summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-01-09 14:00:58 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-01-09 14:00:58 -0800
commitc40f6f8bbc4cbd2902671aacd587400ddca62627 (patch)
treea991e5521e10943f4457fb7f494e00aec75cc7df /Documentation
parent1a7d0f0bec4be078ce2cfb11538c0f4ffbbed8e5 (diff)
parentcb6ff208076b5f434db1b8c983429269d719cef5 (diff)
Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dhowells/linux-2.6-nommu
* git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dhowells/linux-2.6-nommu: NOMMU: Support XIP on initramfs NOMMU: Teach kobjsize() about VMA regions. FLAT: Don't attempt to expand the userspace stack to fill the space allocated FDPIC: Don't attempt to expand the userspace stack to fill the space allocated NOMMU: Improve procfs output using per-MM VMAs NOMMU: Make mmap allocation page trimming behaviour configurable. NOMMU: Make VMAs per MM as for MMU-mode linux NOMMU: Delete askedalloc and realalloc variables NOMMU: Rename ARM's struct vm_region NOMMU: Fix cleanup handling in ramfs_nommu_get_umapped_area()
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt31
-rw-r--r--Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt18
2 files changed, 44 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt b/Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt
index 7714f57caad5..b565e8279d13 100644
--- a/Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt
+++ b/Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt
@@ -109,12 +109,18 @@ and it's also much more restricted in the latter case:
FURTHER NOTES ON NO-MMU MMAP
============================
- (*) A request for a private mapping of less than a page in size may not return
- a page-aligned buffer. This is because the kernel calls kmalloc() to
- allocate the buffer, not get_free_page().
+ (*) A request for a private mapping of a file may return a buffer that is not
+ page-aligned. This is because XIP may take place, and the data may not be
+ paged aligned in the backing store.
- (*) A list of all the mappings on the system is visible through /proc/maps in
- no-MMU mode.
+ (*) A request for an anonymous mapping will always be page aligned. If
+ possible the size of the request should be a power of two otherwise some
+ of the space may be wasted as the kernel must allocate a power-of-2
+ granule but will only discard the excess if appropriately configured as
+ this has an effect on fragmentation.
+
+ (*) A list of all the private copy and anonymous mappings on the system is
+ visible through /proc/maps in no-MMU mode.
(*) A list of all the mappings in use by a process is visible through
/proc/<pid>/maps in no-MMU mode.
@@ -242,3 +248,18 @@ PROVIDING SHAREABLE BLOCK DEVICE SUPPORT
Provision of shared mappings on block device files is exactly the same as for
character devices. If there isn't a real device underneath, then the driver
should allocate sufficient contiguous memory to honour any supported mapping.
+
+
+=================================
+ADJUSTING PAGE TRIMMING BEHAVIOUR
+=================================
+
+NOMMU mmap automatically rounds up to the nearest power-of-2 number of pages
+when performing an allocation. This can have adverse effects on memory
+fragmentation, and as such, is left configurable. The default behaviour is to
+aggressively trim allocations and discard any excess pages back in to the page
+allocator. In order to retain finer-grained control over fragmentation, this
+behaviour can either be disabled completely, or bumped up to a higher page
+watermark where trimming begins.
+
+Page trimming behaviour is configurable via the sysctl `vm.nr_trim_pages'.
diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
index cd05994a49e6..a3415070bcac 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/vm:
- numa_zonelist_order
- nr_hugepages
- nr_overcommit_hugepages
+- nr_trim_pages (only if CONFIG_MMU=n)
==============================================================
@@ -348,3 +349,20 @@ Change the maximum size of the hugepage pool. The maximum is
nr_hugepages + nr_overcommit_hugepages.
See Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt
+
+==============================================================
+
+nr_trim_pages
+
+This is available only on NOMMU kernels.
+
+This value adjusts the excess page trimming behaviour of power-of-2 aligned
+NOMMU mmap allocations.
+
+A value of 0 disables trimming of allocations entirely, while a value of 1
+trims excess pages aggressively. Any value >= 1 acts as the watermark where
+trimming of allocations is initiated.
+
+The default value is 1.
+
+See Documentation/nommu-mmap.txt for more information.