[coyotos-dev] i386 PTE question...

[Jeroen C. Visser]

Apologies for following up to self, but...

On Jan 14, 2008 1:13 PM, Jeroen C. Visser <jeroen.c.visser at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm seeking some help wrapping my head around the i386 PageFault code.
> In particular I'd like to understand how and when the SW0 and SW2 bits
> (RESTR_WK and soft valid) in the IA32 PTEs are intended to be used.
>
> These bits are presently read from within the readPTE function
> exclusively. But readPTE is dead code in the current Coyotos.

The only other reader is the hwmap_dump_* debug routines in hwmap.c.

> The soft-valid bit would seem intended to help support cap pages
> (which would be hard invalid, soft valid)? What about the WK bit?

Perhaps the WK bit is mainly a debugging aid?

-JCV