, echo the respective number into this file.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/fdt``
    When KHO state tree is finalized, the kernel exposes the
    flattened device tree blob that carries its current KHO
    state in this file. Kexec user space tooling can use this
    as input file for the KHO payload image.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/scratch_len``
    Lengths of KHO scratch regions, which are physically contiguous
    memory regions that will always stay available for future kexec
    allocations. Kexec user space tools can use this file to determine
    where it should place its payload images.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/scratch_phys``
    Physical locations of KHO scratch regions. Kexec user space tools
    can use this file in conjunction to scratch_phys to determine where
    it should place its payload images.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/sub_fdts/``
    In the KHO finalization phase, KHO producers register their own
    FDT blob under this directory.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/in/fdt``
    When the kernel was booted with Kexec HandOver (KHO),
    the state tree that carries metadata about the previous
    kernel's state is in this file in the format of flattened
    device tree. This file may disappear when all consumers of
    it finished to interpret their metadata.

``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/in/sub_fdts/``
    Similar to ``kho/out/sub_fdts/``, but contains sub FDT blobs
    of KHO producers passed from the old kernel.