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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-09-11 12:16:22 -0400
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-09-11 12:16:22 -0400
commit1b195b170da6d75abafa290deeb8863dc8a4d79b (patch)
treef14c0598958171658938e4a330ed8d44fd7eb698 /Documentation
parent2490138cb785d299d898b579fa2874a59a3d321a (diff)
parentaddd72c1a917091f4bb5e699e307c4c4553f6fd3 (diff)
Merge branch 'kmemleak' of git://linux-arm.org/linux-2.6
* 'kmemleak' of git://linux-arm.org/linux-2.6: kmemleak: Improve the "Early log buffer exceeded" error message kmemleak: fix sparse warning for static declarations kmemleak: fix sparse warning over overshadowed flags kmemleak: move common painting code together kmemleak: add clear command support kmemleak: use bool for true/false questions kmemleak: Do no create the clean-up thread during kmemleak_disable() kmemleak: Scan all thread stacks kmemleak: Don't scan uninitialized memory when kmemcheck is enabled kmemleak: Ignore the aperture memory hole on x86_64 kmemleak: Printing of the objects hex dump kmemleak: Do not report alloc_bootmem blocks as leaks kmemleak: Save the stack trace for early allocations kmemleak: Mark the early log buffer as __initdata kmemleak: Dump object information on request kmemleak: Allow rescheduling during an object scanning
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/kmemleak.txt31
1 files changed, 31 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
index 89068030b01b..34f6638aa5ac 100644
--- a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ To trigger an intermediate memory scan:
27 27
28 # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak 28 # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
29 29
30To clear the list of all current possible memory leaks:
31
32 # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
33
34New leaks will then come up upon reading /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
35again.
36
30Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated 37Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated
31and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent 38and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent
32objects to be reported as orphan. 39objects to be reported as orphan.
@@ -42,6 +49,9 @@ Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the
42 scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds 49 scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds
43 (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning) 50 (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning)
44 scan - trigger a memory scan 51 scan - trigger a memory scan
52 clear - clear list of current memory leak suspects, done by
53 marking all current reported unreferenced objects grey
54 dump=<addr> - dump information about the object found at <addr>
45 55
46Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing "kmemleak=off" on 56Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing "kmemleak=off" on
47the kernel command line. 57the kernel command line.
@@ -86,6 +96,27 @@ avoid this, kmemleak can also store the number of values pointing to an
86address inside the block address range that need to be found so that the 96address inside the block address range that need to be found so that the
87block is not considered a leak. One example is __vmalloc(). 97block is not considered a leak. One example is __vmalloc().
88 98
99Testing specific sections with kmemleak
100---------------------------------------
101
102Upon initial bootup your /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output page may be
103quite extensive. This can also be the case if you have very buggy code
104when doing development. To work around these situations you can use the
105'clear' command to clear all reported unreferenced objects from the
106/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output. By issuing a 'scan' after a 'clear'
107you can find new unreferenced objects; this should help with testing
108specific sections of code.
109
110To test a critical section on demand with a clean kmemleak do:
111
112 # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
113 ... test your kernel or modules ...
114 # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
115
116Then as usual to get your report with:
117
118 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
119
89Kmemleak API 120Kmemleak API
90------------ 121------------
91 122