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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-06-30 19:04:53 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-06-30 19:04:53 -0700
commite83c2b0ff325f52dda1aff3572d0e1516216c54b (patch)
tree0d9dd56df33a308d03c8ac2d666826017777f0cf /Documentation
parent9fcfc91bda04259abb9af2fd83bbf48d19da8502 (diff)
parent12de38b186c2af97bf0b4a1f907f766df46b1def (diff)
Merge branch 'kmemleak' of git://linux-arm.org/linux-2.6
* 'kmemleak' of git://linux-arm.org/linux-2.6: kmemleak: Inform kmemleak about pid_hash kmemleak: Do not warn if an unknown object is freed kmemleak: Do not report new leaked objects if the scanning was stopped kmemleak: Slightly change the policy on newly allocated objects kmemleak: Do not trigger a scan when reading the debug/kmemleak file kmemleak: Simplify the reports logged by the scanning thread kmemleak: Enable task stacks scanning by default kmemleak: Allow the early log buffer to be configurable.
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/kmemleak.txt23
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
index 0112da3b9ab8..89068030b01b 100644
--- a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
@@ -16,13 +16,17 @@ Usage
-----
CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel
-thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints any new
-unreferenced objects found. To trigger an intermediate scan and display
-all the possible memory leaks:
+thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints the
+number of new unreferenced objects found. To display the details of all
+the possible memory leaks:
# mount -t debugfs nodev /sys/kernel/debug/
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
+To trigger an intermediate memory scan:
+
+ # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
+
Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated
and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent
objects to be reported as orphan.
@@ -31,16 +35,21 @@ Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the
/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak file. The following parameters are supported:
off - disable kmemleak (irreversible)
- stack=on - enable the task stacks scanning
+ stack=on - enable the task stacks scanning (default)
stack=off - disable the tasks stacks scanning
- scan=on - start the automatic memory scanning thread
+ scan=on - start the automatic memory scanning thread (default)
scan=off - stop the automatic memory scanning thread
- scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds (0
- to disable it)
+ scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds
+ (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning)
+ scan - trigger a memory scan
Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing "kmemleak=off" on
the kernel command line.
+Memory may be allocated or freed before kmemleak is initialised and
+these actions are stored in an early log buffer. The size of this buffer
+is configured via the CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_EARLY_LOG_SIZE option.
+
Basic Algorithm
---------------