diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/vm')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.txt | 332 |
1 files changed, 332 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.txt b/Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..8242f52d0f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ + +What is Linux Memory Policy? + +In the Linux kernel, "memory policy" determines from which node the kernel will +allocate memory in a NUMA system or in an emulated NUMA system. Linux has +supported platforms with Non-Uniform Memory Access architectures since 2.4.?. +The current memory policy support was added to Linux 2.6 around May 2004. This +document attempts to describe the concepts and APIs of the 2.6 memory policy +support. + +Memory policies should not be confused with cpusets (Documentation/cpusets.txt) +which is an administrative mechanism for restricting the nodes from which +memory may be allocated by a set of processes. Memory policies are a +programming interface that a NUMA-aware application can take advantage of. When +both cpusets and policies are applied to a task, the restrictions of the cpuset +takes priority. See "MEMORY POLICIES AND CPUSETS" below for more details. + +MEMORY POLICY CONCEPTS + +Scope of Memory Policies + +The Linux kernel supports _scopes_ of memory policy, described here from +most general to most specific: + + System Default Policy: this policy is "hard coded" into the kernel. It + is the policy that governs all page allocations that aren't controlled + by one of the more specific policy scopes discussed below. When the + system is "up and running", the system default policy will use "local + allocation" described below. However, during boot up, the system + default policy will be set to interleave allocations across all nodes + with "sufficient" memory, so as not to overload the initial boot node + with boot-time allocations. + + Task/Process Policy: this is an optional, per-task policy. When defined + for a specific task, this policy controls all page allocations made by or + on behalf of the task that aren't controlled by a more specific scope. + If a task does not define a task policy, then all page allocations that + would have been controlled by the task policy "fall back" to the System + Default Policy. + + The task policy applies to the entire address space of a task. Thus, + it is inheritable, and indeed is inherited, across both fork() + [clone() w/o the CLONE_VM flag] and exec*(). This allows a parent task + to establish the task policy for a child task exec()'d from an + executable image that has no awareness of memory policy. See the + MEMORY POLICY APIS section, below, for an overview of the system call + that a task may use to set/change it's task/process policy. + + In a multi-threaded task, task policies apply only to the thread + [Linux kernel task] that installs the policy and any threads + subsequently created by that thread. Any sibling threads existing + at the time a new task policy is installed retain their current + policy. + + A task policy applies only to pages allocated after the policy is + installed. Any pages already faulted in by the task when the task + changes its task policy remain where they were allocated based on + the policy at the time they were allocated. + + VMA Policy: A "VMA" or "Virtual Memory Area" refers to a range of a task's + virtual adddress space. A task may define a specific policy for a range + of its virtual address space. See the MEMORY POLICIES APIS section, + below, for an overview of the mbind() system call used to set a VMA + policy. + + A VMA policy will govern the allocation of pages that back this region of + the address space. Any regions of the task's address space that don't + have an explicit VMA policy will fall back to the task policy, which may + itself fall back to the System Default Policy. + + VMA policies have a few complicating details: + + VMA policy applies ONLY to anonymous pages. These include pages + allocated for anonymous segments, such as the task stack and heap, and + any regions of the address space mmap()ed with the MAP_ANONYMOUS flag. + If a VMA policy is applied to a file mapping, it will be ignored if + the mapping used the MAP_SHARED flag. If the file mapping used the + MAP_PRIVATE flag, the VMA policy will only be applied when an + anonymous page is allocated on an attempt to write to the mapping-- + i.e., at Copy-On-Write. + + VMA policies are shared between all tasks that share a virtual address + space--a.k.a. threads--independent of when the policy is installed; and + they are inherited across fork(). However, because VMA policies refer + to a specific region of a task's address space, and because the address + space is discarded and recreated on exec*(), VMA policies are NOT + inheritable across exec(). Thus, only NUMA-aware applications may + use VMA policies. + + A task may install a new VMA policy on a sub-range of a previously + mmap()ed region. When this happens, Linux splits the existing virtual + memory area into 2 or 3 VMAs, each with it's own policy. + + By default, VMA policy applies only to pages allocated after the policy + is installed. Any pages already faulted into the VMA range remain + where they were allocated based on the policy at the time they were + allocated. However, since 2.6.16, Linux supports page migration via + the mbind() system call, so that page contents can be moved to match + a newly installed policy. + + Shared Policy: Conceptually, shared policies apply to "memory objects" + mapped shared into one or more tasks' distinct address spaces. An + application installs a shared policies the same way as VMA policies--using + the mbind() system call specifying a range of virtual addresses that map + the shared object. However, unlike VMA policies, which can be considered + to be an attribute of a range of a task's address space, shared policies + apply directly to the shared object. Thus, all tasks that attach to the + object share the policy, and all pages allocated for the shared object, + by any task, will obey the shared policy. + + As of 2.6.22, only shared memory segments, created by shmget() or + mmap(MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_SHARED), support shared policy. When shared + policy support was added to Linux, the associated data structures were + added to hugetlbfs shmem segments. At the time, hugetlbfs did not + support allocation at fault time--a.k.a lazy allocation--so hugetlbfs + shmem segments were never "hooked up" to the shared policy support. + Although hugetlbfs segments now support lazy allocation, their support + for shared policy has not been completed. + + As mentioned above [re: VMA policies], allocations of page cache + pages for regular files mmap()ed with MAP_SHARED ignore any VMA + policy installed on the virtual address range backed by the shared + file mapping. Rather, shared page cache pages, including pages backing + private mappings that have not yet been written by the task, follow + task policy, if any, else System Default Policy. + + The shared policy infrastructure supports different policies on subset + ranges of the shared object. However, Linux still splits the VMA of + the task that installs the policy for each range of distinct policy. + Thus, different tasks that attach to a shared memory segment can have + different VMA configurations mapping that one shared object. This + can be seen by examining the /proc/<pid>/numa_maps of tasks sharing + a shared memory region, when one task has installed shared policy on + one or more ranges of the region. + +Components of Memory Policies + + A Linux memory policy is a tuple consisting of a "mode" and an optional set + of nodes. The mode determine the behavior of the policy, while the + optional set of nodes can be viewed as the arguments to the behavior. + + Internally, memory policies are implemented by a reference counted + structure, struct mempolicy. Details of this structure will be discussed + in context, below, as required to explain the behavior. + + Note: in some functions AND in the struct mempolicy itself, the mode + is called "policy". However, to avoid confusion with the policy tuple, + this document will continue to use the term "mode". + + Linux memory policy supports the following 4 behavioral modes: + + Default Mode--MPOL_DEFAULT: The behavior specified by this mode is + context or scope dependent. + + As mentioned in the Policy Scope section above, during normal + system operation, the System Default Policy is hard coded to + contain the Default mode. + + In this context, default mode means "local" allocation--that is + attempt to allocate the page from the node associated with the cpu + where the fault occurs. If the "local" node has no memory, or the + node's memory can be exhausted [no free pages available], local + allocation will "fallback to"--attempt to allocate pages from-- + "nearby" nodes, in order of increasing "distance". + + Implementation detail -- subject to change: "Fallback" uses + a per node list of sibling nodes--called zonelists--built at + boot time, or when nodes or memory are added or removed from + the system [memory hotplug]. These per node zonelist are + constructed with nodes in order of increasing distance based + on information provided by the platform firmware. + + When a task/process policy or a shared policy contains the Default + mode, this also means "local allocation", as described above. + + In the context of a VMA, Default mode means "fall back to task + policy"--which may or may not specify Default mode. Thus, Default + mode can not be counted on to mean local allocation when used + on a non-shared region of the address space. However, see + MPOL_PREFERRED below. + + The Default mode does not use the optional set of nodes. + + MPOL_BIND: This mode specifies that memory must come from the + set of nodes specified by the policy. + + The memory policy APIs do not specify an order in which the nodes + will be searched. However, unlike "local allocation", the Bind + policy does not consider the distance between the nodes. Rather, + allocations will fallback to the nodes specified by the policy in + order of numeric node id. Like everything in Linux, this is subject + to change. + + MPOL_PREFERRED: This mode specifies that the allocation should be + attempted from the single node specified in the policy. If that + allocation fails, the kernel will search other nodes, exactly as + it would for a local allocation that started at the preferred node + in increasing distance from the preferred node. "Local" allocation + policy can be viewed as a Preferred policy that starts at the node + containing the cpu where the allocation takes place. + + Internally, the Preferred policy uses a single node--the + preferred_node member of struct mempolicy. A "distinguished + value of this preferred_node, currently '-1', is interpreted + as "the node containing the cpu where the allocation takes + place"--local allocation. This is the way to specify + local allocation for a specific range of addresses--i.e. for + VMA policies. + + MPOL_INTERLEAVED: This mode specifies that page allocations be + interleaved, on a page granularity, across the nodes specified in + the policy. This mode also behaves slightly differently, based on + the context where it is used: + + For allocation of anonymous pages and shared memory pages, + Interleave mode indexes the set of nodes specified by the policy + using the page offset of the faulting address into the segment + [VMA] containing the address modulo the number of nodes specified + by the policy. It then attempts to allocate a page, starting at + the selected node, as if the node had been specified by a Preferred + policy or had been selected by a local allocation. That is, + allocation will follow the per node zonelist. + + For allocation of page cache pages, Interleave mode indexes the set + of nodes specified by the policy using a node counter maintained + per task. This counter wraps around to the lowest specified node + after it reaches the highest specified node. This will tend to + spread the pages out over the nodes specified by the policy based + on the order in which they are allocated, rather than based on any + page offset into an address range or file. During system boot up, + the temporary interleaved system default policy works in this + mode. + +MEMORY POLICY APIs + +Linux supports 3 system calls for controlling memory policy. These APIS +always affect only the calling task, the calling task's address space, or +some shared object mapped into the calling task's address space. + + Note: the headers that define these APIs and the parameter data types + for user space applications reside in a package that is not part of + the Linux kernel. The kernel system call interfaces, with the 'sys_' + prefix, are defined in <linux/syscalls.h>; the mode and flag + definitions are defined in <linux/mempolicy.h>. + +Set [Task] Memory Policy: + + long set_mempolicy(int mode, const unsigned long *nmask, + unsigned long maxnode); + + Set's the calling task's "task/process memory policy" to mode + specified by the 'mode' argument and the set of nodes defined + by 'nmask'. 'nmask' points to a bit mask of node ids containing + at least 'maxnode' ids. + + See the set_mempolicy(2) man page for more details + + +Get [Task] Memory Policy or Related Information + + long get_mempolicy(int *mode, + const unsigned long *nmask, unsigned long maxnode, + void *addr, int flags); + + Queries the "task/process memory policy" of the calling task, or + the policy or location of a specified virtual address, depending + on the 'flags' argument. + + See the get_mempolicy(2) man page for more details + + +Install VMA/Shared Policy for a Range of Task's Address Space + + long mbind(void *start, unsigned long len, int mode, + const unsigned long *nmask, unsigned long maxnode, + unsigned flags); + + mbind() installs the policy specified by (mode, nmask, maxnodes) as + a VMA policy for the range of the calling task's address space + specified by the 'start' and 'len' arguments. Additional actions + may be requested via the 'flags' argument. + + See the mbind(2) man page for more details. + +MEMORY POLICY COMMAND LINE INTERFACE + +Although not strictly part of the Linux implementation of memory policy, +a command line tool, numactl(8), exists that allows one to: + ++ set the task policy for a specified program via set_mempolicy(2), fork(2) and + exec(2) + ++ set the shared policy for a shared memory segment via mbind(2) + +The numactl(8) tool is packages with the run-time version of the library +containing the memory policy system call wrappers. Some distributions +package the headers and compile-time libraries in a separate development +package. + + +MEMORY POLICIES AND CPUSETS + +Memory policies work within cpusets as described above. For memory policies +that require a node or set of nodes, the nodes are restricted to the set of +nodes whose memories are allowed by the cpuset constraints. If the +intersection of the set of nodes specified for the policy and the set of nodes +allowed by the cpuset is the empty set, the policy is considered invalid and +cannot be installed. + +The interaction of memory policies and cpusets can be problematic for a +couple of reasons: + +1) the memory policy APIs take physical node id's as arguments. However, the + memory policy APIs do not provide a way to determine what nodes are valid + in the context where the application is running. An application MAY consult + the cpuset file system [directly or via an out of tree, and not generally + available, libcpuset API] to obtain this information, but then the + application must be aware that it is running in a cpuset and use what are + intended primarily as administrative APIs. + + However, as long as the policy specifies at least one node that is valid + in the controlling cpuset, the policy can be used. + +2) when tasks in two cpusets share access to a memory region, such as shared + memory segments created by shmget() of mmap() with the MAP_ANONYMOUS and + MAP_SHARED flags, and any of the tasks install shared policy on the region, + only nodes whose memories are allowed in both cpusets may be used in the + policies. Again, obtaining this information requires "stepping outside" + the memory policy APIs, as well as knowing in what cpusets other task might + be attaching to the shared region, to use the cpuset information. + Furthermore, if the cpusets' allowed memory sets are disjoint, "local" + allocation is the only valid policy. |