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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
commit | 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch) | |
tree | 0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt |
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history,
even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git
archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about
3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early
git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good
infrastructure for it.
Let it rip!
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1 | |||
2 | The intent of this file is to give a brief summary of hugetlbpage support in | ||
3 | the Linux kernel. This support is built on top of multiple page size support | ||
4 | that is provided by most modern architectures. For example, i386 | ||
5 | architecture supports 4K and 4M (2M in PAE mode) page sizes, ia64 | ||
6 | architecture supports multiple page sizes 4K, 8K, 64K, 256K, 1M, 4M, 16M, | ||
7 | 256M and ppc64 supports 4K and 16M. A TLB is a cache of virtual-to-physical | ||
8 | translations. Typically this is a very scarce resource on processor. | ||
9 | Operating systems try to make best use of limited number of TLB resources. | ||
10 | This optimization is more critical now as bigger and bigger physical memories | ||
11 | (several GBs) are more readily available. | ||
12 | |||
13 | Users can use the huge page support in Linux kernel by either using the mmap | ||
14 | system call or standard SYSv shared memory system calls (shmget, shmat). | ||
15 | |||
16 | First the Linux kernel needs to be built with CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE (present | ||
17 | under Processor types and feature) and CONFIG_HUGETLBFS (present under file | ||
18 | system option on config menu) config options. | ||
19 | |||
20 | The kernel built with hugepage support should show the number of configured | ||
21 | hugepages in the system by running the "cat /proc/meminfo" command. | ||
22 | |||
23 | /proc/meminfo also provides information about the total number of hugetlb | ||
24 | pages configured in the kernel. It also displays information about the | ||
25 | number of free hugetlb pages at any time. It also displays information about | ||
26 | the configured hugepage size - this is needed for generating the proper | ||
27 | alignment and size of the arguments to the above system calls. | ||
28 | |||
29 | The output of "cat /proc/meminfo" will have output like: | ||
30 | |||
31 | ..... | ||
32 | HugePages_Total: xxx | ||
33 | HugePages_Free: yyy | ||
34 | Hugepagesize: zzz KB | ||
35 | |||
36 | /proc/filesystems should also show a filesystem of type "hugetlbfs" configured | ||
37 | in the kernel. | ||
38 | |||
39 | /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages indicates the current number of configured hugetlb | ||
40 | pages in the kernel. Super user can dynamically request more (or free some | ||
41 | pre-configured) hugepages. | ||
42 | The allocation( or deallocation) of hugetlb pages is posible only if there are | ||
43 | enough physically contiguous free pages in system (freeing of hugepages is | ||
44 | possible only if there are enough hugetlb pages free that can be transfered | ||
45 | back to regular memory pool). | ||
46 | |||
47 | Pages that are used as hugetlb pages are reserved inside the kernel and can | ||
48 | not be used for other purposes. | ||
49 | |||
50 | Once the kernel with Hugetlb page support is built and running, a user can | ||
51 | use either the mmap system call or shared memory system calls to start using | ||
52 | the huge pages. It is required that the system administrator preallocate | ||
53 | enough memory for huge page purposes. | ||
54 | |||
55 | Use the following command to dynamically allocate/deallocate hugepages: | ||
56 | |||
57 | echo 20 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages | ||
58 | |||
59 | This command will try to configure 20 hugepages in the system. The success | ||
60 | or failure of allocation depends on the amount of physically contiguous | ||
61 | memory that is preset in system at this time. System administrators may want | ||
62 | to put this command in one of the local rc init file. This will enable the | ||
63 | kernel to request huge pages early in the boot process (when the possibility | ||
64 | of getting physical contiguous pages is still very high). | ||
65 | |||
66 | If the user applications are going to request hugepages using mmap system | ||
67 | call, then it is required that system administrator mount a file system of | ||
68 | type hugetlbfs: | ||
69 | |||
70 | mount none /mnt/huge -t hugetlbfs <uid=value> <gid=value> <mode=value> | ||
71 | <size=value> <nr_inodes=value> | ||
72 | |||
73 | This command mounts a (pseudo) filesystem of type hugetlbfs on the directory | ||
74 | /mnt/huge. Any files created on /mnt/huge uses hugepages. The uid and gid | ||
75 | options sets the owner and group of the root of the file system. By default | ||
76 | the uid and gid of the current process are taken. The mode option sets the | ||
77 | mode of root of file system to value & 0777. This value is given in octal. | ||
78 | By default the value 0755 is picked. The size option sets the maximum value of | ||
79 | memory (huge pages) allowed for that filesystem (/mnt/huge). The size is | ||
80 | rounded down to HPAGE_SIZE. The option nr_inode sets the maximum number of | ||
81 | inodes that /mnt/huge can use. If the size or nr_inode options are not | ||
82 | provided on command line then no limits are set. For size and nr_inodes | ||
83 | options, you can use [G|g]/[M|m]/[K|k] to represent giga/mega/kilo. For | ||
84 | example, size=2K has the same meaning as size=2048. An example is given at | ||
85 | the end of this document. | ||
86 | |||
87 | read and write system calls are not supported on files that reside on hugetlb | ||
88 | file systems. | ||
89 | |||
90 | A regular chown, chgrp and chmod commands (with right permissions) could be | ||
91 | used to change the file attributes on hugetlbfs. | ||
92 | |||
93 | Also, it is important to note that no such mount command is required if the | ||
94 | applications are going to use only shmat/shmget system calls. Users who | ||
95 | wish to use hugetlb page via shared memory segment should be a member of | ||
96 | a supplementary group and system admin needs to configure that gid into | ||
97 | /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group. It is possible for same or different | ||
98 | applications to use any combination of mmaps and shm* calls. Though the | ||
99 | mount of filesystem will be required for using mmaps. | ||
100 | |||
101 | ******************************************************************* | ||
102 | |||
103 | /* | ||
104 | * Example of using hugepage memory in a user application using Sys V shared | ||
105 | * memory system calls. In this example the app is requesting 256MB of | ||
106 | * memory that is backed by huge pages. The application uses the flag | ||
107 | * SHM_HUGETLB in the shmget system call to inform the kernel that it is | ||
108 | * requesting hugepages. | ||
109 | * | ||
110 | * For the ia64 architecture, the Linux kernel reserves Region number 4 for | ||
111 | * hugepages. That means the addresses starting with 0x800000... will need | ||
112 | * to be specified. Specifying a fixed address is not required on ppc64, | ||
113 | * i386 or x86_64. | ||
114 | * | ||
115 | * Note: The default shared memory limit is quite low on many kernels, | ||
116 | * you may need to increase it via: | ||
117 | * | ||
118 | * echo 268435456 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax | ||
119 | * | ||
120 | * This will increase the maximum size per shared memory segment to 256MB. | ||
121 | * The other limit that you will hit eventually is shmall which is the | ||
122 | * total amount of shared memory in pages. To set it to 16GB on a system | ||
123 | * with a 4kB pagesize do: | ||
124 | * | ||
125 | * echo 4194304 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmall | ||
126 | */ | ||
127 | #include <stdlib.h> | ||
128 | #include <stdio.h> | ||
129 | #include <sys/types.h> | ||
130 | #include <sys/ipc.h> | ||
131 | #include <sys/shm.h> | ||
132 | #include <sys/mman.h> | ||
133 | |||
134 | #ifndef SHM_HUGETLB | ||
135 | #define SHM_HUGETLB 04000 | ||
136 | #endif | ||
137 | |||
138 | #define LENGTH (256UL*1024*1024) | ||
139 | |||
140 | #define dprintf(x) printf(x) | ||
141 | |||
142 | /* Only ia64 requires this */ | ||
143 | #ifdef __ia64__ | ||
144 | #define ADDR (void *)(0x8000000000000000UL) | ||
145 | #define SHMAT_FLAGS (SHM_RND) | ||
146 | #else | ||
147 | #define ADDR (void *)(0x0UL) | ||
148 | #define SHMAT_FLAGS (0) | ||
149 | #endif | ||
150 | |||
151 | int main(void) | ||
152 | { | ||
153 | int shmid; | ||
154 | unsigned long i; | ||
155 | char *shmaddr; | ||
156 | |||
157 | if ((shmid = shmget(2, LENGTH, | ||
158 | SHM_HUGETLB | IPC_CREAT | SHM_R | SHM_W)) < 0) { | ||
159 | perror("shmget"); | ||
160 | exit(1); | ||
161 | } | ||
162 | printf("shmid: 0x%x\n", shmid); | ||
163 | |||
164 | shmaddr = shmat(shmid, ADDR, SHMAT_FLAGS); | ||
165 | if (shmaddr == (char *)-1) { | ||
166 | perror("Shared memory attach failure"); | ||
167 | shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, NULL); | ||
168 | exit(2); | ||
169 | } | ||
170 | printf("shmaddr: %p\n", shmaddr); | ||
171 | |||
172 | dprintf("Starting the writes:\n"); | ||
173 | for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++) { | ||
174 | shmaddr[i] = (char)(i); | ||
175 | if (!(i % (1024 * 1024))) | ||
176 | dprintf("."); | ||
177 | } | ||
178 | dprintf("\n"); | ||
179 | |||
180 | dprintf("Starting the Check..."); | ||
181 | for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++) | ||
182 | if (shmaddr[i] != (char)i) | ||
183 | printf("\nIndex %lu mismatched\n", i); | ||
184 | dprintf("Done.\n"); | ||
185 | |||
186 | if (shmdt((const void *)shmaddr) != 0) { | ||
187 | perror("Detach failure"); | ||
188 | shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, NULL); | ||
189 | exit(3); | ||
190 | } | ||
191 | |||
192 | shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, NULL); | ||
193 | |||
194 | return 0; | ||
195 | } | ||
196 | |||
197 | ******************************************************************* | ||
198 | |||
199 | /* | ||
200 | * Example of using hugepage memory in a user application using the mmap | ||
201 | * system call. Before running this application, make sure that the | ||
202 | * administrator has mounted the hugetlbfs filesystem (on some directory | ||
203 | * like /mnt) using the command mount -t hugetlbfs nodev /mnt. In this | ||
204 | * example, the app is requesting memory of size 256MB that is backed by | ||
205 | * huge pages. | ||
206 | * | ||
207 | * For ia64 architecture, Linux kernel reserves Region number 4 for hugepages. | ||
208 | * That means the addresses starting with 0x800000... will need to be | ||
209 | * specified. Specifying a fixed address is not required on ppc64, i386 | ||
210 | * or x86_64. | ||
211 | */ | ||
212 | #include <stdlib.h> | ||
213 | #include <stdio.h> | ||
214 | #include <unistd.h> | ||
215 | #include <sys/mman.h> | ||
216 | #include <fcntl.h> | ||
217 | |||
218 | #define FILE_NAME "/mnt/hugepagefile" | ||
219 | #define LENGTH (256UL*1024*1024) | ||
220 | #define PROTECTION (PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE) | ||
221 | |||
222 | /* Only ia64 requires this */ | ||
223 | #ifdef __ia64__ | ||
224 | #define ADDR (void *)(0x8000000000000000UL) | ||
225 | #define FLAGS (MAP_SHARED | MAP_FIXED) | ||
226 | #else | ||
227 | #define ADDR (void *)(0x0UL) | ||
228 | #define FLAGS (MAP_SHARED) | ||
229 | #endif | ||
230 | |||
231 | void check_bytes(char *addr) | ||
232 | { | ||
233 | printf("First hex is %x\n", *((unsigned int *)addr)); | ||
234 | } | ||
235 | |||
236 | void write_bytes(char *addr) | ||
237 | { | ||
238 | unsigned long i; | ||
239 | |||
240 | for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++) | ||
241 | *(addr + i) = (char)i; | ||
242 | } | ||
243 | |||
244 | void read_bytes(char *addr) | ||
245 | { | ||
246 | unsigned long i; | ||
247 | |||
248 | check_bytes(addr); | ||
249 | for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++) | ||
250 | if (*(addr + i) != (char)i) { | ||
251 | printf("Mismatch at %lu\n", i); | ||
252 | break; | ||
253 | } | ||
254 | } | ||
255 | |||
256 | int main(void) | ||
257 | { | ||
258 | void *addr; | ||
259 | int fd; | ||
260 | |||
261 | fd = open(FILE_NAME, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, 0755); | ||
262 | if (fd < 0) { | ||
263 | perror("Open failed"); | ||
264 | exit(1); | ||
265 | } | ||
266 | |||
267 | addr = mmap(ADDR, LENGTH, PROTECTION, FLAGS, fd, 0); | ||
268 | if (addr == MAP_FAILED) { | ||
269 | perror("mmap"); | ||
270 | unlink(FILE_NAME); | ||
271 | exit(1); | ||
272 | } | ||
273 | |||
274 | printf("Returned address is %p\n", addr); | ||
275 | check_bytes(addr); | ||
276 | write_bytes(addr); | ||
277 | read_bytes(addr); | ||
278 | |||
279 | munmap(addr, LENGTH); | ||
280 | close(fd); | ||
281 | unlink(FILE_NAME); | ||
282 | |||
283 | return 0; | ||
284 | } | ||