Provided by: libjemalloc-dev_5.2.1-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
jemalloc - general purpose memory allocation functions
LIBRARY
This manual describes jemalloc 5.2.1-0-gea6b3e973b477b8061e0076bb257dbd7f3faa756. More
information can be found at the jemalloc website[1].
SYNOPSIS
#include <jemalloc/jemalloc.h>
Standard API
void *malloc(size_t size);
void *calloc(size_t number, size_t size);
int posix_memalign(void **ptr, size_t alignment, size_t size);
void *aligned_alloc(size_t alignment, size_t size);
void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size);
void free(void *ptr);
Non-standard API
void *mallocx(size_t size, int flags);
void *rallocx(void *ptr, size_t size, int flags);
size_t xallocx(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t extra, int flags);
size_t sallocx(void *ptr, int flags);
void dallocx(void *ptr, int flags);
void sdallocx(void *ptr, size_t size, int flags);
size_t nallocx(size_t size, int flags);
int mallctl(const char *name, void *oldp, size_t *oldlenp, void *newp, size_t newlen);
int mallctlnametomib(const char *name, size_t *mibp, size_t *miblenp);
int mallctlbymib(const size_t *mib, size_t miblen, void *oldp, size_t *oldlenp,
void *newp, size_t newlen);
void malloc_stats_print(void (*write_cb) (void *, const char *), void *cbopaque,
const char *opts);
size_t malloc_usable_size(const void *ptr);
void (*malloc_message)(void *cbopaque, const char *s);
const char *malloc_conf;
DESCRIPTION
Standard API
The malloc() function allocates size bytes of uninitialized memory. The allocated space is
suitably aligned (after possible pointer coercion) for storage of any type of object.
The calloc() function allocates space for number objects, each size bytes in length. The
result is identical to calling malloc() with an argument of number * size, with the
exception that the allocated memory is explicitly initialized to zero bytes.
The posix_memalign() function allocates size bytes of memory such that the allocation's
base address is a multiple of alignment, and returns the allocation in the value pointed
to by ptr. The requested alignment must be a power of 2 at least as large as sizeof(void
*).
The aligned_alloc() function allocates size bytes of memory such that the allocation's
base address is a multiple of alignment. The requested alignment must be a power of 2.
Behavior is undefined if size is not an integral multiple of alignment.
The realloc() function changes the size of the previously allocated memory referenced by
ptr to size bytes. The contents of the memory are unchanged up to the lesser of the new
and old sizes. If the new size is larger, the contents of the newly allocated portion of
the memory are undefined. Upon success, the memory referenced by ptr is freed and a
pointer to the newly allocated memory is returned. Note that realloc() may move the memory
allocation, resulting in a different return value than ptr. If ptr is NULL, the realloc()
function behaves identically to malloc() for the specified size.
The free() function causes the allocated memory referenced by ptr to be made available for
future allocations. If ptr is NULL, no action occurs.
Non-standard API
The mallocx(), rallocx(), xallocx(), sallocx(), dallocx(), sdallocx(), and nallocx()
functions all have a flags argument that can be used to specify options. The functions
only check the options that are contextually relevant. Use bitwise or (|) operations to
specify one or more of the following:
MALLOCX_LG_ALIGN(la)
Align the memory allocation to start at an address that is a multiple of (1 << la).
This macro does not validate that la is within the valid range.
MALLOCX_ALIGN(a)
Align the memory allocation to start at an address that is a multiple of a, where a is
a power of two. This macro does not validate that a is a power of 2.
MALLOCX_ZERO
Initialize newly allocated memory to contain zero bytes. In the growing reallocation
case, the real size prior to reallocation defines the boundary between untouched bytes
and those that are initialized to contain zero bytes. If this macro is absent, newly
allocated memory is uninitialized.
MALLOCX_TCACHE(tc)
Use the thread-specific cache (tcache) specified by the identifier tc, which must have
been acquired via the tcache.create mallctl. This macro does not validate that tc
specifies a valid identifier.
MALLOCX_TCACHE_NONE
Do not use a thread-specific cache (tcache). Unless MALLOCX_TCACHE(tc) or
MALLOCX_TCACHE_NONE is specified, an automatically managed tcache will be used under
many circumstances. This macro cannot be used in the same flags argument as
MALLOCX_TCACHE(tc).
MALLOCX_ARENA(a)
Use the arena specified by the index a. This macro has no effect for regions that were
allocated via an arena other than the one specified. This macro does not validate that
a specifies an arena index in the valid range.
The mallocx() function allocates at least size bytes of memory, and returns a pointer to
the base address of the allocation. Behavior is undefined if size is 0.
The rallocx() function resizes the allocation at ptr to be at least size bytes, and
returns a pointer to the base address of the resulting allocation, which may or may not
have moved from its original location. Behavior is undefined if size is 0.
The xallocx() function resizes the allocation at ptr in place to be at least size bytes,
and returns the real size of the allocation. If extra is non-zero, an attempt is made to
resize the allocation to be at least (size + extra) bytes, though inability to allocate
the extra byte(s) will not by itself result in failure to resize. Behavior is undefined if
size is 0, or if (size + extra > SIZE_T_MAX).
The sallocx() function returns the real size of the allocation at ptr.
The dallocx() function causes the memory referenced by ptr to be made available for future
allocations.
The sdallocx() function is an extension of dallocx() with a size parameter to allow the
caller to pass in the allocation size as an optimization. The minimum valid input size is
the original requested size of the allocation, and the maximum valid input size is the
corresponding value returned by nallocx() or sallocx().
The nallocx() function allocates no memory, but it performs the same size computation as
the mallocx() function, and returns the real size of the allocation that would result from
the equivalent mallocx() function call, or 0 if the inputs exceed the maximum supported
size class and/or alignment. Behavior is undefined if size is 0.
The mallctl() function provides a general interface for introspecting the memory
allocator, as well as setting modifiable parameters and triggering actions. The
period-separated name argument specifies a location in a tree-structured namespace; see
the MALLCTL NAMESPACE section for documentation on the tree contents. To read a value,
pass a pointer via oldp to adequate space to contain the value, and a pointer to its
length via oldlenp; otherwise pass NULL and NULL. Similarly, to write a value, pass a
pointer to the value via newp, and its length via newlen; otherwise pass NULL and 0.
The mallctlnametomib() function provides a way to avoid repeated name lookups for
applications that repeatedly query the same portion of the namespace, by translating a
name to a “Management Information Base” (MIB) that can be passed repeatedly to
mallctlbymib(). Upon successful return from mallctlnametomib(), mibp contains an array of
*miblenp integers, where *miblenp is the lesser of the number of components in name and
the input value of *miblenp. Thus it is possible to pass a *miblenp that is smaller than
the number of period-separated name components, which results in a partial MIB that can be
used as the basis for constructing a complete MIB. For name components that are integers
(e.g. the 2 in arenas.bin.2.size), the corresponding MIB component will always be that
integer. Therefore, it is legitimate to construct code like the following:
unsigned nbins, i;
size_t mib[4];
size_t len, miblen;
len = sizeof(nbins);
mallctl("arenas.nbins", &nbins, &len, NULL, 0);
miblen = 4;
mallctlnametomib("arenas.bin.0.size", mib, &miblen);
for (i = 0; i < nbins; i++) {
size_t bin_size;
mib[2] = i;
len = sizeof(bin_size);
mallctlbymib(mib, miblen, (void *)&bin_size, &len, NULL, 0);
/* Do something with bin_size... */
}
The malloc_stats_print() function writes summary statistics via the write_cb callback
function pointer and cbopaque data passed to write_cb, or malloc_message() if write_cb is
NULL. The statistics are presented in human-readable form unless “J” is specified as a
character within the opts string, in which case the statistics are presented in JSON
format[2]. This function can be called repeatedly. General information that never changes
during execution can be omitted by specifying “g” as a character within the opts string.
Note that malloc_stats_print() uses the mallctl*() functions internally, so inconsistent
statistics can be reported if multiple threads use these functions simultaneously. If
--enable-stats is specified during configuration, “m”, “d”, and “a” can be specified to
omit merged arena, destroyed merged arena, and per arena statistics, respectively; “b” and
“l” can be specified to omit per size class statistics for bins and large objects,
respectively; “x” can be specified to omit all mutex statistics; “e” can be used to omit
extent statistics. Unrecognized characters are silently ignored. Note that thread caching
may prevent some statistics from being completely up to date, since extra locking would be
required to merge counters that track thread cache operations.
The malloc_usable_size() function returns the usable size of the allocation pointed to by
ptr. The return value may be larger than the size that was requested during allocation.
The malloc_usable_size() function is not a mechanism for in-place realloc(); rather it is
provided solely as a tool for introspection purposes. Any discrepancy between the
requested allocation size and the size reported by malloc_usable_size() should not be
depended on, since such behavior is entirely implementation-dependent.
TUNING
Once, when the first call is made to one of the memory allocation routines, the allocator
initializes its internals based in part on various options that can be specified at
compile- or run-time.
The string specified via --with-malloc-conf, the string pointed to by the global variable
malloc_conf, the “name” of the file referenced by the symbolic link named
/etc/malloc.conf, and the value of the environment variable MALLOC_CONF, will be
interpreted, in that order, from left to right as options. Note that malloc_conf may be
read before main() is entered, so the declaration of malloc_conf should specify an
initializer that contains the final value to be read by jemalloc. --with-malloc-conf and
malloc_conf are compile-time mechanisms, whereas /etc/malloc.conf and MALLOC_CONF can be
safely set any time prior to program invocation.
An options string is a comma-separated list of option:value pairs. There is one key
corresponding to each opt.* mallctl (see the MALLCTL NAMESPACE section for options
documentation). For example, abort:true,narenas:1 sets the opt.abort and opt.narenas
options. Some options have boolean values (true/false), others have integer values (base
8, 10, or 16, depending on prefix), and yet others have raw string values.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Traditionally, allocators have used sbrk(2) to obtain memory, which is suboptimal for
several reasons, including race conditions, increased fragmentation, and artificial
limitations on maximum usable memory. If sbrk(2) is supported by the operating system,
this allocator uses both mmap(2) and sbrk(2), in that order of preference; otherwise only
mmap(2) is used.
This allocator uses multiple arenas in order to reduce lock contention for threaded
programs on multi-processor systems. This works well with regard to threading scalability,
but incurs some costs. There is a small fixed per-arena overhead, and additionally, arenas
manage memory completely independently of each other, which means a small fixed increase
in overall memory fragmentation. These overheads are not generally an issue, given the
number of arenas normally used. Note that using substantially more arenas than the default
is not likely to improve performance, mainly due to reduced cache performance. However, it
may make sense to reduce the number of arenas if an application does not make much use of
the allocation functions.
In addition to multiple arenas, this allocator supports thread-specific caching, in order
to make it possible to completely avoid synchronization for most allocation requests. Such
caching allows very fast allocation in the common case, but it increases memory usage and
fragmentation, since a bounded number of objects can remain allocated in each thread
cache.
Memory is conceptually broken into extents. Extents are always aligned to multiples of the
page size. This alignment makes it possible to find metadata for user objects quickly.
User objects are broken into two categories according to size: small and large. Contiguous
small objects comprise a slab, which resides within a single extent, whereas large objects
each have their own extents backing them.
Small objects are managed in groups by slabs. Each slab maintains a bitmap to track which
regions are in use. Allocation requests that are no more than half the quantum (8 or 16,
depending on architecture) are rounded up to the nearest power of two that is at least
sizeof(double). All other object size classes are multiples of the quantum, spaced such
that there are four size classes for each doubling in size, which limits internal
fragmentation to approximately 20% for all but the smallest size classes. Small size
classes are smaller than four times the page size, and large size classes extend from four
times the page size up to the largest size class that does not exceed PTRDIFF_MAX.
Allocations are packed tightly together, which can be an issue for multi-threaded
applications. If you need to assure that allocations do not suffer from cacheline sharing,
round your allocation requests up to the nearest multiple of the cacheline size, or
specify cacheline alignment when allocating.
The realloc(), rallocx(), and xallocx() functions may resize allocations without moving
them under limited circumstances. Unlike the *allocx() API, the standard API does not
officially round up the usable size of an allocation to the nearest size class, so
technically it is necessary to call realloc() to grow e.g. a 9-byte allocation to 16
bytes, or shrink a 16-byte allocation to 9 bytes. Growth and shrinkage trivially succeeds
in place as long as the pre-size and post-size both round up to the same size class. No
other API guarantees are made regarding in-place resizing, but the current implementation
also tries to resize large allocations in place, as long as the pre-size and post-size are
both large. For shrinkage to succeed, the extent allocator must support splitting (see
arena.<i>.extent_hooks). Growth only succeeds if the trailing memory is currently
available, and the extent allocator supports merging.
Assuming 4 KiB pages and a 16-byte quantum on a 64-bit system, the size classes in each
category are as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Size classes
┌─────────┬─────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│Category │ Spacing │ Size │
├─────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ lg │ [8] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 16 │ [16, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, │
│ │ │ 112, 128] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 32 │ [160, 192, 224, 256] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 64 │ [320, 384, 448, 512] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│Small │ 128 │ [640, 768, 896, 1024] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 256 │ [1280, 1536, 1792, 2048] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 512 │ [2560, 3072, 3584, 4096] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 1 KiB │ [5 KiB, 6 KiB, 7 KiB, 8 │
│ │ │ KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 2 KiB │ [10 KiB, 12 KiB, 14 KiB] │
├─────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 2 KiB │ [16 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 4 KiB │ [20 KiB, 24 KiB, 28 KiB, │
│ │ │ 32 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 8 KiB │ [40 KiB, 48 KiB, 54 KiB, │
│ │ │ 64 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 16 KiB │ [80 KiB, 96 KiB, 112 │
│ │ │ KiB, 128 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 32 KiB │ [160 KiB, 192 KiB, 224 │
│ │ │ KiB, 256 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 64 KiB │ [320 KiB, 384 KiB, 448 │
│ │ │ KiB, 512 KiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 128 KiB │ [640 KiB, 768 KiB, 896 │
│ │ │ KiB, 1 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 256 KiB │ [1280 KiB, 1536 KiB, │
│Large │ │ 1792 KiB, 2 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 512 KiB │ [2560 KiB, 3 MiB, 3584 │
│ │ │ KiB, 4 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 1 MiB │ [5 MiB, 6 MiB, 7 MiB, 8 │
│ │ │ MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 2 MiB │ [10 MiB, 12 MiB, 14 MiB, │
│ │ │ 16 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 4 MiB │ [20 MiB, 24 MiB, 28 MiB, │
│ │ │ 32 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 8 MiB │ [40 MiB, 48 MiB, 56 MiB, │
│ │ │ 64 MiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ ... │ ... │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 512 PiB │ [2560 PiB, 3 EiB, 3584 │
│ │ │ PiB, 4 EiB] │
│ ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ │ 1 EiB │ [5 EiB, 6 EiB, 7 EiB] │
└─────────┴─────────┴──────────────────────────┘
MALLCTL NAMESPACE
The following names are defined in the namespace accessible via the mallctl*() functions.
Value types are specified in parentheses, their readable/writable statuses are encoded as
rw, r-, -w, or --, and required build configuration flags follow, if any. A name element
encoded as <i> or <j> indicates an integer component, where the integer varies from 0 to
some upper value that must be determined via introspection. In the case of
stats.arenas.<i>.* and arena.<i>.{initialized,purge,decay,dss}, <i> equal to
MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL can be used to operate on all arenas or access the summation of
statistics from all arenas; similarly <i> equal to MALLCTL_ARENAS_DESTROYED can be used to
access the summation of statistics from all destroyed arenas. These constants can be
utilized either via mallctlnametomib() followed by mallctlbymib(), or via code such as the
following:
#define STRINGIFY_HELPER(x) #x
#define STRINGIFY(x) STRINGIFY_HELPER(x)
mallctl("arena." STRINGIFY(MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL) ".decay",
NULL, NULL, NULL, 0);
Take special note of the epoch mallctl, which controls refreshing of cached dynamic
statistics.
version (const char *) r-
Return the jemalloc version string.
epoch (uint64_t) rw
If a value is passed in, refresh the data from which the mallctl*() functions report
values, and increment the epoch. Return the current epoch. This is useful for
detecting whether another thread caused a refresh.
background_thread (bool) rw
Enable/disable internal background worker threads. When set to true, background
threads are created on demand (the number of background threads will be no more than
the number of CPUs or active arenas). Threads run periodically, and handle purging
asynchronously. When switching off, background threads are terminated synchronously.
Note that after fork(2) function, the state in the child process will be disabled
regardless the state in parent process. See stats.background_thread for related stats.
opt.background_thread can be used to set the default option. This option is only
available on selected pthread-based platforms.
max_background_threads (size_t) rw
Maximum number of background worker threads that will be created. This value is capped
at opt.max_background_threads at startup.
config.cache_oblivious (bool) r-
--enable-cache-oblivious was specified during build configuration.
config.debug (bool) r-
--enable-debug was specified during build configuration.
config.fill (bool) r-
--enable-fill was specified during build configuration.
config.lazy_lock (bool) r-
--enable-lazy-lock was specified during build configuration.
config.malloc_conf (const char *) r-
Embedded configure-time-specified run-time options string, empty unless
--with-malloc-conf was specified during build configuration.
config.prof (bool) r-
--enable-prof was specified during build configuration.
config.prof_libgcc (bool) r-
--disable-prof-libgcc was not specified during build configuration.
config.prof_libunwind (bool) r-
--enable-prof-libunwind was specified during build configuration.
config.stats (bool) r-
--enable-stats was specified during build configuration.
config.utrace (bool) r-
--enable-utrace was specified during build configuration.
config.xmalloc (bool) r-
--enable-xmalloc was specified during build configuration.
opt.abort (bool) r-
Abort-on-warning enabled/disabled. If true, most warnings are fatal. Note that runtime
option warnings are not included (see opt.abort_conf for that). The process will call
abort(3) in these cases. This option is disabled by default unless --enable-debug is
specified during configuration, in which case it is enabled by default.
opt.confirm_conf (bool) r-
Confirm-runtime-options-when-program-starts enabled/disabled. If true, the string
specified via --with-malloc-conf, the string pointed to by the global variable
malloc_conf, the “name” of the file referenced by the symbolic link named
/etc/malloc.conf, and the value of the environment variable MALLOC_CONF, will be
printed in order. Then, each option being set will be individually printed. This
option is disabled by default.
opt.abort_conf (bool) r-
Abort-on-invalid-configuration enabled/disabled. If true, invalid runtime options are
fatal. The process will call abort(3) in these cases. This option is disabled by
default unless --enable-debug is specified during configuration, in which case it is
enabled by default.
opt.metadata_thp (const char *) r-
Controls whether to allow jemalloc to use transparent huge page (THP) for internal
metadata (see stats.metadata). “always” allows such usage. “auto” uses no THP
initially, but may begin to do so when metadata usage reaches certain level. The
default is “disabled”.
opt.retain (bool) r-
If true, retain unused virtual memory for later reuse rather than discarding it by
calling munmap(2) or equivalent (see stats.retained for related details). It also
makes jemalloc use mmap(2) or equivalent in a more greedy way, mapping larger chunks
in one go. This option is disabled by default unless discarding virtual memory is
known to trigger platform-specific performance problems, namely 1) for [64-bit] Linux,
which has a quirk in its virtual memory allocation algorithm that causes
semi-permanent VM map holes under normal jemalloc operation; and 2) for [64-bit]
Windows, which disallows split / merged regions with MEM_RELEASE. Although the same
issues may present on 32-bit platforms as well, retaining virtual memory for 32-bit
Linux and Windows is disabled by default due to the practical possibility of address
space exhaustion.
opt.dss (const char *) r-
dss (sbrk(2)) allocation precedence as related to mmap(2) allocation. The following
settings are supported if sbrk(2) is supported by the operating system: “disabled”,
“primary”, and “secondary”; otherwise only “disabled” is supported. The default is
“secondary” if sbrk(2) is supported by the operating system; “disabled” otherwise.
opt.narenas (unsigned) r-
Maximum number of arenas to use for automatic multiplexing of threads and arenas. The
default is four times the number of CPUs, or one if there is a single CPU.
opt.oversize_threshold (size_t) r-
The threshold in bytes of which requests are considered oversize. Allocation requests
with greater sizes are fulfilled from a dedicated arena (automatically managed,
however not within narenas), in order to reduce fragmentation by not mixing huge
allocations with small ones. In addition, the decay API guarantees on the extents
greater than the specified threshold may be overridden. Note that requests with arena
index specified via MALLOCX_ARENA, or threads associated with explicit arenas will not
be considered. The default threshold is 8MiB. Values not within large size classes
disables this feature.
opt.percpu_arena (const char *) r-
Per CPU arena mode. Use the “percpu” setting to enable this feature, which uses number
of CPUs to determine number of arenas, and bind threads to arenas dynamically based on
the CPU the thread runs on currently. “phycpu” setting uses one arena per physical
CPU, which means the two hyper threads on the same CPU share one arena. Note that no
runtime checking regarding the availability of hyper threading is done at the moment.
When set to “disabled”, narenas and thread to arena association will not be impacted
by this option. The default is “disabled”.
opt.background_thread (bool) r-
Internal background worker threads enabled/disabled. Because of potential circular
dependencies, enabling background thread using this option may cause crash or deadlock
during initialization. For a reliable way to use this feature, see background_thread
for dynamic control options and details. This option is disabled by default.
opt.max_background_threads (size_t) r-
Maximum number of background threads that will be created if background_thread is set.
Defaults to number of cpus.
opt.dirty_decay_ms (ssize_t) r-
Approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of unused dirty pages
until an equivalent set of unused dirty pages is purged (i.e. converted to muzzy via
e.g. madvise(...MADV_FREE) if supported by the operating system, or converted to
clean otherwise) and/or reused. Dirty pages are defined as previously having been
potentially written to by the application, and therefore consuming physical memory,
yet having no current use. The pages are incrementally purged according to a sigmoidal
decay curve that starts and ends with zero purge rate. A decay time of 0 causes all
unused dirty pages to be purged immediately upon creation. A decay time of -1 disables
purging. The default decay time is 10 seconds. See arenas.dirty_decay_ms and
arena.<i>.dirty_decay_ms for related dynamic control options. See opt.muzzy_decay_ms
for a description of muzzy pages.for a description of muzzy pages. Note that when the
oversize_threshold feature is enabled, the arenas reserved for oversize requests may
have its own default decay settings.
opt.muzzy_decay_ms (ssize_t) r-
Approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of unused muzzy pages
until an equivalent set of unused muzzy pages is purged (i.e. converted to clean)
and/or reused. Muzzy pages are defined as previously having been unused dirty pages
that were subsequently purged in a manner that left them subject to the reclamation
whims of the operating system (e.g. madvise(...MADV_FREE)), and therefore in an
indeterminate state. The pages are incrementally purged according to a sigmoidal decay
curve that starts and ends with zero purge rate. A decay time of 0 causes all unused
muzzy pages to be purged immediately upon creation. A decay time of -1 disables
purging. The default decay time is 10 seconds. See arenas.muzzy_decay_ms and
arena.<i>.muzzy_decay_ms for related dynamic control options.
opt.lg_extent_max_active_fit (size_t) r-
When reusing dirty extents, this determines the (log base 2 of the) maximum ratio
between the size of the active extent selected (to split off from) and the size of the
requested allocation. This prevents the splitting of large active extents for smaller
allocations, which can reduce fragmentation over the long run (especially for
non-active extents). Lower value may reduce fragmentation, at the cost of extra active
extents. The default value is 6, which gives a maximum ratio of 64 (2^6).
opt.stats_print (bool) r-
Enable/disable statistics printing at exit. If enabled, the malloc_stats_print()
function is called at program exit via an atexit(3) function. opt.stats_print_opts
can be combined to specify output options. If --enable-stats is specified during
configuration, this has the potential to cause deadlock for a multi-threaded process
that exits while one or more threads are executing in the memory allocation functions.
Furthermore, atexit() may allocate memory during application initialization and then
deadlock internally when jemalloc in turn calls atexit(), so this option is not
universally usable (though the application can register its own atexit() function with
equivalent functionality). Therefore, this option should only be used with care; it is
primarily intended as a performance tuning aid during application development. This
option is disabled by default.
opt.stats_print_opts (const char *) r-
Options (the opts string) to pass to the malloc_stats_print() at exit (enabled through
opt.stats_print). See available options in malloc_stats_print(). Has no effect unless
opt.stats_print is enabled. The default is “”.
opt.junk (const char *) r- [--enable-fill]
Junk filling. If set to “alloc”, each byte of uninitialized allocated memory will be
initialized to 0xa5. If set to “free”, all deallocated memory will be initialized to
0x5a. If set to “true”, both allocated and deallocated memory will be initialized, and
if set to “false”, junk filling be disabled entirely. This is intended for debugging
and will impact performance negatively. This option is “false” by default unless
--enable-debug is specified during configuration, in which case it is “true” by
default.
opt.zero (bool) r- [--enable-fill]
Zero filling enabled/disabled. If enabled, each byte of uninitialized allocated memory
will be initialized to 0. Note that this initialization only happens once for each
byte, so realloc() and rallocx() calls do not zero memory that was previously
allocated. This is intended for debugging and will impact performance negatively. This
option is disabled by default.
opt.utrace (bool) r- [--enable-utrace]
Allocation tracing based on utrace(2) enabled/disabled. This option is disabled by
default.
opt.xmalloc (bool) r- [--enable-xmalloc]
Abort-on-out-of-memory enabled/disabled. If enabled, rather than returning failure for
any allocation function, display a diagnostic message on STDERR_FILENO and cause the
program to drop core (using abort(3)). If an application is designed to depend on this
behavior, set the option at compile time by including the following in the source
code:
malloc_conf = "xmalloc:true";
This option is disabled by default.
opt.tcache (bool) r-
Thread-specific caching (tcache) enabled/disabled. When there are multiple threads,
each thread uses a tcache for objects up to a certain size. Thread-specific caching
allows many allocations to be satisfied without performing any thread synchronization,
at the cost of increased memory use. See the opt.lg_tcache_max option for related
tuning information. This option is enabled by default.
opt.lg_tcache_max (size_t) r-
Maximum size class (log base 2) to cache in the thread-specific cache (tcache). At a
minimum, all small size classes are cached, and at a maximum all large size classes
are cached. The default maximum is 32 KiB (2^15).
opt.thp (const char *) r-
Transparent hugepage (THP) mode. Settings "always", "never" and "default" are
available if THP is supported by the operating system. The "always" setting enables
transparent hugepage for all user memory mappings with MADV_HUGEPAGE; "never" ensures
no transparent hugepage with MADV_NOHUGEPAGE; the default setting "default" makes no
changes. Note that: this option does not affect THP for jemalloc internal metadata
(see opt.metadata_thp); in addition, for arenas with customized extent_hooks, this
option is bypassed as it is implemented as part of the default extent hooks.
opt.prof (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Memory profiling enabled/disabled. If enabled, profile memory allocation activity. See
the opt.prof_active option for on-the-fly activation/deactivation. See the
opt.lg_prof_sample option for probabilistic sampling control. See the opt.prof_accum
option for control of cumulative sample reporting. See the opt.lg_prof_interval option
for information on interval-triggered profile dumping, the opt.prof_gdump option for
information on high-water-triggered profile dumping, and the opt.prof_final option for
final profile dumping. Profile output is compatible with the jeprof command, which is
based on the pprof that is developed as part of the gperftools package[3]. See HEAP
PROFILE FORMAT for heap profile format documentation.
opt.prof_prefix (const char *) r- [--enable-prof]
Filename prefix for profile dumps. If the prefix is set to the empty string, no
automatic dumps will occur; this is primarily useful for disabling the automatic final
heap dump (which also disables leak reporting, if enabled). The default prefix is
jeprof.
opt.prof_active (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Profiling activated/deactivated. This is a secondary control mechanism that makes it
possible to start the application with profiling enabled (see the opt.prof option) but
inactive, then toggle profiling at any time during program execution with the
prof.active mallctl. This option is enabled by default.
opt.prof_thread_active_init (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Initial setting for thread.prof.active in newly created threads. The initial setting
for newly created threads can also be changed during execution via the
prof.thread_active_init mallctl. This option is enabled by default.
opt.lg_prof_sample (size_t) r- [--enable-prof]
Average interval (log base 2) between allocation samples, as measured in bytes of
allocation activity. Increasing the sampling interval decreases profile fidelity, but
also decreases the computational overhead. The default sample interval is 512 KiB
(2^19 B).
opt.prof_accum (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Reporting of cumulative object/byte counts in profile dumps enabled/disabled. If this
option is enabled, every unique backtrace must be stored for the duration of
execution. Depending on the application, this can impose a large memory overhead, and
the cumulative counts are not always of interest. This option is disabled by default.
opt.lg_prof_interval (ssize_t) r- [--enable-prof]
Average interval (log base 2) between memory profile dumps, as measured in bytes of
allocation activity. The actual interval between dumps may be sporadic because
decentralized allocation counters are used to avoid synchronization bottlenecks.
Profiles are dumped to files named according to the pattern
<prefix>.<pid>.<seq>.i<iseq>.heap, where <prefix> is controlled by the opt.prof_prefix
option. By default, interval-triggered profile dumping is disabled (encoded as -1).
opt.prof_gdump (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Set the initial state of prof.gdump, which when enabled triggers a memory profile dump
every time the total virtual memory exceeds the previous maximum. This option is
disabled by default.
opt.prof_final (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Use an atexit(3) function to dump final memory usage to a file named according to the
pattern <prefix>.<pid>.<seq>.f.heap, where <prefix> is controlled by the
opt.prof_prefix option. Note that atexit() may allocate memory during application
initialization and then deadlock internally when jemalloc in turn calls atexit(), so
this option is not universally usable (though the application can register its own
atexit() function with equivalent functionality). This option is disabled by default.
opt.prof_leak (bool) r- [--enable-prof]
Leak reporting enabled/disabled. If enabled, use an atexit(3) function to report
memory leaks detected by allocation sampling. See the opt.prof option for information
on analyzing heap profile output. This option is disabled by default.
thread.arena (unsigned) rw
Get or set the arena associated with the calling thread. If the specified arena was
not initialized beforehand (see the arena.i.initialized mallctl), it will be
automatically initialized as a side effect of calling this interface.
thread.allocated (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Get the total number of bytes ever allocated by the calling thread. This counter has
the potential to wrap around; it is up to the application to appropriately interpret
the counter in such cases.
thread.allocatedp (uint64_t *) r- [--enable-stats]
Get a pointer to the the value that is returned by the thread.allocated mallctl. This
is useful for avoiding the overhead of repeated mallctl*() calls.
thread.deallocated (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Get the total number of bytes ever deallocated by the calling thread. This counter has
the potential to wrap around; it is up to the application to appropriately interpret
the counter in such cases.
thread.deallocatedp (uint64_t *) r- [--enable-stats]
Get a pointer to the the value that is returned by the thread.deallocated mallctl.
This is useful for avoiding the overhead of repeated mallctl*() calls.
thread.tcache.enabled (bool) rw
Enable/disable calling thread's tcache. The tcache is implicitly flushed as a side
effect of becoming disabled (see thread.tcache.flush).
thread.tcache.flush (void) --
Flush calling thread's thread-specific cache (tcache). This interface releases all
cached objects and internal data structures associated with the calling thread's
tcache. Ordinarily, this interface need not be called, since automatic periodic
incremental garbage collection occurs, and the thread cache is automatically discarded
when a thread exits. However, garbage collection is triggered by allocation activity,
so it is possible for a thread that stops allocating/deallocating to retain its cache
indefinitely, in which case the developer may find manual flushing useful.
thread.prof.name (const char *) r- or -w [--enable-prof]
Get/set the descriptive name associated with the calling thread in memory profile
dumps. An internal copy of the name string is created, so the input string need not be
maintained after this interface completes execution. The output string of this
interface should be copied for non-ephemeral uses, because multiple implementation
details can cause asynchronous string deallocation. Furthermore, each invocation of
this interface can only read or write; simultaneous read/write is not supported due to
string lifetime limitations. The name string must be nil-terminated and comprised only
of characters in the sets recognized by isgraph(3) and isblank(3).
thread.prof.active (bool) rw [--enable-prof]
Control whether sampling is currently active for the calling thread. This is an
activation mechanism in addition to prof.active; both must be active for the calling
thread to sample. This flag is enabled by default.
tcache.create (unsigned) r-
Create an explicit thread-specific cache (tcache) and return an identifier that can be
passed to the MALLOCX_TCACHE(tc) macro to explicitly use the specified cache rather
than the automatically managed one that is used by default. Each explicit cache can be
used by only one thread at a time; the application must assure that this constraint
holds.
tcache.flush (unsigned) -w
Flush the specified thread-specific cache (tcache). The same considerations apply to
this interface as to thread.tcache.flush, except that the tcache will never be
automatically discarded.
tcache.destroy (unsigned) -w
Flush the specified thread-specific cache (tcache) and make the identifier available
for use during a future tcache creation.
arena.<i>.initialized (bool) r-
Get whether the specified arena's statistics are initialized (i.e. the arena was
initialized prior to the current epoch). This interface can also be nominally used to
query whether the merged statistics corresponding to MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL are
initialized (always true).
arena.<i>.decay (void) --
Trigger decay-based purging of unused dirty/muzzy pages for arena <i>, or for all
arenas if <i> equals MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL. The proportion of unused dirty/muzzy pages to
be purged depends on the current time; see opt.dirty_decay_ms and opt.muzy_decay_ms
for details.
arena.<i>.purge (void) --
Purge all unused dirty pages for arena <i>, or for all arenas if <i> equals
MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL.
arena.<i>.reset (void) --
Discard all of the arena's extant allocations. This interface can only be used with
arenas explicitly created via arenas.create. None of the arena's discarded/cached
allocations may accessed afterward. As part of this requirement, all thread caches
which were used to allocate/deallocate in conjunction with the arena must be flushed
beforehand.
arena.<i>.destroy (void) --
Destroy the arena. Discard all of the arena's extant allocations using the same
mechanism as for arena.<i>.reset (with all the same constraints and side effects),
merge the arena stats into those accessible at arena index MALLCTL_ARENAS_DESTROYED,
and then completely discard all metadata associated with the arena. Future calls to
arenas.create may recycle the arena index. Destruction will fail if any threads are
currently associated with the arena as a result of calls to thread.arena.
arena.<i>.dss (const char *) rw
Set the precedence of dss allocation as related to mmap allocation for arena <i>, or
for all arenas if <i> equals MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL. See opt.dss for supported settings.
arena.<i>.dirty_decay_ms (ssize_t) rw
Current per-arena approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of
unused dirty pages until an equivalent set of unused dirty pages is purged and/or
reused. Each time this interface is set, all currently unused dirty pages are
considered to have fully decayed, which causes immediate purging of all unused dirty
pages unless the decay time is set to -1 (i.e. purging disabled). See
opt.dirty_decay_ms for additional information.
arena.<i>.muzzy_decay_ms (ssize_t) rw
Current per-arena approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of
unused muzzy pages until an equivalent set of unused muzzy pages is purged and/or
reused. Each time this interface is set, all currently unused muzzy pages are
considered to have fully decayed, which causes immediate purging of all unused muzzy
pages unless the decay time is set to -1 (i.e. purging disabled). See
opt.muzzy_decay_ms for additional information.
arena.<i>.retain_grow_limit (size_t) rw
Maximum size to grow retained region (only relevant when opt.retain is enabled). This
controls the maximum increment to expand virtual memory, or allocation through
arena.<i>extent_hooks. In particular, if customized extent hooks reserve physical
memory (e.g. 1G huge pages), this is useful to control the allocation hook's input
size. The default is no limit.
arena.<i>.extent_hooks (extent_hooks_t *) rw
Get or set the extent management hook functions for arena <i>. The functions must be
capable of operating on all extant extents associated with arena <i>, usually by
passing unknown extents to the replaced functions. In practice, it is feasible to
control allocation for arenas explicitly created via arenas.create such that all
extents originate from an application-supplied extent allocator (by specifying the
custom extent hook functions during arena creation). However, the API guarantees for
the automatically created arenas may be relaxed -- hooks set there may be called in a
"best effort" fashion; in addition there may be extents created prior to the
application having an opportunity to take over extent allocation.
typedef extent_hooks_s extent_hooks_t;
struct extent_hooks_s {
extent_alloc_t *alloc;
extent_dalloc_t *dalloc;
extent_destroy_t *destroy;
extent_commit_t *commit;
extent_decommit_t *decommit;
extent_purge_t *purge_lazy;
extent_purge_t *purge_forced;
extent_split_t *split;
extent_merge_t *merge;
};
The extent_hooks_t structure comprises function pointers which are described
individually below. jemalloc uses these functions to manage extent lifetime, which
starts off with allocation of mapped committed memory, in the simplest case followed
by deallocation. However, there are performance and platform reasons to retain extents
for later reuse. Cleanup attempts cascade from deallocation to decommit to forced
purging to lazy purging, which gives the extent management functions opportunities to
reject the most permanent cleanup operations in favor of less permanent (and often
less costly) operations. All operations except allocation can be universally opted out
of by setting the hook pointers to NULL, or selectively opted out of by returning
failure. Note that once the extent hook is set, the structure is accessed directly by
the associated arenas, so it must remain valid for the entire lifetime of the arenas.
typedef void *(extent_alloc_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *new_addr,
size_t size, size_t alignment, bool *zero,
bool *commit, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent allocation function conforms to the extent_alloc_t type and upon success
returns a pointer to size bytes of mapped memory on behalf of arena arena_ind such
that the extent's base address is a multiple of alignment, as well as setting *zero to
indicate whether the extent is zeroed and *commit to indicate whether the extent is
committed. Upon error the function returns NULL and leaves *zero and *commit
unmodified. The size parameter is always a multiple of the page size. The alignment
parameter is always a power of two at least as large as the page size. Zeroing is
mandatory if *zero is true upon function entry. Committing is mandatory if *commit is
true upon function entry. If new_addr is not NULL, the returned pointer must be
new_addr on success or NULL on error. Committed memory may be committed in absolute
terms as on a system that does not overcommit, or in implicit terms as on a system
that overcommits and satisfies physical memory needs on demand via soft page faults.
Note that replacing the default extent allocation function makes the arena's
arena.<i>.dss setting irrelevant.
typedef bool (extent_dalloc_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr, size_t size,
bool committed, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent deallocation function conforms to the extent_dalloc_t type and deallocates
an extent at given addr and size with committed/decommited memory as indicated, on
behalf of arena arena_ind, returning false upon success. If the function returns true,
this indicates opt-out from deallocation; the virtual memory mapping associated with
the extent remains mapped, in the same commit state, and available for future use, in
which case it will be automatically retained for later reuse.
typedef void (extent_destroy_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr, size_t size,
bool committed, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent destruction function conforms to the extent_destroy_t type and
unconditionally destroys an extent at given addr and size with committed/decommited
memory as indicated, on behalf of arena arena_ind. This function may be called to
destroy retained extents during arena destruction (see arena.<i>.destroy).
typedef bool (extent_commit_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr, size_t size,
size_t offset, size_t length, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent commit function conforms to the extent_commit_t type and commits zeroed
physical memory to back pages within an extent at given addr and size at offset bytes,
extending for length on behalf of arena arena_ind, returning false upon success.
Committed memory may be committed in absolute terms as on a system that does not
overcommit, or in implicit terms as on a system that overcommits and satisfies
physical memory needs on demand via soft page faults. If the function returns true,
this indicates insufficient physical memory to satisfy the request.
typedef bool (extent_decommit_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr,
size_t size, size_t offset, size_t length,
unsigned arena_ind);
An extent decommit function conforms to the extent_decommit_t type and decommits any
physical memory that is backing pages within an extent at given addr and size at
offset bytes, extending for length on behalf of arena arena_ind, returning false upon
success, in which case the pages will be committed via the extent commit function
before being reused. If the function returns true, this indicates opt-out from
decommit; the memory remains committed and available for future use, in which case it
will be automatically retained for later reuse.
typedef bool (extent_purge_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr, size_t size,
size_t offset, size_t length, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent purge function conforms to the extent_purge_t type and discards physical
pages within the virtual memory mapping associated with an extent at given addr and
size at offset bytes, extending for length on behalf of arena arena_ind. A lazy extent
purge function (e.g. implemented via madvise(...MADV_FREE)) can delay purging
indefinitely and leave the pages within the purged virtual memory range in an
indeterminite state, whereas a forced extent purge function immediately purges, and
the pages within the virtual memory range will be zero-filled the next time they are
accessed. If the function returns true, this indicates failure to purge.
typedef bool (extent_split_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr, size_t size,
size_t size_a, size_t size_b, bool committed,
unsigned arena_ind);
An extent split function conforms to the extent_split_t type and optionally splits an
extent at given addr and size into two adjacent extents, the first of size_a bytes,
and the second of size_b bytes, operating on committed/decommitted memory as
indicated, on behalf of arena arena_ind, returning false upon success. If the function
returns true, this indicates that the extent remains unsplit and therefore should
continue to be operated on as a whole.
typedef bool (extent_merge_t)(extent_hooks_t *extent_hooks, void *addr_a,
size_t size_a, void *addr_b, size_t size_b,
bool committed, unsigned arena_ind);
An extent merge function conforms to the extent_merge_t type and optionally merges
adjacent extents, at given addr_a and size_a with given addr_b and size_b into one
contiguous extent, operating on committed/decommitted memory as indicated, on behalf
of arena arena_ind, returning false upon success. If the function returns true, this
indicates that the extents remain distinct mappings and therefore should continue to
be operated on independently.
arenas.narenas (unsigned) r-
Current limit on number of arenas.
arenas.dirty_decay_ms (ssize_t) rw
Current default per-arena approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set
of unused dirty pages until an equivalent set of unused dirty pages is purged and/or
reused, used to initialize arena.<i>.dirty_decay_ms during arena creation. See
opt.dirty_decay_ms for additional information.
arenas.muzzy_decay_ms (ssize_t) rw
Current default per-arena approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set
of unused muzzy pages until an equivalent set of unused muzzy pages is purged and/or
reused, used to initialize arena.<i>.muzzy_decay_ms during arena creation. See
opt.muzzy_decay_ms for additional information.
arenas.quantum (size_t) r-
Quantum size.
arenas.page (size_t) r-
Page size.
arenas.tcache_max (size_t) r-
Maximum thread-cached size class.
arenas.nbins (unsigned) r-
Number of bin size classes.
arenas.nhbins (unsigned) r-
Total number of thread cache bin size classes.
arenas.bin.<i>.size (size_t) r-
Maximum size supported by size class.
arenas.bin.<i>.nregs (uint32_t) r-
Number of regions per slab.
arenas.bin.<i>.slab_size (size_t) r-
Number of bytes per slab.
arenas.nlextents (unsigned) r-
Total number of large size classes.
arenas.lextent.<i>.size (size_t) r-
Maximum size supported by this large size class.
arenas.create (unsigned, extent_hooks_t *) rw
Explicitly create a new arena outside the range of automatically managed arenas, with
optionally specified extent hooks, and return the new arena index.
arenas.lookup (unsigned, void*) rw
Index of the arena to which an allocation belongs to.
prof.thread_active_init (bool) rw [--enable-prof]
Control the initial setting for thread.prof.active in newly created threads. See the
opt.prof_thread_active_init option for additional information.
prof.active (bool) rw [--enable-prof]
Control whether sampling is currently active. See the opt.prof_active option for
additional information, as well as the interrelated thread.prof.active mallctl.
prof.dump (const char *) -w [--enable-prof]
Dump a memory profile to the specified file, or if NULL is specified, to a file
according to the pattern <prefix>.<pid>.<seq>.m<mseq>.heap, where <prefix> is
controlled by the opt.prof_prefix option.
prof.gdump (bool) rw [--enable-prof]
When enabled, trigger a memory profile dump every time the total virtual memory
exceeds the previous maximum. Profiles are dumped to files named according to the
pattern <prefix>.<pid>.<seq>.u<useq>.heap, where <prefix> is controlled by the
opt.prof_prefix option.
prof.reset (size_t) -w [--enable-prof]
Reset all memory profile statistics, and optionally update the sample rate (see
opt.lg_prof_sample and prof.lg_sample).
prof.lg_sample (size_t) r- [--enable-prof]
Get the current sample rate (see opt.lg_prof_sample).
prof.interval (uint64_t) r- [--enable-prof]
Average number of bytes allocated between interval-based profile dumps. See the
opt.lg_prof_interval option for additional information.
stats.allocated (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of bytes allocated by the application.
stats.active (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of bytes in active pages allocated by the application. This is a multiple
of the page size, and greater than or equal to stats.allocated. This does not include
stats.arenas.<i>.pdirty, stats.arenas.<i>.pmuzzy, nor pages entirely devoted to
allocator metadata.
stats.metadata (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of bytes dedicated to metadata, which comprise base allocations used for
bootstrap-sensitive allocator metadata structures (see stats.arenas.<i>.base) and
internal allocations (see stats.arenas.<i>.internal). Transparent huge page (enabled
with opt.metadata_thp) usage is not considered.
stats.metadata_thp (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of transparent huge pages (THP) used for metadata. See stats.metadata and
opt.metadata_thp) for details.
stats.resident (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Maximum number of bytes in physically resident data pages mapped by the allocator,
comprising all pages dedicated to allocator metadata, pages backing active
allocations, and unused dirty pages. This is a maximum rather than precise because
pages may not actually be physically resident if they correspond to demand-zeroed
virtual memory that has not yet been touched. This is a multiple of the page size, and
is larger than stats.active.
stats.mapped (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of bytes in active extents mapped by the allocator. This is larger than
stats.active. This does not include inactive extents, even those that contain unused
dirty pages, which means that there is no strict ordering between this and
stats.resident.
stats.retained (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of bytes in virtual memory mappings that were retained rather than being
returned to the operating system via e.g. munmap(2) or similar. Retained virtual
memory is typically untouched, decommitted, or purged, so it has no strongly
associated physical memory (see extent hooks for details). Retained memory is excluded
from mapped memory statistics, e.g. stats.mapped.
stats.background_thread.num_threads (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of background threads running currently.
stats.background_thread.num_runs (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Total number of runs from all background threads.
stats.background_thread.run_interval (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Average run interval in nanoseconds of background threads.
stats.mutexes.ctl.{counter}; (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on ctl mutex (global scope; mallctl related). {counter} is one of the
counters below:
num_ops (uint64_t): Total number of lock acquisition operations on this mutex.
num_spin_acq (uint64_t): Number of times the mutex was spin-acquired. When the
mutex is currently locked and cannot be acquired immediately, a short period of
spin-retry within jemalloc will be performed. Acquired through spin generally
means the contention was lightweight and not causing context switches.
num_wait (uint64_t): Number of times the mutex was wait-acquired, which means the
mutex contention was not solved by spin-retry, and blocking operation was likely
involved in order to acquire the mutex. This event generally implies higher cost /
longer delay, and should be investigated if it happens often.
max_wait_time (uint64_t): Maximum length of time in nanoseconds spent on a single
wait-acquired lock operation. Note that to avoid profiling overhead on the common
path, this does not consider spin-acquired cases.
total_wait_time (uint64_t): Cumulative time in nanoseconds spent on wait-acquired
lock operations. Similarly, spin-acquired cases are not considered.
max_num_thds (uint32_t): Maximum number of threads waiting on this mutex
simultaneously. Similarly, spin-acquired cases are not considered.
num_owner_switch (uint64_t): Number of times the current mutex owner is different
from the previous one. This event does not generally imply an issue; rather it is
an indicator of how often the protected data are accessed by different threads.
stats.mutexes.background_thread.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on background_thread mutex (global scope; background_thread related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.mutexes.prof.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on prof mutex (global scope; profiling related). {counter} is one of the
counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.mutexes.reset (void) -- [--enable-stats]
Reset all mutex profile statistics, including global mutexes, arena mutexes and bin
mutexes.
stats.arenas.<i>.dss (const char *) r-
dss (sbrk(2)) allocation precedence as related to mmap(2) allocation. See opt.dss for
details.
stats.arenas.<i>.dirty_decay_ms (ssize_t) r-
Approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of unused dirty pages
until an equivalent set of unused dirty pages is purged and/or reused. See
opt.dirty_decay_ms for details.
stats.arenas.<i>.muzzy_decay_ms (ssize_t) r-
Approximate time in milliseconds from the creation of a set of unused muzzy pages
until an equivalent set of unused muzzy pages is purged and/or reused. See
opt.muzzy_decay_ms for details.
stats.arenas.<i>.nthreads (unsigned) r-
Number of threads currently assigned to arena.
stats.arenas.<i>.uptime (uint64_t) r-
Time elapsed (in nanoseconds) since the arena was created. If <i> equals 0 or
MALLCTL_ARENAS_ALL, this is the uptime since malloc initialization.
stats.arenas.<i>.pactive (size_t) r-
Number of pages in active extents.
stats.arenas.<i>.pdirty (size_t) r-
Number of pages within unused extents that are potentially dirty, and for which
madvise() or similar has not been called. See opt.dirty_decay_ms for a description of
dirty pages.
stats.arenas.<i>.pmuzzy (size_t) r-
Number of pages within unused extents that are muzzy. See opt.muzzy_decay_ms for a
description of muzzy pages.
stats.arenas.<i>.mapped (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of mapped bytes.
stats.arenas.<i>.retained (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of retained bytes. See stats.retained for details.
stats.arenas.<i>.extent_avail (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of allocated (but unused) extent structs in this arena.
stats.arenas.<i>.base (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of bytes dedicated to bootstrap-sensitive allocator metadata structures.
stats.arenas.<i>.internal (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of bytes dedicated to internal allocations. Internal allocations differ from
application-originated allocations in that they are for internal use, and that they
are omitted from heap profiles.
stats.arenas.<i>.metadata_thp (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of transparent huge pages (THP) used for metadata. See opt.metadata_thp for
details.
stats.arenas.<i>.resident (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Maximum number of bytes in physically resident data pages mapped by the arena,
comprising all pages dedicated to allocator metadata, pages backing active
allocations, and unused dirty pages. This is a maximum rather than precise because
pages may not actually be physically resident if they correspond to demand-zeroed
virtual memory that has not yet been touched. This is a multiple of the page size.
stats.arenas.<i>.dirty_npurge (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of dirty page purge sweeps performed.
stats.arenas.<i>.dirty_nmadvise (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of madvise() or similar calls made to purge dirty pages.
stats.arenas.<i>.dirty_purged (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of dirty pages purged.
stats.arenas.<i>.muzzy_npurge (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of muzzy page purge sweeps performed.
stats.arenas.<i>.muzzy_nmadvise (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of madvise() or similar calls made to purge muzzy pages.
stats.arenas.<i>.muzzy_purged (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of muzzy pages purged.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.allocated (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of bytes currently allocated by small objects.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.nmalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a small allocation was requested from the arena's bins,
whether to fill the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled, or to directly satisfy
an allocation request otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.ndalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a small allocation was returned to the arena's bins,
whether to flush the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled, or to directly
deallocate an allocation otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.nrequests (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of allocation requests satisfied by all bin size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.nfills (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of tcache fills by all small size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.small.nflushes (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of tcache flushes by all small size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.allocated (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of bytes currently allocated by large objects.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.nmalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a large extent was allocated from the arena, whether to
fill the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled and the size class is within the
range being cached, or to directly satisfy an allocation request otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.ndalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a large extent was returned to the arena, whether to flush
the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled and the size class is within the range
being cached, or to directly deallocate an allocation otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.nrequests (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of allocation requests satisfied by all large size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.nfills (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of tcache fills by all large size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.large.nflushes (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of tcache flushes by all large size classes.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nmalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a bin region of the corresponding size class was allocated
from the arena, whether to fill the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled, or to
directly satisfy an allocation request otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.ndalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a bin region of the corresponding size class was returned
to the arena, whether to flush the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled, or to
directly deallocate an allocation otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nrequests (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of allocation requests satisfied by bin regions of the corresponding
size class.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.curregs (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Current number of regions for this size class.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nfills (uint64_t) r-
Cumulative number of tcache fills.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nflushes (uint64_t) r-
Cumulative number of tcache flushes.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nslabs (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of slabs created.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nreslabs (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times the current slab from which to allocate changed.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.curslabs (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Current number of slabs.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.nonfull_slabs (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Current number of nonfull slabs.
stats.arenas.<i>.bins.<j>.mutex.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.bins.<j> mutex (arena bin scope; bin operation related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.extents.<j>.n{extent_type} (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Number of extents of the given type in this arena in the bucket corresponding to page
size index <j>. The extent type is one of dirty, muzzy, or retained.
stats.arenas.<i>.extents.<j>.{extent_type}_bytes (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Sum of the bytes managed by extents of the given type in this arena in the bucket
corresponding to page size index <j>. The extent type is one of dirty, muzzy, or
retained.
stats.arenas.<i>.lextents.<j>.nmalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a large extent of the corresponding size class was
allocated from the arena, whether to fill the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled
and the size class is within the range being cached, or to directly satisfy an
allocation request otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.lextents.<j>.ndalloc (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of times a large extent of the corresponding size class was returned
to the arena, whether to flush the relevant tcache if opt.tcache is enabled and the
size class is within the range being cached, or to directly deallocate an allocation
otherwise.
stats.arenas.<i>.lextents.<j>.nrequests (uint64_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Cumulative number of allocation requests satisfied by large extents of the
corresponding size class.
stats.arenas.<i>.lextents.<j>.curlextents (size_t) r- [--enable-stats]
Current number of large allocations for this size class.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.large.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.large mutex (arena scope; large allocation related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.extent_avail.{counter} (counter specific type) r-
[--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.extent_avail mutex (arena scope; extent avail related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.extents_dirty.{counter} (counter specific type) r-
[--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.extents_dirty mutex (arena scope; dirty extents related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.extents_muzzy.{counter} (counter specific type) r-
[--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.extents_muzzy mutex (arena scope; muzzy extents related).
{counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.extents_retained.{counter} (counter specific type) r-
[--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.extents_retained mutex (arena scope; retained extents
related). {counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.decay_dirty.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.decay_dirty mutex (arena scope; decay for dirty pages
related). {counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.decay_muzzy.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.decay_muzzy mutex (arena scope; decay for muzzy pages
related). {counter} is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.base.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.base mutex (arena scope; base allocator related). {counter}
is one of the counters in mutex profiling counters.
stats.arenas.<i>.mutexes.tcache_list.{counter} (counter specific type) r- [--enable-stats]
Statistics on arena.<i>.tcache_list mutex (arena scope; tcache to arena association
related). This mutex is expected to be accessed less often. {counter} is one of the
counters in mutex profiling counters.
HEAP PROFILE FORMAT
Although the heap profiling functionality was originally designed to be compatible with
the pprof command that is developed as part of the gperftools package[3], the addition of
per thread heap profiling functionality required a different heap profile format. The
jeprof command is derived from pprof, with enhancements to support the heap profile format
described here.
In the following hypothetical heap profile, [...] indicates elision for the sake of
compactness.
heap_v2/524288
t*: 28106: 56637512 [0: 0]
[...]
t3: 352: 16777344 [0: 0]
[...]
t99: 17754: 29341640 [0: 0]
[...]
@ 0x5f86da8 0x5f5a1dc [...] 0x29e4d4e 0xa200316 0xabb2988 [...]
t*: 13: 6688 [0: 0]
t3: 12: 6496 [0: ]
t99: 1: 192 [0: 0]
[...]
MAPPED_LIBRARIES:
[...]
The following matches the above heap profile, but most tokens are replaced with
<description> to indicate descriptions of the corresponding fields.
<heap_profile_format_version>/<mean_sample_interval>
<aggregate>: <curobjs>: <curbytes> [<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
[...]
<thread_3_aggregate>: <curobjs>: <curbytes>[<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
[...]
<thread_99_aggregate>: <curobjs>: <curbytes>[<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
[...]
@ <top_frame> <frame> [...] <frame> <frame> <frame> [...]
<backtrace_aggregate>: <curobjs>: <curbytes> [<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
<backtrace_thread_3>: <curobjs>: <curbytes> [<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
<backtrace_thread_99>: <curobjs>: <curbytes> [<cumobjs>: <cumbytes>]
[...]
MAPPED_LIBRARIES:
</proc/<pid>/maps>
DEBUGGING MALLOC PROBLEMS
When debugging, it is a good idea to configure/build jemalloc with the --enable-debug and
--enable-fill options, and recompile the program with suitable options and symbols for
debugger support. When so configured, jemalloc incorporates a wide variety of run-time
assertions that catch application errors such as double-free, write-after-free, etc.
Programs often accidentally depend on “uninitialized” memory actually being filled with
zero bytes. Junk filling (see the opt.junk option) tends to expose such bugs in the form
of obviously incorrect results and/or coredumps. Conversely, zero filling (see the
opt.zero option) eliminates the symptoms of such bugs. Between these two options, it is
usually possible to quickly detect, diagnose, and eliminate such bugs.
This implementation does not provide much detail about the problems it detects, because
the performance impact for storing such information would be prohibitive.
DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGES
If any of the memory allocation/deallocation functions detect an error or warning
condition, a message will be printed to file descriptor STDERR_FILENO. Errors will result
in the process dumping core. If the opt.abort option is set, most warnings are treated as
errors.
The malloc_message variable allows the programmer to override the function which emits the
text strings forming the errors and warnings if for some reason the STDERR_FILENO file
descriptor is not suitable for this. malloc_message() takes the cbopaque pointer argument
that is NULL unless overridden by the arguments in a call to malloc_stats_print(),
followed by a string pointer. Please note that doing anything which tries to allocate
memory in this function is likely to result in a crash or deadlock.
All messages are prefixed by “<jemalloc>: ”.
RETURN VALUES
Standard API
The malloc() and calloc() functions return a pointer to the allocated memory if
successful; otherwise a NULL pointer is returned and errno is set to ENOMEM.
The posix_memalign() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise it returns an
error value. The posix_memalign() function will fail if:
EINVAL
The alignment parameter is not a power of 2 at least as large as sizeof(void *).
ENOMEM
Memory allocation error.
The aligned_alloc() function returns a pointer to the allocated memory if successful;
otherwise a NULL pointer is returned and errno is set. The aligned_alloc() function will
fail if:
EINVAL
The alignment parameter is not a power of 2.
ENOMEM
Memory allocation error.
The realloc() function returns a pointer, possibly identical to ptr, to the allocated
memory if successful; otherwise a NULL pointer is returned, and errno is set to ENOMEM if
the error was the result of an allocation failure. The realloc() function always leaves
the original buffer intact when an error occurs.
The free() function returns no value.
Non-standard API
The mallocx() and rallocx() functions return a pointer to the allocated memory if
successful; otherwise a NULL pointer is returned to indicate insufficient contiguous
memory was available to service the allocation request.
The xallocx() function returns the real size of the resulting resized allocation pointed
to by ptr, which is a value less than size if the allocation could not be adequately grown
in place.
The sallocx() function returns the real size of the allocation pointed to by ptr.
The nallocx() returns the real size that would result from a successful equivalent
mallocx() function call, or zero if insufficient memory is available to perform the size
computation.
The mallctl(), mallctlnametomib(), and mallctlbymib() functions return 0 on success;
otherwise they return an error value. The functions will fail if:
EINVAL
newp is not NULL, and newlen is too large or too small. Alternatively, *oldlenp is too
large or too small; in this case as much data as possible are read despite the error.
ENOENT
name or mib specifies an unknown/invalid value.
EPERM
Attempt to read or write void value, or attempt to write read-only value.
EAGAIN
A memory allocation failure occurred.
EFAULT
An interface with side effects failed in some way not directly related to mallctl*()
read/write processing.
The malloc_usable_size() function returns the usable size of the allocation pointed to by
ptr.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable affects the execution of the allocation functions:
MALLOC_CONF
If the environment variable MALLOC_CONF is set, the characters it contains will be
interpreted as options.
EXAMPLES
To dump core whenever a problem occurs:
ln -s 'abort:true' /etc/malloc.conf
To specify in the source that only one arena should be automatically created:
malloc_conf = "narenas:1";
SEE ALSO
madvise(2), mmap(2), sbrk(2), utrace(2), alloca(3), atexit(3), getpagesize(3)
STANDARDS
The malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), and free() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (“ISO
C90”).
The posix_memalign() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).
AUTHOR
Jason Evans
NOTES
1. jemalloc website
http://jemalloc.net/
2. JSON format
http://www.json.org/
3. gperftools package
http://code.google.com/p/gperftools/