Provided by: libvmmalloc-dev_1.8-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       libvmmalloc - general purpose volatile memory allocation library

SYNOPSIS

              $ LD_PRELOAD=libvmmalloc.so.1 command [ args... ]

       or

              #include <stdlib.h>
              #ifndef __FreeBSD__
                  #include <malloc.h>
              #else
                  #include <malloc_np.h>
              #endif
              #include <libvmmalloc.h>

              cc [ flag... ] file... -lvmmalloc [ library... ]

              void *malloc(size_t size);
              void free(void *ptr);
              void *calloc(size_t number, size_t size);
              void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size);
              int posix_memalign(void **memptr, size_t alignment, size_t size);
              void *aligned_alloc(size_t alignment, size_t size);
              void *memalign(size_t alignment, size_t size);
              void *valloc(size_t size);
              void *pvalloc(size_t size);
              size_t malloc_usable_size(const void *ptr);
              void cfree(void *ptr);

DESCRIPTION

       libvmmalloc  transparently  converts all dynamic memory allocations into Persistent Memory
       allocations.

       The typical usage of libvmmalloc does not require any modification of the target  program.
       It  is  enough  to  load libvmmalloc before all other libraries by setting the environment
       variable LD_PRELOAD.  When used in that way, libvmmalloc interposes  the  standard  system
       memory   allocation   routines,   as   defined   in   malloc(3),   posix_memalign(3)   and
       malloc_usable_size(3), and provides that all dynamic memory allocations are  made  from  a
       memory pool built on a memory-mapped file, instead of the system heap.  The memory managed
       by libvmmalloc may have different attributes, depending on the file system containing  the
       memory-mapped file.

       This  library  is  no  longer  actively developed, and is in maintenance mode, same as its
       underlying code backend (libvmem).  It is mature, and is  expected  to  be  supported  for
       foreseable future.

       libvmmalloc  may be also linked to the program, by providing the **-lvmmalloc* argument to
       the linker.  Then it becomes the default memory allocator for the program.

              NOTE: Due to the fact the library operates on a memory-mapped file, it may not work
              properly  with programs that perform fork(2) not followed by exec(3). There are two
              variants of experimental fork(2) support available  in  libvmmalloc.   The  desired
              library behavior may be selected by setting the VMMALLOC_FORK environment variable.
              By default variant #1 is enabled.  See ENVIRONMENT for more details.

       libvmmalloc uses the mmap(2) system call to create a pool of volatile memory.  The library
       is  most  useful  when  used with Direct Access storage (DAX), which is memory-addressable
       persistent storage that supports load/store access without being paged via the system page
       cache.   A  Persistent  Memory-aware file system is typically used to provide this type of
       access.  Memory-mapping a file from a Persistent Memory-aware file system provides the raw
       memory  pools, and this library supplies the traditional malloc interfaces on top of those
       pools.

       The memory pool acting as a system heap replacement is created  automatically  at  library
       initialization  time.   The  user  may  control  its  location  and  size  by  setting the
       environment variables described in  ENVIRONMENT,  below.   The  allocated  file  space  is
       reclaimed when the process terminates or in case of system crash.

       Under  normal  usage,  libvmmalloc  will  never  print messages or intentionally cause the
       process to exit.  The library uses pthreads(7) to be fully MT-safe, but never  creates  or
       destroys  threads  itself.   The library does not make use of any signals, networking, and
       never calls select(2) or poll(2).

ENVIRONMENT

       The VMMALLOC_POOL_DIR  and  VMMALLOC_POOL_SIZE  environment  variables  must  be  set  for
       libvmmalloc  to work properly.  If either of them is not specified, or if their values are
       not valid, the library prints an appropriate error message  and  terminates  the  process.
       Any other environment variables are optional.

       · VMMALLOC_POOL_DIR=path

       Specifies  a  path  to  the  directory  where the memory pool file should be created.  The
       directory must exist and be writable.

       · VMMALLOC_POOL_SIZE=len

       Defines the desired size (in bytes) of the memory pool file.  It must be not less than the
       minimum allowed size VMMALLOC_MIN_POOL as defined in <libvmmalloc.h>.

              NOTE: Due to the fact the library adds some metadata to the memory pool, the amount
              of actual usable space is typically less than the size of the memory pool file.

       · VMMALLOC_FORK=val (EXPERIMENTAL)

       VMMALLOC_FORK controls the behavior of libvmmalloc in case of fork(3), and can be  set  to
       the following values:

       · 0 - fork(2) support is disabled.  The behavior of fork(2) is undefined in this case, but
         most likely results in memory pool corruption and a program crash  due  to  segmentation
         fault.

       · 1  -  The  memory  pool  file  is  remapped  with  the  MAP_PRIVATE flag before the fork
         completes.  From this moment, any access to memory that modifies the heap pages, both in
         the  parent  and in the child process, will trigger creation of a copy of those pages in
         RAM (copy-on-write).  The benefit of this approach is that  it  does  not  significantly
         increase  the  time of the initial fork operation, and does not require additional space
         on the file system.  However, all subsequent memory allocations,  and  modifications  of
         any  memory  allocated  before fork, will consume system memory resources instead of the
         memory pool.

       This is the default option if VMMALLOC_FORK is not set.

       · 2 - A copy of the entire memory pool file is created for the use of the  child  process.
         This  requires  additional  space  on the file system, but both the parent and the child
         process may still operate on their memory pools, not consuming system memory resources.

         NOTE: In case of large memory pools, creating a copy of the pool file may stall the fork
         operation for a quite long time.

       · 3  -  The library first attempts to create a copy of the memory pool (as for option #2),
         but if it fails (i.e. because of insufficient free space on the file  system),  it  will
         fall back to option #1.

         NOTE: Options 2 and 3 are not currently supported on FreeBSD.

       Environment variables used for debugging are described in DEBUGGING, below.

CAVEATS

       libvmmalloc  relies on the library destructor being called from the main thread.  For this
       reason, all functions that might trigger destruction (e.g.  dlclose(3)) should  be  called
       in the main thread.  Otherwise some of the resources associated with that thread might not
       be cleaned up properly.

DEBUGGING

       Two versions of libvmmalloc are typically available on a development system.   The  normal
       version  is  optimized for performance.  That version skips checks that impact performance
       and never logs any trace information  or  performs  any  run-time  assertions.   A  second
       version,  accessed  when  using  libraries  from  /usr/lib/vmem_debug,  contains  run-time
       assertions and trace points.  The typical way to access the debug version is  to  set  the
       LD_LIBRARY_PATH  environment  variable to /usr/lib/vmem_debug or /usr/lib64/vmem_debug, as
       appropriate.  Debugging output is controlled using the  following  environment  variables.
       These variables have no effect on the non-debug version of the library.

       · VMMALLOC_LOG_LEVEL

       The  value of VMMALLOC_LOG_LEVEL enables trace points in the debug version of the library,
       as follows:

       · 0 - Tracing is disabled.  This is the default level when VMMALLOC_LOG_LEVEL is not set.

       · 1 - Additional details on any errors detected are logged, in addition to  returning  the
         errno-based errors as usual.

       · 2 - A trace of basic operations is logged.

       · 3 - Enables a very verbose amount of function call tracing in the library.

       · 4   -   Enables   voluminous  tracing  information  about  all  memory  allocations  and
         deallocations.

       Unless VMMALLOC_LOG_FILE is set, debugging output is written to stderr.

       · VMMALLOC_LOG_FILE

       Specifies the name of a file where all logging information should be written.  If the last
       character  in the name is “-”, the PID of the current process will be appended to the file
       name when the log file is created.  If VMMALLOC_LOG_FILE is not set, output is written  to
       stderr.

       · VMMALLOC_LOG_STATS

       Setting  VMMALLOC_LOG_STATS  to  1  enables  logging  human-readable summary statistics at
       program termination.

NOTES

       Unlike the normal malloc(3), which asks the system for additional memory when it runs out,
       libvmmalloc  allocates  the  size  it is told to and never attempts to grow or shrink that
       memory pool.

BUGS

       libvmmalloc may not work properly with programs that  perform  fork(2)  and  do  not  call
       exec(3)  immediately  afterwards.   See  ENVIRONMENT  for  more details about experimental
       fork(2) support.

       If logging is enabled in the debug  version  of  the  library  and  the  process  performs
       fork(2), no new log file is created for the child process, even if the configured log file
       name ends with “-”.  All logging information from the child process will be written to the
       log  file owned by the parent process, which may lead to corruption or partial loss of log
       data.

       Malloc hooks (see malloc_hook(3)), are not supported when using libvmmalloc.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       libvmmalloc depends on jemalloc, written by Jason  Evans,  to  do  the  heavy  lifting  of
       managing dynamic memory allocation.  See: <http://www.canonware.com/jemalloc>

SEE ALSO

       fork(2),   dlclose(3),   exec(3),   malloc(3),  malloc_usable_size(3),  posix_memalign(3),
       libpmem(7), libvmem(7) and <http://pmem.io>

       On Linux:

       jemalloc(3), malloc_hook(3), pthreads(7), ld.so(8)

       On FreeBSD:

       ld.so(1), pthread(3)