man/man9/vm_map.9

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.Dd July 19, 2003
.Dt VM_MAP 9
.Sh NAME
.Nm vm_map
.Nd virtual address space portion of virtual memory subsystem
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/param.h
.In vm/vm.h
.In vm/vm_map.h
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
subsystem is used to manage virtual address spaces.
This section describes the main data structures used within the code.
.Pp
The
.Fa struct vm_map
is a generic representation of an address space.
This address space may belong to a user process or the kernel.
The kernel actually uses several maps, which are maintained as
subordinate maps, created using the
.Xr vm_map_submap 9
function.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
struct vm_map {
        struct vm_map_entry header;
        struct lock lock;
        struct mtx system_mtx;
        int nentries;
        vm_size_t size;
        u_char needs_wakeup;
        u_char system_map;
        u_char infork;
        vm_map_entry_t root;
        unsigned int timestamp;
        vm_map_entry_t first_free;
        pmap_t pmap;
};
.Ed
.Pp
The fields of
.Vt struct vm_map
are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width needs_wakeupXXX
.It Va header
Head node of a circular, doubly linked list of
.Vt struct vm_map_entry
objects.
Each object defines a particular region within this map's address space.
.It Va lock
Used to serialize access to the structure.
.It Va system_mtx
A mutex which is used if the map is a system map.
.It Va nentries
A count of the members in use within the circular map entry list.
.It Va size
Specifies the size of the virtual address space.
.It Va infork
Indicates if the map structure is currently undergoing fork processing.
.It Va needs_wakeup
Indicates if a thread is waiting for an allocation within the map.
Used only by system maps.
.It Va system_map
Set to TRUE to indicate that map is a system map; otherwise, it belongs
to a user process.
.It Va root
Root node of a binary search tree used for fast lookup of map entries.
.It Va timestamp
Used to determine if the map has changed since its last access.
.It Va first_free
Provides a hint to the first free space within the map.
.It Va pmap
Pointer to the underlying physical map with which this virtual map
is associated.
.El
.Pp
The following flags can be passed to
.Xr vm_map_find 9
and
.Xr vm_map_insert 9
to specify the copy-on-write properties of regions within the map:
.Bl -tag -width MAP_PREFAULT_MADVISEXXX
.It Dv MAP_COPY_ON_WRITE
The mapping is copy-on-write.
.It Dv MAP_NOFAULT
The mapping should not generate page faults.
.It Dv MAP_PREFAULT
The mapping should be prefaulted into physical memory.
.It Dv MAP_PREFAULT_PARTIAL
The mapping should be partially prefaulted into physical memory.
.It Dv MAP_DISABLE_SYNCER
Do not periodically flush dirty pages; only flush them when absolutely
necessary.
.It Dv MAP_DISABLE_COREDUMP
Do not include the mapping in a core dump.
.It Dv MAP_PREFAULT_MADVISE
Specify that the request from a user process calling
.Xr madvise 2 .
.El
.Pp
The
.Vt struct vm_map_entry
is a generic representation of a region.
The region managed by each entry is associated with a
.Vt union vm_map_object ,
described below.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
struct vm_map_entry {
        struct vm_map_entry *prev;
        struct vm_map_entry *next;
        struct vm_map_entry *left;
        struct vm_map_entry *right;
        vm_offset_t start;
        vm_offset_t end;
        vm_offset_t avail_ssize;
        union vm_map_object object;
        vm_ooffset_t offset;
        vm_eflags_t eflags;
        /* Only in task maps: */
        vm_prot_t protection;
        vm_prot_t max_protection;
        vm_inherit_t inheritance;
        int wired_count;
        vm_pindex_t lastr;
};
.Ed
.Pp
The fields of
.Vt struct vm_map_entry
are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width struct_vm_map_objectXXX
.It Va prev
Pointer to the previous node in a doubly-linked, circular list.
.It Va next
Pointer to the next node in a doubly-linked, circular list.
.It Va left
Pointer to the left node in a binary search tree.
.It Va right
Pointer to the right node in a binary search tree.
.It Va start
Lower address bound of this entry's region.
.It Va end
Upper address bound of this entry's region.
.It Va avail_ssize
If the entry is for a process stack, specifies how much the entry can grow.
.It Va object
Pointer to the
.Vt struct vm_map_object
with which this entry is associated.
.It Va offset
Offset within the
.Va object
which is mapped from
.Va start
onwards.
.It Vt eflags
Flags applied to this entry, described below.
.El
.Pp
The following five members are only valid for entries forming part of
a user process's address space:
.Bl -tag -width struct_vm_map_objectXXX
.It Va protection
Memory protection bits applied to this region.
These are identical to those defined for
.Xr vm_page_protect 9 .
.It Va max_protection
Mask for the memory protection bits which may be actually be applied to
this region.
These are identical to those defined for
.Xr vm_page_protect 9 .
.It Va inheritance
Contains flags which specify how this entry should be treated
during fork processing.
.It Va wired_count
Count of how many times this entry has been wired into physical memory.
.It Va lastr
Contains the address of the last read which caused a page fault.
.El
.Pp
The following flags may be applied to each entry, by specifying them
as a mask within the
.Fa eflags
member:
.Bl -tag -width MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_SEQUENTIALXXX
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_NOSYNC
The system should not flush the data associated with this map
periodically, but only when it needs to.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_IS_SUB_MAP
If set, then the
.Va object
member specifies a subordinate map.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_COW
Indicate that this is a copy-on-write region.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_NEEDS_COPY
Indicate that a copy-on-write region needs to be copied.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_NOFAULT
Specifies that accesses within this region should never cause a page fault.
If a page fault occurs within this region, the system will panic.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_USER_WIRED
Indicate that this region was wired on behalf of a user process.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_NORMAL
The system should use the default paging behaviour for this region.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_SEQUENTIAL
The system should depress the priority of pages immediately preceding
each page within this region when faulted in.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_RANDOM
Is a hint that pages within this region will be accessed randomly,
and that prefetching is likely not advantageous.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_IN_TRANSITION
Indicate that wiring or unwiring of an entry is in progress, and that
other kernel threads should not attempt to modify fields in the structure.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_NEEDS_WAKEUP
Indicate that there are kernel threads waiting for this region to become
available.
.It Dv MAP_ENTRY_NOCOREDUMP
The region should not be included in a core dump.
.El
.Pp
The
.Fa inheritance
member has type
.Vt vm_inherit_t .
This governs the inheritance behaviour for a map entry during fork processing.
The following values are defined for
.Vt vm_inherit_t :
.Bl -tag -width VM_INHERIT_DEFAULTXXX
.It Dv VM_INHERIT_SHARE
The object associated with the entry should be cloned and shared
with the new map.
A new
.Vt struct vm_object
will be created if necessary.
.It Dv VM_INHERIT_COPY
The object associated with the entry should be copied to the new map.
.It Dv VM_INHERIT_NONE
The entry should not be copied to the new map.
.It Dv VM_INHERIT_DEFAULT
Specifies the default behaviour,
.Dv VM_INHERIT_COPY .
.El
.Pp
The
.Vt union vm_map_object
is used to specify the structure which a
.Vt struct vm_map_entry
is associated with.
.Pp
The fields of
.Vt union vm_map_object
are as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
union vm_map_object {
        struct vm_object *vm_object;
        struct vm_map *sub_map;
};
.Pp
.Ed
Normally, the
.Va sub_map
member is only used by system maps to indicate that a memory range
is managed by a subordinate system map.
Within a user process map, each
.Vt struct vm_map_entry
is backed by a
.Vt struct vm_object .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr pmap 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_check_protection 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_clean 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_create 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_delete 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_find 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_findspace 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_inherit 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_init 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_insert 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_lock 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_lookup 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_madvise 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_max 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_min 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_pmap 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_protect 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_remove 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_simplify_entry 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_stack 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_submap 9 ,
.Xr vm_map_wire 9 ,
.Xr vm_page_protect 9
.Sh AUTHORS
This manual page was written by
.An Bruce M Simpson Aq bms@spc.org .