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Linux kernel memory management Part 1.
Introduction
Memory management is a one of the most complex (and I think that it is the most complex) parts of the operating system kernel. In the last preparations before the kernel entry point part we stopped right before call of the start_kernel function. This function initializes all the kernel features (including architecture-dependent features) before the kernel runs the first init process. You may remember as we built early page tables, identity page tables and fixmap page tables in the boot time. No compilcated memory management is working yet. When the start_kernel function is called we will see the transition to more complex data structures and techniques for memory management. For a good understanding of the initialization process in the linux kernel we need to have clear understanding of the techniques. This chapter will provide an overview of the different parts of the linux kernel memory management framework and its API, starting from the memblock.
Memblock
Memblock is one of methods of managing memory regions during the early bootstrap period while the usual kernel memory allocators are not up and
running yet. Previously it was called - Logical Memory Block, but from the patch by Yinghai Lu, it was renamed to the memblock. As Linux kernel for x86_64 architecture uses this method. We already met memblock in the Last preparations before the kernel entry point part. And now time to get acquainted with it closer. We will see how it is implemented.
We will start to learn memblock from the data structures. Definitions of the all data structures can be found in the include/linux/memblock.h header file.
The first structure has the same name as this part and it is:
struct memblock {
bool bottom_up;
phys_addr_t current_limit;
struct memblock_type memory; --> array of memblock_region
struct memblock_type reserved; --> array of memblock_region
#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_PHYS_MAP
struct memblock_type physmem;
#endif
};
This structure contains five fields. First is bottom_up which allows to allocate memory in bottom-up mode when it is true. Next field is current_limit. This field describes the limit size of the memory block. The next three fields describes the type of the memory block. It can be: reserved, memory and physical memory if CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_PHYS_MAP configuration option is enabled. Now we met yet another data structure - memblock_type. Let's look on its definition:
struct memblock_type {
unsigned long cnt;
unsigned long max;
phys_addr_t total_size;
struct memblock_region *regions;
};
This structure provides information about memory type. It contains fields which describe number of memory regions which are inside current memory block, size of the all memory regions, size of the allocated array of the memory regions and pointer to the array of the memblock_region structures. memblock_region is a structure which describes memory region. Its definition looks:
struct memblock_region {
phys_addr_t base;
phys_addr_t size;
unsigned long flags;
#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_NODE_MAP
int nid;
#endif
};
memblock_region provides base address and size of the memory region, flags which can be:
#define MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ANYWHERE (~(phys_addr_t)0)
#define MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ACCESSIBLE 0
#define MEMBLOCK_HOTPLUG 0x1
Also memblock_region provides integer field - numa node selector, if CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_NODE_MAP configuration option is enabled.
Schematically we can imagine it as:
+---------------------------+ +---------------------------+
| memblock | | |
| _______________________ | | |
| | memory | | | Array of the |
| | memblock_type |-|-->| membock_region |
| |_______________________| | | |
| | +---------------------------+
| _______________________ | +---------------------------+
| | reserved | | | |
| | memblock_type |-|-->| Array of the |
| |_______________________| | | memblock_region |
| | | |
+---------------------------+ +---------------------------+
These three structures: memblock, memblock_type and memblock_region are main in the Memblock. Now we know about it and can look at Memblock initialization process.
Memblock initialization
As all API of the memblock described in the include/linux/memblock.h header file, all implementation of these function is in the mm/memblock.c source code file. Let's look on the top of source code file and we will look there initialization of the memblock structure:
struct memblock memblock __initdata_memblock = {
.memory.regions = memblock_memory_init_regions,
.memory.cnt = 1,
.memory.max = INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS,
.reserved.regions = memblock_reserved_init_regions,
.reserved.cnt = 1,
.reserved.max = INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS,
#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_PHYS_MAP
.physmem.regions = memblock_physmem_init_regions,
.physmem.cnt = 1,
.physmem.max = INIT_PHYSMEM_REGIONS,
#endif
.bottom_up = false,
.current_limit = MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ANYWHERE,
};
Here we can see initialization of the memblock structure which has the same name as structure - memblock. First of all note on __initdata_memblock. Defenition of this macro looks like:
#ifdef CONFIG_ARCH_DISCARD_MEMBLOCK
#define __init_memblock __meminit
#define __initdata_memblock __meminitdata
#else
#define __init_memblock
#define __initdata_memblock
#endif
You can note that it depends on CONFIG_ARCH_DISCARD_MEMBLOCK. If this configuration option is enabled, memblock code will be put to the .init section and it will be released after the kernel is booted up.
Next we can see initialization of the memblock_type memory, memblock_type reserved and memblock_type physmem fields of the memblock structure. Here we interesting only in the memblock_type.regions initialization process. Note that every memblock_type field initialized by the arrays of the memblock_region:
static struct memblock_region memblock_memory_init_regions[INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS] __initdata_memblock;
static struct memblock_region memblock_reserved_init_regions[INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS] __initdata_memblock;
#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK_PHYS_MAP
static struct memblock_region memblock_physmem_init_regions[INIT_PHYSMEM_REGIONS] __initdata_memblock;
#endif
Every array contains 128 memory regions. We can see it in the INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS macro definition:
#define INIT_MEMBLOCK_REGIONS 128
Note that all arrays are also defined with the __initdata_memblock macro which we already saw in the memblock strucutre initialization (read above if you've forgot).
The last two fields describe that bottom_up allocation is disabled and the limit of the current Memblock is:
#define MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ANYWHERE (~(phys_addr_t)0)
which is 0xffffffffffffffff.
On this step initialization of the memblock structure finished and we can look on the Memblock API.
Memblock API
Ok we have finished with initilization of the memblock structure and now we can look on the Memblock API and its implementation. As i said about, all implementation of the memblock presented in the mm/memblock.c. To understand how memblock works and implemented, let's look on it's usage first of all. There are a couple of places in the linux kernel where memblock is used. For example let's take memblock_x86_fill function from the arch/x86/kernel/e820.c. This function goes through the memory map provided by the e820 and adds memory regions reserved by the kernel to the memblock with the memblock_add function. As we met memblock_add function first, let's start from it.
This function takes physical base address and size of the memory region and adds it to the memblock. memblock_add function does not anything special in its body, but just calls:
memblock_add_range(&memblock.memory, base, size, MAX_NUMNODES, 0);
function. We pass memory block type - memory, physical base address and size of the memory region, maximum number of nodes which are zero if CONFIG_NODES_SHIFT is not set in the configuration file or CONFIG_NODES_SHIFT if it is set, and flags. memblock_add_range function adds new memory region to the memory block. It starts from check the size of the given region and if it is zero just return. After this, memblock_add_range check existence of the memory regions in the memblock structure with the given memblock_type. If there are no memory regions, we just fill new memory_region with the given values and return (we already saw implementation of this in the First touch of the linux kernel memory manager framework). If memblock_type is no empty, we start to add new memory region to the memblock with the given memblock_type.
First of all we get the end of the memory region with the:
phys_addr_t end = base + memblock_cap_size(base, &size);
memblock_cap_size adjusts size that base + size will not overflow. Its implementation pretty easy:
static inline phys_addr_t memblock_cap_size(phys_addr_t base, phys_addr_t *size)
{
return *size = min(*size, (phys_addr_t)ULLONG_MAX - base);
}
memblock_cap_size returns new size which is the smallest value between the given size and base.
After that we got end address of the new memory region, memblock_add_region checks overlap and merge condititions with already added memory regions. Insertion of the new memory region to the memblcok consists from two steps:
- Adding of non-overlapping parts of the new memory area as separate regions;
- Merging of all neighbouring regions.
We are going throuth the all already stored memory regions and check overlapping:
for (i = 0; i < type->cnt; i++) {
struct memblock_region *rgn = &type->regions[i];
phys_addr_t rbase = rgn->base;
phys_addr_t rend = rbase + rgn->size;
if (rbase >= end)
break;
if (rend <= base)
continue;
...
...
...
}
if new memory region does not overlap regions which are already stored in the memblock, insert this region into the memblock with and this is first step, we check that new region can fit into the memory block and call memblock_double_array in other way:
while (type->cnt + nr_new > type->max)
if (memblock_double_array(type, obase, size) < 0)
return -ENOMEM;
insert = true;
goto repeat;
memblock_double_array doubles the size of the given regions array. Than we set insert to the true and go to the repeat label. In the second step, starting from the repeat label we go through the same loop and insert current memory region into the memory block with the memblock_insert_region function:
if (base < end) {
nr_new++;
if (insert)
memblock_insert_region(type, i, base, end - base,
nid, flags);
}
As we set insert to true in the first step, now memblock_insert_region will be called. memblock_insert_region has almost the same implemetation that we saw when we insert new region to the empty memblock_type (see above). This function get the last memory region:
struct memblock_region *rgn = &type->regions[idx];
and copies memory area with memmove:
memmove(rgn + 1, rgn, (type->cnt - idx) * sizeof(*rgn));
After this fills memblock_region fields of the new memory region base, size and etc... and increase size of the memblock_type. In the end of the exution, memblock_add_range calls memblock_merge_regions which merges neighboring compatible regions in the second step.
In the second case new memory region can overlap already stored regions. For example we already have region1 in the memblock:
0 0x1000
+-----------------------+
| |
| |
| region1 |
| |
| |
+-----------------------+
And now we want to add region2 to the memblock with the following base address and size:
0x100 0x2000
+-----------------------+
| |
| |
| region2 |
| |
| |
+-----------------------+
In this case set the base address of the new memory region as the end address of the overlapped region with:
base = min(rend, end);
So it will be 0x1000 in our case. And insert it as we did it already in the second step with:
if (base < end) {
nr_new++;
if (insert)
memblock_insert_region(type, i, base, end - base, nid, flags);
}
In this case we insert overlapping portion (we insert only higher portion, because lower already in the overlapped memory region), than remaining portion and merge these portions with memblock_merge_regions. As i said above memblock_merge_regions function merges neighboring compatible regions. It goes through the all memory regions from the given memblock_type, takes two neighboring memory regions - type->regions[i] and type->regions[i + 1] and checks that these regions have the same flags, belong to the same node and that end address of the first regions is not equal to the base address of the second region:
while (i < type->cnt - 1) {
struct memblock_region *this = &type->regions[i];
struct memblock_region *next = &type->regions[i + 1];
if (this->base + this->size != next->base ||
memblock_get_region_node(this) !=
memblock_get_region_node(next) ||
this->flags != next->flags) {
BUG_ON(this->base + this->size > next->base);
i++;
continue;
}
If none of these conditions are not true, we update the size of the first region with the size of the next region:
this->size += next->size;
As we update the size of the first memory region with the size of the next memory region, we copy every (in the loop) memory region which is after the current (this) memory region on the one index ago with the memmove function:
memmove(next, next + 1, (type->cnt - (i + 2)) * sizeof(*next));
And decrease the count of the memory regions which are belongs to the memblock_type:
type->cnt--;
After this we will get two memory regions merged into one:
0 0x2000
+------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| region1 |
| |
| |
+------------------------------------------------+
That's all. This is the whole principle of the work of the memblock_add_range function.
There is also memblock_reserve function which does the same as memblock_add, but only with one difference. It stores memblock_type.reserved in the memblock instead of memblock_type.memory.
Of course it is not full API. Memblock provides API for not only adding memory and reserved memory regions, but also:
- memblock_remove - removes memory region from memblock;
- memblock_find_in_range - finds free area in given range;
- memblock_free - releases memory region in memblock;
- for_each_mem_range - iterates through memblock areas.
and many more....
Getting info about memory regions
Memblock also provides API for the getting information about allocated memorey regions in the memblcok. It splitted on two parts:
- get_allocated_memblock_memory_regions_info - getting info about memory regions;
- get_allocated_memblock_reserved_regions_info - getting info about reserved regions.
Implementation of these function is easy. Let's look on get_allocated_memblock_reserved_regions_info for example:
phys_addr_t __init_memblock get_allocated_memblock_reserved_regions_info(
phys_addr_t *addr)
{
if (memblock.reserved.regions == memblock_reserved_init_regions)
return 0;
*addr = __pa(memblock.reserved.regions);
return PAGE_ALIGN(sizeof(struct memblock_region) *
memblock.reserved.max);
}
First of all this function checks that memblock contains reserved memory regions. If memblock does not contain reserved memory regions we just return zero. In other way we write physical address of the reserved memory regions array to the given address and return aligned size of the allicated aray. Note that there is PAGE_ALIGN macro used for align. Actually it depends on size of page:
#define PAGE_ALIGN(addr) ALIGN(addr, PAGE_SIZE)
Implementation of the get_allocated_memblock_memory_regions_info function is the same. It has only one difference, memblock_type.memory used instead of memblock_type.memory.
Memblock debugging
There are many calls of the memblock_dbg in the memblock implementation. If you will pass memblock=debug option to the kernel command line, this function will be called. Actually memblock_dbg is just a macro which expands to the printk:
#define memblock_dbg(fmt, ...) \
if (memblock_debug) printk(KERN_INFO pr_fmt(fmt), ##__VA_ARGS__)
For example you can see call of this macro in the memblock_reserve function:
memblock_dbg("memblock_reserve: [%#016llx-%#016llx] flags %#02lx %pF\n",
(unsigned long long)base,
(unsigned long long)base + size - 1,
flags, (void *)_RET_IP_);
And you must see something like this:
Memblock has also support in debugfs. If you run kernel not in X86 architecture you can access:
- /sys/kernel/debug/memblock/memory
- /sys/kernel/debug/memblock/reserved
- /sys/kernel/debug/memblock/physmem
for getting dump of the memblock contents.
Conclusion
This is the end of the first part about linux kernel memory management. If you have questions or suggestions, ping me in twitter 0xAX, drop me email or just create issue.
Please note that English is not my first language and I am really sorry for any inconvenience. If you found any mistakes please send me PR to linux-internals.