Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] vu_common: Move iovec management into vu_collect()

18 Mar 2026


      On 3/18/26 10:04, Stefano Brivio wrote:
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On Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:21:10 +0100
Laurent Vivier  wrote:
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On 3/18/26 02:16, David Gibson wrote:
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On Tue, Mar 17, 2026 at 05:30:32PM +0100, Laurent Vivier wrote:
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On 3/17/26 16:23, Stefano Brivio wrote:
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On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:25:49 +0100
Laurent Vivier  wrote:
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On 3/17/26 03:40, David Gibson wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 07:26:18PM +0100, Laurent Vivier wrote:
>> Previously, callers had to pre-initialize virtqueue elements with iovec
>> entries using vu_set_element() or vu_init_elem() before calling
>> vu_collect().  This meant each element owned a fixed, pre-assigned iovec
>> slot.
>>
>> Move the iovec array into vu_collect() as explicit parameters (in_sg,
>> max_in_sg, and in_num), letting it pass the remaining iovec capacity
>> directly to vu_queue_pop().  A running current_iov counter tracks
>> consumed entries across elements, so multiple elements share a single
>> iovec pool.  The optional in_num output parameter reports how many iovec
>> entries were consumed, allowing callers to track usage across multiple
>> vu_collect() calls.
>>
>> This removes vu_set_element() and vu_init_elem() which are no longer
>> needed, and is a prerequisite for multi-buffer support where a single
>> virtqueue element can use more than one iovec entry.  For now, callers
>> assert the current single-iovec-per-element invariant until they are
>> updated to handle multiple iovecs.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Laurent Vivier 
>
> Reviewed-by: David Gibson 
>
> Couple of thoughts on possible polish below.
>
> [snip]
>>      /**
>>       * vu_collect() - collect virtio buffers from a given virtqueue
>>       * @vdev:		vhost-user device
>>       * @vq:			virtqueue to collect from
>> - * @elem:		Array of virtqueue element
>> - * 			each element must be initialized with one iovec entry
>> - * 			in the in_sg array.
>> + * @elem:		Array of @max_elem virtqueue elements
>>       * @max_elem:		Number of virtqueue elements in the array
>> + * @in_sg:		Incoming iovec array for device-writable descriptors
>> + * @max_in_sg:		Maximum number of entries in @in_sg
>> + * @in_num:		Number of collected entries from @in_sg (output)
>>       * @size:		Maximum size of the data in the frame
>>       * @collected:		Collected buffer length, up to @size, set on return
>>       *
>> @@ -80,20 +67,21 @@ void vu_init_elem(struct vu_virtq_element *elem, struct iovec *iov, int elem_cnt
>>       */
>>      int vu_collect(const struct vu_dev *vdev, struct vu_virtq *vq,
>>      	       struct vu_virtq_element *elem, int max_elem,
>> +	       struct iovec *in_sg, size_t max_in_sg, size_t *in_num,
>>      	       size_t size, size_t *collected)
>>      {
>>      	size_t current_size = 0;
>> +	size_t current_iov = 0;
>>      	int elem_cnt = 0;
>> -	while (current_size < size && elem_cnt < max_elem) {
>> -		struct iovec *iov;
>> +	while (current_size < size && elem_cnt < max_elem &&
>> +	       current_iov < max_in_sg) {
>>      		int ret;
>>      		ret = vu_queue_pop(vdev, vq, &elem[elem_cnt],
>> -				   elem[elem_cnt].in_sg,
>> -				   elem[elem_cnt].in_num,
>> -				   elem[elem_cnt].out_sg,
>> -				   elem[elem_cnt].out_num);
>> +				   &in_sg[current_iov],
>> +				   max_in_sg - current_iov,
>> +				   NULL, 0);
>>      		if (ret < 0)
>>      			break;
>> @@ -103,18 +91,22 @@ int vu_collect(const struct vu_dev *vdev, struct vu_virtq *vq,
>>      			break;
>>      		}
>> -		iov = &elem[elem_cnt].in_sg[0];
>> -
>> -		if (iov->iov_len > size - current_size)
>> -			iov->iov_len = size - current_size;
>> +		elem[elem_cnt].in_num = iov_truncate(elem[elem_cnt].in_sg,
>> +						     elem[elem_cnt].in_num,
>> +						     size - current_size);
>
> Will elem[].in_num always end up with the same value as the @in_num
> parameter?  If so, do we need the explicit parameter?
@in_num parameter of vu_collect()?
@in_num is the sum of all elem[].in_num, it can be computed by the caller function from
elem, but it is simpler to return it as we need to compute it in the loop.
I'm not sure I understood the point of David's comment here, and this
explanation makes sense to me now, but it took me a bit to figure that
out.
Could it be that @in_num is a bit confusing as it has "in" and "num" in
it, but it's actually an output representing how many "in" entries we
used/need?
For an element, *ìn_*num is the number of *in_*sg we have read from the ring for an element.
It's virtio semantic, so  *in_* means sg going *in* the guest.
For *out_*sg we have *out_*num.
...
What if we rename it to @in_used or @in_collected?
The idea was to keep the same name as in the element. But we can change this to @in_used.
Would "in_total" work better to suggest that it's the sum of all the
elements' in_num?
Yes, I think it gives the information it's the sum of the in_num
Okay, should I change this on merge, or do you plan to repost
(which would be slightly more convenient for me but not really needed)?
I'm preparing the v3.

Thanks,
Laurent