guest_translate_gva(9)

💅 guest_translate_gva(9) — the Kernel API Manual moment 🎀

okay so bestie, we're in the Kernel API Manual today and the star of the show is guest_translate_gva(9), which is literally just... taking a guest virtual address and turning it into a guest absolute address. glow-up for addresses fr fr ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

guest_translate_gva — translate a guest virtual into a guest absolute address 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

unsigned long guest_translate_gva (struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu , unsigned long
gva , unsigned long *gpa , const union asce asce , enum gacc_mode mode ,
enum prot_type *prot );

like yes she's a long signature, she's high maintenance, she ate 💅

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🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

• vcpu — your virtual cpu, the main character in this little story 👑
• gva — the guest virtual address (the "before" pic) 🌸
• gpa — a pointer to where the guest physical (absolute) address should get stored, i.e. the "after" pic 💖
• asce — the effective asce, no cap
• mode — says which access mode to use 🔥
• prot — returns the type for protection exceptions, so like, it tells u what kind of protection oopsie happened 🙈

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⭐ DESCRIPTION ⭐

So what she does is translate a guest virtual address into a guest absolute address by means of dynamic address translation, exactly as specified by the architecture. iconic behavior honestly 🧚

⚠️ but bestie listen — if the resulting absolute address is not available in the configuration, an addressing exception is indicated and gpa will not be changed. like she simply refuses to touch it, periodt. 💀

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🌈 RETURN 🌈

• zero on success — and gpa contains the resulting absolute address 🎉
• a negative value if the guest access failed, e.g. because of a broken guest mapping 😭
• a positive value if an access exception happened. in that case the returned value is the program interruption code as defined by the architecture, iykyk 👑

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Kernel file ./arch/s390/kvm/s390/gaccess.c and her whole friend group:

• guest_range_to_gpas(9)
• __cmpxchg_with_key(9)
• cmpxchg_guest_abs_with_key(9)
• guest_translate_address_with_key(9)
• check_gva_range(9)
• check_gpa_range(9)
• kvm_s390_check_low_addr_prot_real(9)
• walk_guest_tables(9)
• __gaccess_shadow_fault(9)

like go read them too, they're all slay in their own way 💜

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okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 — this little number lives in ./arch/s390/kvm/s390 and she's dated October 2026, so mark your calendars bestie, guest_translate_gva(9) said see u then 🍓✨