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NAME
vm_map - virtual address space portion of virtual memory subsystem
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/param.h>
#include <vm/vm.h>
#include <vm/vm_map.h>
DESCRIPTION
The vm_map subsystem is used to manage virtual address spaces. This sec‐
tion describes the main data structures used within the code.
The 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 vm_map_submap(9) function.
struct vm_map {
struct vm_map_entry header;
struct sx lock;
struct mtx system_mtx;
int nentries;
vm_size_t size;
u_int timestamp;
u_char needs_wakeup;
u_char system_map;
vm_flags_t flags;
vm_map_entry_t root;
pmap_t pmap;
#define min_offset header.start
#define max_offset header.end
};
The fields of struct vm_map are as follows:
header Head node of a circular, doubly linked list of struct
vm_map_entry objects. Each object defines a particular
region within this map’s address space.
lock Used to serialize access to the structure.
system_mtx A mutex which is used if the map is a system map.
nentries A count of the members in use within the circular map entry
list.
size Specifies the size of the virtual address space.
timestamp Used to determine if the map has changed since its last
access.
needs_wakeup Indicates if a thread is waiting for an allocation within
the map. Used only by system maps.
system_map Set to TRUE to indicate that map is a system map; other‐
wise, it belongs to a user process.
flags Map flags, described below.
root Root node of a binary search tree used for fast lookup of
map entries.
pmap Pointer to the underlying physical map with which this vir‐
tual map is associated.
min_offset The minimum vm_offset_t in this map. Programs should never
use header.start or header.end directly, use min_offset and
max_offset instead.
max_offset The maximum vm_offset_t in this map.
There is one possible map flag:
MAP_WIREFUTURE Wire all future pages in this map.
The following flags can be passed to vm_map_find(9) and vm_map_insert(9)
to specify the copy-on-write properties of regions within the map:
MAP_COPY_ON_WRITE The mapping is copy-on-write.
MAP_NOFAULT The mapping should not generate page faults.
MAP_PREFAULT The mapping should be prefaulted into physical mem‐
ory.
MAP_PREFAULT_PARTIAL The mapping should be partially prefaulted into
physical memory.
MAP_DISABLE_SYNCER Do not periodically flush dirty pages; only flush
them when absolutely necessary.
MAP_DISABLE_COREDUMP Do not include the mapping in a core dump.
MAP_PREFAULT_MADVISE Specify that the request from a user process call‐
ing madvise(2).
The struct vm_map_entry is a generic representation of a region. The
region managed by each entry is associated with a union vm_map_object,
described below.
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;
vm_size_t adj_free;
vm_size_t max_free;
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;
};
The fields of struct vm_map_entry are as follows:
prev Pointer to the previous node in a doubly-linked, circular
list.
next Pointer to the next node in a doubly-linked, circular list.
left Pointer to the left node in a binary search tree.
right Pointer to the right node in a binary search tree.
start Lower address bound of this entry’s region.
end Upper address bound of this entry’s region.
avail_ssize If the entry is for a process stack, specifies how much the
entry can grow.
adj_free The amount of free, unmapped address space adjacent to and
immediately following this map entry.
max_free The maximum amount of contiguous free space in this map
entry’s subtree.
object Pointer to the struct vm_map_object with which this entry is
associated.
offset Offset within the object which is mapped from start onwards.
eflags Flags applied to this entry, described below.
The following five members are only valid for entries forming part of a
user process’s address space:
protection Memory protection bits applied to this region. These are
identical to those defined for vm_page_protect(9).
max_protection Mask for the memory protection bits which may be actually
be applied to this region. These are identical to those
defined for vm_page_protect(9).
inheritance Contains flags which specify how this entry should be
treated during fork processing.
wired_count Count of how many times this entry has been wired into
physical memory.
lastr Contains the address of the last read which caused a page
fault.
The following flags may be applied to each entry, by specifying them as a
mask within the eflags member:
MAP_ENTRY_NOSYNC The system should not flush the data associ‐
ated with this map periodically, but only
when it needs to.
MAP_ENTRY_IS_SUB_MAP If set, then the object member specifies a
subordinate map.
MAP_ENTRY_COW Indicate that this is a copy-on-write region.
MAP_ENTRY_NEEDS_COPY Indicate that a copy-on-write region needs to
be copied.
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.
MAP_ENTRY_USER_WIRED Indicate that this region was wired on behalf
of a user process.
MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_NORMAL The system should use the default paging
behaviour for this region.
MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_SEQUENTIAL The system should depress the priority of
pages immediately preceding each page within
this region when faulted in.
MAP_ENTRY_BEHAV_RANDOM Is a hint that pages within this region will
be accessed randomly, and that prefetching is
likely not advantageous.
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.
MAP_ENTRY_NEEDS_WAKEUP Indicate that there are kernel threads wait‐
ing for this region to become available.
MAP_ENTRY_NOCOREDUMP The region should not be included in a core
dump.
The inheritance member has type vm_inherit_t. This governs the inheri‐
tance behaviour for a map entry during fork processing. The following
values are defined for vm_inherit_t:
VM_INHERIT_SHARE The object associated with the entry should be cloned
and shared with the new map. A new struct vm_object
will be created if necessary.
VM_INHERIT_COPY The object associated with the entry should be copied
to the new map.
VM_INHERIT_NONE The entry should not be copied to the new map.
VM_INHERIT_DEFAULT Specifies the default behaviour, VM_INHERIT_COPY.
The union vm_map_object is used to specify the structure which a struct
vm_map_entry is associated with.
The fields of union vm_map_object are as follows:
union vm_map_object {
struct vm_object *vm_object;
struct vm_map *sub_map;
};
Normally, the 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 struct vm_map_entry is backed by a struct vm_object.
pmap(9), vm_map_check_protection(9), vm_map_clean(9), vm_map_create(9),
vm_map_delete(9), vm_map_entry_resize_free(9), vm_map_find(9),
vm_map_findspace(9), vm_map_inherit(9), vm_map_init(9), vm_map_insert(9),
vm_map_lock(9), vm_map_lookup(9), vm_map_madvise(9), vm_map_max(9),
vm_map_min(9), vm_map_pmap(9), vm_map_protect(9), vm_map_remove(9),
vm_map_simplify_entry(9), vm_map_stack(9), vm_map_submap(9),
vm_map_wire(9), vm_page_protect(9)
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Bruce M Simpson 〈bms@spc.org〉.