Re: [GIT] NOMMU mmap changes

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Tue Dec 30 2008 - 03:44:00 EST


On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:42:06 +0000 David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Can you pull the attached request please? It makes the following changes:
>
> (1) Discard the askedalloc and realalloc variables from NOMMU mmap as nothing
> uses the values computed.
>
> (2) Stop ELF-FDPIC and FLAT binary formats from using kobjsize() by stopping
> them from attempting to expand the stack segments to use the full amount
> allocated (we'd like to get rid of kobjsize()).
>
> (3) Support XIP on initramfs. This is simply a matter of using truncate() to
> pre-size the files ramfs files so generated so that they are constructed
> from contiguous pages, and so can be mapped in place with NOMMU mmap().
>
> (4) Make NOMMU VMAs per-MM as for MMU-mode Linux. Whilst this uses more
> memory, it also fixes a couple of bugs:
>
> (*) The SYSV SHM nattch count for a segment must reflect the number of
> attachments made, but since attachments were being shared, it did
> not.
>
> (*) The VMA's vm_mm is set to point to the parent mm by an exec'ing
> process when VM_EXECUTABLE is specified, but vm_mm was being shared
> by all the processes that shared that VMA.
>
> (5) NOMMU private non-shared mmaps are allocated with alloc_pages() rather
> than kmalloc(), and without using __GFP_COMP. This makes handling of
> the pages in an mmap() region simpler. Excess space can be trimmed after
> allocation (configurable in /proc/sys).
>
> (6) A new struct (vm_region) is introduced to track mapped regions in NOMMU
> mode, and to handle the sharing of backing stores. This required the
> vm_region structs of PowerPC and ARM to be renamed (the former patch has
> been pulled via the ppc tree).
>
> (7) NOMMU VMAs are attached to their parent inodes as for MMU VMAs.
>
> (8) munmap() may do a partial unmapping.
>
> (9) Core dumping for ELF-FDPIC is simplified as the NOMMU- and MMU-mode code
> behaves more similarly.
>
> (10) /proc/maps provided in NOMMU mode now shows the regions allocated rather
> than the common VMA list. /proc/meminfo now shows the amount of RAM
> currently allocated to private copies by private mmaps.
>
> These patches have had some soak time in linux-next. I've also applied them
> as-are to the latest merge window and tested that on my FRV board.
>
> David
> ---
> The following changes since commit 1bda71282ded6a2e09a2db7c8884542fb46bfd4f:
> Linus Torvalds (1):
> Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/.../ieee1394/linux1394-2.6
>
> are available in the git repository at:
>
> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dhowells/linux-2.6-nommu.git master
>
> David Howells (8):
> NOMMU: Rename PowerPC's struct vm_region
> NOMMU: Rename ARM's struct vm_region
> NOMMU: Delete askedalloc and realalloc variables
> NOMMU: Make VMAs per MM as for MMU-mode linux
> NOMMU: Improve procfs output using per-MM VMAs
> FDPIC: Don't attempt to expand the userspace stack to fill the space allocated
> FLAT: Don't attempt to expand the userspace stack to fill the space allocated
> NOMMU: Support XIP on initramfs
>
> Matt Mackall (1):
> shmem: remove unused shmem_get_unmapped_area
>
> Paul Mundt (2):
> NOMMU: Make mmap allocation page trimming behaviour configurable.
> NOMMU: Teach kobjsize() about VMA regions.

hm, has this all been suitably reviewed/publicised? afacit "Make VMAs
per MM as for MMU-mode linux" hasn't been published since mid-2007.
Maybe my googling fails me. The introduction of the new (albeit
apparently nommu-only) MM type `vm_region' is worth telling people about.

<has a quick peek>

The mmap_pages_allocated handling looks odd. It's incremented when
pages are allocated, but it's decremented at put_page()-time. But
put_page() won't necessarily return the page to the page allocator?

The conversion of arm's vm_region to arm_vm_region somehow missed
several code comments.

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/