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This is ./mmalloc.info, produced by Makeinfo version 3.12f from
mmalloc.texi.

START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Mmalloc: (mmalloc).           The GNU mapped-malloc package.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents the GNU mmalloc (mapped-malloc) package, written
by fnf@cygnus.com, based on GNU malloc written by mike@ai.mit.edu.

   Copyright (C) 1992 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms
of a permission notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions.


File: mmalloc.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Overview,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

mmalloc
*******

   This file documents the GNU memory-mapped malloc package mmalloc.

* Menu:

* Overview::                    Overall Description
* Implementation::              Implementation

 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Implementation

* Compatibility::               Backwards Compatibility
* Functions::                   Function Descriptions


File: mmalloc.info,  Node: Overview,  Next: Implementation,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

Overall Description
*******************

   This is a heavily modified version of GNU `malloc'.  It uses `mmap'
as the basic mechanism for obtaining memory from the system, rather
than `sbrk'.  This gives it several advantages over the more
traditional malloc:

   * Several different heaps can be used, each of them growing or
     shinking under control of `mmap', with the `mmalloc' functions
     using a specific heap on a call by call basis.

   * By using `mmap', it is easy to create heaps which are intended to
     be persistent and exist as a filesystem object after the creating
     process has gone away.

   * Because multiple heaps can be managed, data used for a specific
     purpose can be allocated into its own heap, making it easier to
     allow applications to "dump" and "restore" initialized
     malloc-managed memory regions.  For example, the "unexec" hack
     popularized by GNU Emacs could potentially go away.


File: mmalloc.info,  Node: Implementation,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Top

Implementation
**************

   The `mmalloc' functions contain no internal static state.  All
`mmalloc' internal data is allocated in the mapped in region, along
with the user data that it manages.  This allows it to manage multiple
such regions and to "pick up where it left off" when such regions are
later dynamically mapped back in.

   In some sense, malloc has been "purified" to contain no internal
state information and generalized to use multiple memory regions rather
than a single region managed by `sbrk'.  However the new routines now
need an extra parameter which informs `mmalloc' which memory region it
is dealing with (along with other information).  This parameter is
called the "malloc descriptor".

   The functions initially provided by `mmalloc' are:

     void *mmalloc_attach (int fd, void *baseaddr);
     void *mmalloc_detach (void *md);
     int mmalloc_errno (void *md);
     int mmalloc_setkey (void *md, int keynum, void *key);
     void *mmalloc_getkey (void *md, int keynum);
     
     void *mmalloc (void *md, size_t size);
     void *mrealloc (void *md, void *ptr, size_t size);
     void *mvalloc (void *md, size_t size);
     void mfree (void *md, void *ptr);

* Menu:

* Compatibility::               Backwards Compatibility
* Functions::                   Function Descriptions


File: mmalloc.info,  Node: Compatibility,  Next: Functions,  Prev: Implementation,  Up: Implementation

Backwards Compatibility
=======================

   To allow a single malloc package to be used in a given application,
provision is made for the traditional `malloc', `realloc', and `free'
functions to be implemented as special cases of the `mmalloc'
functions.  In particular, if any of the functions that expect malloc
descriptors are called with a `NULL' pointer rather than a valid malloc
descriptor, then they default to using an `sbrk' managed region.  The
`mmalloc' package provides compatible `malloc', `realloc', and `free'
functions using this mechanism internally.  Applications can avoid this
extra interface layer by simply including the following defines:

     #define malloc(size)               mmalloc ((void *)0, (size))
     #define realloc(ptr,size)  mrealloc ((void *)0, (ptr), (size));
     #define free(ptr)          mfree ((void *)0, (ptr))

or replace the existing `malloc', `realloc', and `free' calls with the
above patterns if using `#define' causes problems.


File: mmalloc.info,  Node: Functions,  Prev: Compatibility,  Up: Implementation

Function Descriptions
=====================

   These are the details on the functions that make up the `mmalloc'
package.

`void *mmalloc_attach (int FD, void *BASEADDR);'
     Initialize access to a `mmalloc' managed region.

     If FD is a valid file descriptor for an open file, then data for
     the `mmalloc' managed region is mapped to that file.   Otherwise
     `/dev/zero' is used and the data will not exist in any filesystem
     object.

     If the open file corresponding to FD is from a previous use of
     `mmalloc' and passes some basic sanity checks to ensure that it is
     compatible with the current `mmalloc' package, then its data is
     mapped in and is immediately accessible at the same addresses in
     the current process as the process that created the file.

     If BASEADDR is not `NULL', the mapping is established starting at
     the specified address in the process address space.  If BASEADDR
     is `NULL', the `mmalloc' package chooses a suitable address at
     which to start the mapped region, which will be the value of the
     previous mapping if opening an existing file which was previously
     built by `mmalloc', or for new files will be a value chosen by
     `mmap'.

     Specifying BASEADDR provides more control over where the regions
     start and how big they can be before bumping into existing mapped
     regions or future mapped regions.

     On success, returns a malloc descriptor which is used in subsequent
     calls to other `mmalloc' package functions.  It is explicitly
     `void *' (`char *' for systems that don't fully support `void') so
     that users of the package don't have to worry about the actual
     implementation details.

     On failure returns `NULL'.

`void *mmalloc_detach (void *MD);'
     Terminate access to a `mmalloc' managed region identified by the
     descriptor MD, by closing the base file and unmapping all memory
     pages associated with the region.

     Returns `NULL' on success.

     Returns the malloc descriptor on failure, which can subsequently
     be used for further action (such as obtaining more information
     about the nature of the failure).

`void *mmalloc (void *MD, size_t SIZE);'
     Given an `mmalloc' descriptor MD, allocate additional memory of
     SIZE bytes in the associated mapped region.

`*mrealloc (void *MD, void *PTR, size_t SIZE);'
     Given an `mmalloc' descriptor MD and a pointer to memory
     previously allocated by `mmalloc' in PTR, reallocate the memory to
     be SIZE bytes long, possibly moving the existing contents of
     memory if necessary.

`void *mvalloc (void *MD, size_t SIZE);'
     Like `mmalloc' but the resulting memory is aligned on a page
     boundary.

`void mfree (void *MD, void *PTR);'
     Given an `mmalloc' descriptor MD and a pointer to memory previously
     allocated by `mmalloc' in PTR, free the previously allocated
     memory.

`int mmalloc_errno (void *MD);'
     Given a `mmalloc' descriptor, if the last `mmalloc' operation
     failed for some reason due to a system call failure, then returns
     the associated `errno'.  Returns 0 otherwise.  (This function is
     not yet implemented).



Tag Table:
Node: Top939
Node: Overview1375
Node: Implementation2403
Node: Compatibility3796
Node: Functions4870

End Tag Table