[PATCH 1/6] configuration space endian-ness

From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <>

make it all LE and require natural width accesses

resolves VIRTIO-9

Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <>
Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <> (rebase)
---
 virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt | 14 +++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt b/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
index d1b15c6..8340c42 100644
--- a/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
+++ b/virtio-v1.0-wd01-part1-specification.txt
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ o Feature bits
 o Configuration space
 o One or more virtqueues
 
+Unless explicitly specified otherwise, all multi-byte fields are little-endian.
+
 2.1.1. Device Status Field
 -------------------------
 
@@ -203,7 +205,13 @@ Interface' in the section title.
 Configuration space is generally used for rarely-changing or
 initialization-time parameters.
 
-Note that this space is generally the guest's native endian,
+Note that configuration space generally uses the little-endian format
+for multi-byte fields.
+
+100.100.4.1. Legacy Interface: A Note on Configuration Space endian-ness
+--------------------------------------
+
+Note that for legacy interfaces, configuration space is generally the guest's native endian,
 rather than PCI's little-endian.
 
 2.1.4. Virtqueues
@@ -888,8 +896,8 @@ device-specific region can be accessed using any width accesses, and
 should obtain the same results.
 
 Note that this is possible because while the virtio header is PCI
-(i.e. little) endian, the device-specific region is encoded in
-the native endian of the guest (where such distinction is
+(i.e. little) endian, when using the legacy interface the device-specific
+region is encoded in the native endian of the guest (where such distinction is
 applicable).
 
 When used through the legacy interface, the virtio header looks as follows:
-- 
1.8.1.2