[PATCH v3 4/8] dma-mapping: Introduce DMA require coherency attribute

From: Leon Romanovsky

Date: Mon Mar 16 2026 - 15:08:43 EST


From: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxx>

The mapping buffers which carry this attribute require DMA coherent system.
This means that they can't take SWIOTLB path, can perform CPU cache overlap
and doesn't perform cache flushing.

Signed-off-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/core-api/dma-attributes.rst | 16 ++++++++++++++++
include/linux/dma-mapping.h | 7 +++++++
include/trace/events/dma.h | 3 ++-
kernel/dma/debug.c | 3 ++-
kernel/dma/mapping.c | 6 ++++++
5 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/dma-attributes.rst b/Documentation/core-api/dma-attributes.rst
index 48cfe86cc06d7..441bdc9d08318 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/dma-attributes.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/dma-attributes.rst
@@ -163,3 +163,19 @@ data corruption.

All mappings that share a cache line must set this attribute to suppress DMA
debug warnings about overlapping mappings.
+
+DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT
+-------------------------
+
+DMA mapping requests with the DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT fail on any
+system where SWIOTLB or cache management is required. This should only
+be used to support uAPI designs that require continuous HW DMA
+coherence with userspace processes, for example RDMA and DRM. At a
+minimum the memory being mapped must be userspace memory from
+pin_user_pages() or similar.
+
+Drivers should consider using dma_mmap_pages() instead of this
+interface when building their uAPIs, when possible.
+
+It must never be used in an in-kernel driver that only works with
+kernal memory.
diff --git a/include/linux/dma-mapping.h b/include/linux/dma-mapping.h
index da44394b3a1a7..482b919f040f7 100644
--- a/include/linux/dma-mapping.h
+++ b/include/linux/dma-mapping.h
@@ -86,6 +86,13 @@
*/
#define DMA_ATTR_DEBUGGING_IGNORE_CACHELINES (1UL << 11)

+/*
+ * DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT: Indicates that DMA coherency is required.
+ * All mappings that carry this attribute can't work with SWIOTLB and cache
+ * flushing.
+ */
+#define DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT (1UL << 12)
+
/*
* A dma_addr_t can hold any valid DMA or bus address for the platform. It can
* be given to a device to use as a DMA source or target. It is specific to a
diff --git a/include/trace/events/dma.h b/include/trace/events/dma.h
index 8c64bc0721fe4..63597b0044247 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/dma.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/dma.h
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ TRACE_DEFINE_ENUM(DMA_NONE);
{ DMA_ATTR_NO_WARN, "NO_WARN" }, \
{ DMA_ATTR_PRIVILEGED, "PRIVILEGED" }, \
{ DMA_ATTR_MMIO, "MMIO" }, \
- { DMA_ATTR_DEBUGGING_IGNORE_CACHELINES, "CACHELINES_OVERLAP" })
+ { DMA_ATTR_DEBUGGING_IGNORE_CACHELINES, "CACHELINES_OVERLAP" }, \
+ { DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT, "REQUIRE_COHERENT" })

DECLARE_EVENT_CLASS(dma_map,
TP_PROTO(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t phys_addr, dma_addr_t dma_addr,
diff --git a/kernel/dma/debug.c b/kernel/dma/debug.c
index 83e1cfe05f08d..0677918f06a80 100644
--- a/kernel/dma/debug.c
+++ b/kernel/dma/debug.c
@@ -601,7 +601,8 @@ static void add_dma_entry(struct dma_debug_entry *entry, unsigned long attrs)
unsigned long flags;
int rc;

- entry->is_cache_clean = attrs & DMA_ATTR_DEBUGGING_IGNORE_CACHELINES;
+ entry->is_cache_clean = attrs & (DMA_ATTR_DEBUGGING_IGNORE_CACHELINES |
+ DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT);

bucket = get_hash_bucket(entry, &flags);
hash_bucket_add(bucket, entry);
diff --git a/kernel/dma/mapping.c b/kernel/dma/mapping.c
index 3928a509c44c2..6d3dd0bd3a886 100644
--- a/kernel/dma/mapping.c
+++ b/kernel/dma/mapping.c
@@ -164,6 +164,9 @@ dma_addr_t dma_map_phys(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t phys, size_t size,
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!dev->dma_mask))
return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR;

+ if (!dev_is_dma_coherent(dev) && (attrs & DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT))
+ return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR;
+
if (dma_map_direct(dev, ops) ||
(!is_mmio && arch_dma_map_phys_direct(dev, phys + size)))
addr = dma_direct_map_phys(dev, phys, size, dir, attrs);
@@ -235,6 +238,9 @@ static int __dma_map_sg_attrs(struct device *dev, struct scatterlist *sg,

BUG_ON(!valid_dma_direction(dir));

+ if (!dev_is_dma_coherent(dev) && (attrs & DMA_ATTR_REQUIRE_COHERENT))
+ return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!dev->dma_mask))
return 0;


--
2.53.0