--- /dev/null
+
+The intent of this file is to give a brief summary of hugetlbpage support in
+the Linux kernel. This support is built on top of multiple page size support
+that is provided by most modern architectures. For example, x86 CPUs normally
+support 4K and 2M (1G if architecturally supported) page sizes, ia64
+architecture supports multiple page sizes 4K, 8K, 64K, 256K, 1M, 4M, 16M,
+256M and ppc64 supports 4K and 16M. A TLB is a cache of virtual-to-physical
+translations. Typically this is a very scarce resource on processor.
+Operating systems try to make best use of limited number of TLB resources.
+This optimization is more critical now as bigger and bigger physical memories
+(several GBs) are more readily available.
+
+Users can use the huge page support in Linux kernel by either using the mmap
+system call or standard SYSV shared memory system calls (shmget, shmat).
+
+First the Linux kernel needs to be built with the CONFIG_HUGETLBFS
+(present under "File systems") and CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE (selected
+automatically when CONFIG_HUGETLBFS is selected) configuration
+options.
+
+The /proc/meminfo file provides information about the total number of
+persistent hugetlb pages in the kernel's huge page pool. It also displays
+information about the number of free, reserved and surplus huge pages and the
+default huge page size. The huge page size is needed for generating the
+proper alignment and size of the arguments to system calls that map huge page
+regions.
+
+The output of "cat /proc/meminfo" will include lines like:
+
+.....
+HugePages_Total: vvv
+HugePages_Free: www
+HugePages_Rsvd: xxx
+HugePages_Surp: yyy
+Hugepagesize: zzz kB
+
+where:
+HugePages_Total is the size of the pool of huge pages.
+HugePages_Free is the number of huge pages in the pool that are not yet
+ allocated.
+HugePages_Rsvd is short for "reserved," and is the number of huge pages for
+ which a commitment to allocate from the pool has been made,
+ but no allocation has yet been made. Reserved huge pages
+ guarantee that an application will be able to allocate a
+ huge page from the pool of huge pages at fault time.
+HugePages_Surp is short for "surplus," and is the number of huge pages in
+ the pool above the value in /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages. The
+ maximum number of surplus huge pages is controlled by
+ /proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages.
+
+/proc/filesystems should also show a filesystem of type "hugetlbfs" configured
+in the kernel.
+
+/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages indicates the current number of "persistent" huge
+pages in the kernel's huge page pool. "Persistent" huge pages will be
+returned to the huge page pool when freed by a task. A user with root
+privileges can dynamically allocate more or free some persistent huge pages
+by increasing or decreasing the value of 'nr_hugepages'.
+
+Pages that are used as huge pages are reserved inside the kernel and cannot
+be used for other purposes. Huge pages cannot be swapped out under
+memory pressure.
+
+Once a number of huge pages have been pre-allocated to the kernel huge page
+pool, a user with appropriate privilege can use either the mmap system call
+or shared memory system calls to use the huge pages. See the discussion of
+Using Huge Pages, below.
+
+The administrator can allocate persistent huge pages on the kernel boot
+command line by specifying the "hugepages=N" parameter, where 'N' = the
+number of huge pages requested. This is the most reliable method of
+allocating huge pages as memory has not yet become fragmented.
+
+Some platforms support multiple huge page sizes. To allocate huge pages
+of a specific size, one must precede the huge pages boot command parameters
+with a huge page size selection parameter "hugepagesz=<size>". <size> must
+be specified in bytes with optional scale suffix [kKmMgG]. The default huge
+page size may be selected with the "default_hugepagesz=<size>" boot parameter.
+
+When multiple huge page sizes are supported, /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
+indicates the current number of pre-allocated huge pages of the default size.
+Thus, one can use the following command to dynamically allocate/deallocate
+default sized persistent huge pages:
+
+ echo 20 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
+
+This command will try to adjust the number of default sized huge pages in the
+huge page pool to 20, allocating or freeing huge pages, as required.
+
+On a NUMA platform, the kernel will attempt to distribute the huge page pool
+over all the set of allowed nodes specified by the NUMA memory policy of the
+task that modifies nr_hugepages. The default for the allowed nodes--when the
+task has default memory policy--is all on-line nodes with memory. Allowed
+nodes with insufficient available, contiguous memory for a huge page will be
+silently skipped when allocating persistent huge pages. See the discussion
+below of the interaction of task memory policy, cpusets and per node attributes
+with the allocation and freeing of persistent huge pages.
+
+The success or failure of huge page allocation depends on the amount of
+physically contiguous memory that is present in system at the time of the
+allocation attempt. If the kernel is unable to allocate huge pages from
+some nodes in a NUMA system, it will attempt to make up the difference by
+allocating extra pages on other nodes with sufficient available contiguous
+memory, if any.
+
+System administrators may want to put this command in one of the local rc
+init files. This will enable the kernel to allocate huge pages early in
+the boot process when the possibility of getting physical contiguous pages
+is still very high. Administrators can verify the number of huge pages
+actually allocated by checking the sysctl or meminfo. To check the per node
+distribution of huge pages in a NUMA system, use:
+
+ cat /sys/devices/system/node/node*/meminfo | fgrep Huge
+
+/proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages specifies how large the pool of
+huge pages can grow, if more huge pages than /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages are
+requested by applications. Writing any non-zero value into this file
+indicates that the hugetlb subsystem is allowed to try to obtain that
+number of "surplus" huge pages from the kernel's normal page pool, when the
+persistent huge page pool is exhausted. As these surplus huge pages become
+unused, they are freed back to the kernel's normal page pool.
+
+When increasing the huge page pool size via nr_hugepages, any existing surplus
+pages will first be promoted to persistent huge pages. Then, additional
+huge pages will be allocated, if necessary and if possible, to fulfill
+the new persistent huge page pool size.
+
+The administrator may shrink the pool of persistent huge pages for
+the default huge page size by setting the nr_hugepages sysctl to a
+smaller value. The kernel will attempt to balance the freeing of huge pages
+across all nodes in the memory policy of the task modifying nr_hugepages.
+Any free huge pages on the selected nodes will be freed back to the kernel's
+normal page pool.
+
+Caveat: Shrinking the persistent huge page pool via nr_hugepages such that
+it becomes less than the number of huge pages in use will convert the balance
+of the in-use huge pages to surplus huge pages. This will occur even if
+the number of surplus pages it would exceed the overcommit value. As long as
+this condition holds--that is, until nr_hugepages+nr_overcommit_hugepages is
+increased sufficiently, or the surplus huge pages go out of use and are freed--
+no more surplus huge pages will be allowed to be allocated.
+
+With support for multiple huge page pools at run-time available, much of
+the huge page userspace interface in /proc/sys/vm has been duplicated in sysfs.
+The /proc interfaces discussed above have been retained for backwards
+compatibility. The root huge page control directory in sysfs is:
+
+ /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages
+
+For each huge page size supported by the running kernel, a subdirectory
+will exist, of the form:
+
+ hugepages-${size}kB
+
+Inside each of these directories, the same set of files will exist:
+
+ nr_hugepages
+ nr_hugepages_mempolicy
+ nr_overcommit_hugepages
+ free_hugepages
+ resv_hugepages
+ surplus_hugepages
+
+which function as described above for the default huge page-sized case.
+
+
+Interaction of Task Memory Policy with Huge Page Allocation/Freeing
+===================================================================
+
+Whether huge pages are allocated and freed via the /proc interface or
+the /sysfs interface using the nr_hugepages_mempolicy attribute, the NUMA
+nodes from which huge pages are allocated or freed are controlled by the
+NUMA memory policy of the task that modifies the nr_hugepages_mempolicy
+sysctl or attribute. When the nr_hugepages attribute is used, mempolicy
+is ignored.
+
+The recommended method to allocate or free huge pages to/from the kernel
+huge page pool, using the nr_hugepages example above, is:
+
+ numactl --interleave <node-list> echo 20 \
+ >/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages_mempolicy
+
+or, more succinctly:
+
+ numactl -m <node-list> echo 20 >/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages_mempolicy
+
+This will allocate or free abs(20 - nr_hugepages) to or from the nodes
+specified in <node-list>, depending on whether number of persistent huge pages
+is initially less than or greater than 20, respectively. No huge pages will be
+allocated nor freed on any node not included in the specified <node-list>.
+
+When adjusting the persistent hugepage count via nr_hugepages_mempolicy, any
+memory policy mode--bind, preferred, local or interleave--may be used. The
+resulting effect on persistent huge page allocation is as follows:
+
+1) Regardless of mempolicy mode [see Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.txt],
+ persistent huge pages will be distributed across the node or nodes
+ specified in the mempolicy as if "interleave" had been specified.
+ However, if a node in the policy does not contain sufficient contiguous
+ memory for a huge page, the allocation will not "fallback" to the nearest
+ neighbor node with sufficient contiguous memory. To do this would cause
+ undesirable imbalance in the distribution of the huge page pool, or
+ possibly, allocation of persistent huge pages on nodes not allowed by
+ the task's memory policy.
+
+2) One or more nodes may be specified with the bind or interleave policy.
+ If more than one node is specified with the preferred policy, only the
+ lowest numeric id will be used. Local policy will select the node where
+ the task is running at the time the nodes_allowed mask is constructed.
+ For local policy to be deterministic, the task must be bound to a cpu or
+ cpus in a single node. Otherwise, the task could be migrated to some
+ other node at any time after launch and the resulting node will be
+ indeterminate. Thus, local policy is not very useful for this purpose.
+ Any of the other mempolicy modes may be used to specify a single node.
+
+3) The nodes allowed mask will be derived from any non-default task mempolicy,
+ whether this policy was set explicitly by the task itself or one of its
+ ancestors, such as numactl. This means that if the task is invoked from a
+ shell with non-default policy, that policy will be used. One can specify a
+ node list of "all" with numactl --interleave or --membind [-m] to achieve
+ interleaving over all nodes in the system or cpuset.
+
+4) Any task mempolicy specifed--e.g., using numactl--will be constrained by
+ the resource limits of any cpuset in which the task runs. Thus, there will
+ be no way for a task with non-default policy running in a cpuset with a
+ subset of the system nodes to allocate huge pages outside the cpuset
+ without first moving to a cpuset that contains all of the desired nodes.
+
+5) Boot-time huge page allocation attempts to distribute the requested number
+ of huge pages over all on-lines nodes with memory.
+
+Per Node Hugepages Attributes
+=============================
+
+A subset of the contents of the root huge page control directory in sysfs,
+described above, will be replicated under each the system device of each
+NUMA node with memory in:
+
+ /sys/devices/system/node/node[0-9]*/hugepages/
+
+Under this directory, the subdirectory for each supported huge page size
+contains the following attribute files:
+
+ nr_hugepages
+ free_hugepages
+ surplus_hugepages
+
+The free_' and surplus_' attribute files are read-only. They return the number
+of free and surplus [overcommitted] huge pages, respectively, on the parent
+node.
+
+The nr_hugepages attribute returns the total number of huge pages on the
+specified node. When this attribute is written, the number of persistent huge
+pages on the parent node will be adjusted to the specified value, if sufficient
+resources exist, regardless of the task's mempolicy or cpuset constraints.
+
+Note that the number of overcommit and reserve pages remain global quantities,
+as we don't know until fault time, when the faulting task's mempolicy is
+applied, from which node the huge page allocation will be attempted.
+
+
+Using Huge Pages
+================
+
+If the user applications are going to request huge pages using mmap system
+call, then it is required that system administrator mount a file system of
+type hugetlbfs:
+
+ mount -t hugetlbfs \
+ -o uid=<value>,gid=<value>,mode=<value>,pagesize=<value>,size=<value>,\
+ min_size=<value>,nr_inodes=<value> none /mnt/huge
+
+This command mounts a (pseudo) filesystem of type hugetlbfs on the directory
+/mnt/huge. Any files created on /mnt/huge uses huge pages. The uid and gid
+options sets the owner and group of the root of the file system. By default
+the uid and gid of the current process are taken. The mode option sets the
+mode of root of file system to value & 01777. This value is given in octal.
+By default the value 0755 is picked. If the paltform supports multiple huge
+page sizes, the pagesize option can be used to specify the huge page size and
+associated pool. pagesize is specified in bytes. If pagesize is not specified
+the paltform's default huge page size and associated pool will be used. The
+size option sets the maximum value of memory (huge pages) allowed for that
+filesystem (/mnt/huge). The size option can be specified in bytes, or as a
+percentage of the specified huge page pool (nr_hugepages). The size is
+rounded down to HPAGE_SIZE boundary. The min_size option sets the minimum
+value of memory (huge pages) allowed for the filesystem. min_size can be
+specified in the same way as size, either bytes or a percentage of the
+huge page pool. At mount time, the number of huge pages specified by
+min_size are reserved for use by the filesystem. If there are not enough
+free huge pages available, the mount will fail. As huge pages are allocated
+to the filesystem and freed, the reserve count is adjusted so that the sum
+of allocated and reserved huge pages is always at least min_size. The option
+nr_inodes sets the maximum number of inodes that /mnt/huge can use. If the
+size, min_size or nr_inodes option is not provided on command line then
+no limits are set. For pagesize, size, min_size and nr_inodes options, you
+can use [G|g]/[M|m]/[K|k] to represent giga/mega/kilo. For example, size=2K
+has the same meaning as size=2048.
+
+While read system calls are supported on files that reside on hugetlb
+file systems, write system calls are not.
+
+Regular chown, chgrp, and chmod commands (with right permissions) could be
+used to change the file attributes on hugetlbfs.
+
+Also, it is important to note that no such mount command is required if
+applications are going to use only shmat/shmget system calls or mmap with
+MAP_HUGETLB. For an example of how to use mmap with MAP_HUGETLB see map_hugetlb
+below.
+
+Users who wish to use hugetlb memory via shared memory segment should be a
+member of a supplementary group and system admin needs to configure that gid
+into /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group. It is possible for same or different
+applications to use any combination of mmaps and shm* calls, though the mount of
+filesystem will be required for using mmap calls without MAP_HUGETLB.
+
+Syscalls that operate on memory backed by hugetlb pages only have their lengths
+aligned to the native page size of the processor; they will normally fail with
+errno set to EINVAL or exclude hugetlb pages that extend beyond the length if
+not hugepage aligned. For example, munmap(2) will fail if memory is backed by
+a hugetlb page and the length is smaller than the hugepage size.
+
+
+Examples
+========
+
+1) map_hugetlb: see tools/testing/selftests/vm/map_hugetlb.c
+
+2) hugepage-shm: see tools/testing/selftests/vm/hugepage-shm.c
+
+3) hugepage-mmap: see tools/testing/selftests/vm/hugepage-mmap.c
+
+4) The libhugetlbfs (http://libhugetlbfs.sourceforge.net) library provides a
+ wide range of userspace tools to help with huge page usability, environment
+ setup, and control. Furthermore it provides useful test cases that should be
+ used when modifying code to ensure no regressions are introduced.
Code Review / kvmfornfv.git / blobdiff