[PATCH v1] madvise.2: Document MADV_POPULATE_READ and MADV_POPULATE_WRITE

MADV_POPULATE_READ and MADV_POPULATE_WRITE have been merged into
upstream Linux via commit 4ca9b3859dac ("mm/madvise: introduce
MADV_POPULATE_(READ|WRITE) to prefault page tables"), part of v5.14-rc1.

Let's document the behavior and error conditions of these new madvise()
options.

Cc: Alejandro Colomar <redacted>
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <redacted>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Linux API <redacted>
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <redacted>
---
 man2/madvise.2 | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/madvise.2 b/man2/madvise.2
index f1f384c0c..3ec8c53a7 100644
--- a/man2/madvise.2
+++ b/man2/madvise.2

@@ -469,6 +469,59 @@ If a page is file-backed and dirty, it will be written back to the backing
 storage.
 The advice might be ignored for some pages in the range when it is not
 applicable.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ " (since Linux 5.14)
+Populate (prefault) page tables readable for the whole range without actually
+reading. Depending on the underlying mapping, map the shared zeropage,
+preallocate memory or read the underlying file; files with holes might or
+might not preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) readable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+cannot be applied to mappings without read permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that with
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE " (since Linux 5.14)
+Populate (prefault) page tables writable for the whole range without actually
+writing. Depending on the underlying mapping, preallocate memory or read the
+underlying file; files with holes will preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) writable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+cannot be applied to mappings without write permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success,
 .BR madvise ()

@@ -533,6 +586,17 @@ or
 .BR VM_PFNMAP
 ranges.
 .TP
+.B EINVAL
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+but the specified address range includes ranges with insufficient permissions,
+.B VM_IO
+or
+.BR VM_PFNMAP.
+.TP
 .B EIO
 (for
 .BR MADV_WILLNEED )

@@ -548,6 +612,14 @@ Not enough memory: paging in failed.
 Addresses in the specified range are not currently
 mapped, or are outside the address space of the process.
 .TP
+.B ENOMEM
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+but populating (prefaulting) page tables failed.
+.TP
 .B EPERM
 .I advice
 is

@@ -555,6 +627,14 @@ is
 but the caller does not have the
 .B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
 capability.
+.TP
+.B EHWPOISON
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+and a HW poisoned page is encountered.
 .SH VERSIONS
 Since Linux 3.18,
 .\" commit d3ac21cacc24790eb45d735769f35753f5b56ceb

-- 
2.31.1

Is this read or write?
just reading and trying to understand :)

On 12.07.21 11:58, Pankaj Gupta wrote:

quoted

MADV_POPULATE_READ and MADV_POPULATE_WRITE have been merged into
upstream Linux via commit 4ca9b3859dac ("mm/madvise: introduce
MADV_POPULATE_(READ|WRITE) to prefault page tables"), part of v5.14-rc1.

Let's document the behavior and error conditions of these new madvise()
options.

Cc: Alejandro Colomar <redacted>
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <redacted>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Linux API <redacted>
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <redacted>
---
  man2/madvise.2 | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  1 file changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/madvise.2 b/man2/madvise.2
index f1f384c0c..3ec8c53a7 100644
--- a/man2/madvise.2
+++ b/man2/madvise.2

@@ -469,6 +469,59 @@ If a page is file-backed and dirty, it will be written back to the backing
  storage.
  The advice might be ignored for some pages in the range when it is not
  applicable.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ " (since Linux 5.14)
+Populate (prefault) page tables readable for the whole range without actually
+reading. Depending on the underlying mapping, map the shared zeropage,
+preallocate memory or read the underlying file; files with holes might or
+might not preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) readable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+cannot be applied to mappings without read permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that with
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE " (since Linux 5.14)
+Populate (prefault) page tables writable for the whole range without actually
+writing. Depending on the underlying mapping, preallocate memory or read the

Is this read or write?
just reading and trying to understand :)

It's reading. Assume you have a file with existing content mapped into a 
process. Once you touch a page (read/write/execute) that maps to blocks 
with existing content, you'll have to load these blocks from disk first.

Thanks! :)

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb

quoted

quoted

+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE " (since Linux 5.14)
+Populate (prefault) page tables writable for the whole range without actually
+writing. Depending on the underlying mapping, preallocate memory or read the

Is this read or write?
just reading and trying to understand :)

It's reading. Assume you have a file with existing content mapped into a
process. Once you touch a page (read/write/execute) that maps to blocks
with existing content, you'll have to load these blocks from disk first.

Got it. Thanks for explaining!

Best regards,
Pankaj

From the end user point of view, I find document simple and easy to understand.
Did not went deep into the implementation yet, just skimmed a bit.

Acked-by: Pankaj Gupta <redacted>

Hi David, Pankaj,

On 7/12/21 11:58 AM, Pankaj Gupta wrote:

quoted

MADV_POPULATE_READ and MADV_POPULATE_WRITE have been merged into
upstream Linux via commit 4ca9b3859dac ("mm/madvise: introduce
MADV_POPULATE_(READ|WRITE) to prefault page tables"), part of v5.14-rc1.

Let's document the behavior and error conditions of these new madvise()
options.

Please see a couple of comments below.

quoted

Cc: Alejandro Colomar <redacted>
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <redacted>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Linux API <redacted>
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <redacted>

 > Acked-by: Pankaj Gupta [off-list ref]

Thanks for the acked by!

Cheers,

Alex

quoted

---
  man2/madvise.2 | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  1 file changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/madvise.2 b/man2/madvise.2
index f1f384c0c..3ec8c53a7 100644
--- a/man2/madvise.2
+++ b/man2/madvise.2

@@ -469,6 +469,59 @@ If a page is file-backed and dirty, it will be written back to the backing
  storage.
  The advice might be ignored for some pages in the range when it is not
  applicable.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ " (since Linux 5.14)

s/$/"/

quoted

+Populate (prefault) page tables readable for the whole range without actually

See the following extract from man-pages(7):

$ man 7 man-pages | sed -n '/Use semantic newlines/,/^$/p';
    Use semantic newlines
        In the source of a manual page,  new  sentences  should  be
        started  on new lines, and long sentences should split into
        lines at clause breaks (commas, semicolons, colons, and  so
        on).   This  convention,  sometimes known as "semantic new‐
        lines", makes it easier to see the effect of patches, which
        often  operate at the level of individual sentences or sen‐
        tence clauses.

quoted

+reading. Depending on the underlying mapping, map the shared zeropage,
+preallocate memory or read the underlying file; files with holes might or
+might not preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) readable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+cannot be applied to mappings without read permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that with
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE " (since Linux 5.14)

s/$/"/

quoted

+Populate (prefault) page tables writable for the whole range without actually
+writing. Depending on the underlying mapping, preallocate memory or read the

Is this read or write?
just reading and trying to understand :)

quoted

+underlying file; files with holes will preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) writable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_WRITE
+cannot be applied to mappings without write permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
  .SH RETURN VALUE
  On success,
  .BR madvise ()

@@ -533,6 +586,17 @@ or
  .BR VM_PFNMAP
  ranges.
  .TP
+.B EINVAL
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+but the specified address range includes ranges with insufficient permissions,
+.B VM_IO
+or
+.BR VM_PFNMAP.
+.TP
  .B EIO
  (for
  .BR MADV_WILLNEED )

@@ -548,6 +612,14 @@ Not enough memory: paging in failed.
  Addresses in the specified range are not currently
  mapped, or are outside the address space of the process.
  .TP
+.B ENOMEM
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+but populating (prefaulting) page tables failed.
+.TP
  .B EPERM
  .I advice
  is

@@ -555,6 +627,14 @@ is
  but the caller does not have the
  .B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
  capability.
+.TP
+.B EHWPOISON
+.I advice
+is
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+or
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE ,
+and a HW poisoned page is encountered.
  .SH VERSIONS
  Since Linux 3.18,
  .\" commit d3ac21cacc24790eb45d735769f35753f5b56ceb
--

2.31.1

-- 
Alejandro Colomar
Linux man-pages comaintainer; https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/

Hi Alex,

quoted

quoted

---
   man2/madvise.2 | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
   1 file changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/madvise.2 b/man2/madvise.2
index f1f384c0c..3ec8c53a7 100644
--- a/man2/madvise.2
+++ b/man2/madvise.2

@@ -469,6 +469,59 @@ If a page is file-backed and dirty, it will be written back to the backing
   storage.
   The advice might be ignored for some pages in the range when it is not
   applicable.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ " (since Linux 5.14)

s/$/"/

Thanks!

quoted

quoted

+Populate (prefault) page tables readable for the whole range without actually

See the following extract from man-pages(7):

$ man 7 man-pages | sed -n '/Use semantic newlines/,/^$/p';
     Use semantic newlines
         In the source of a manual page,  new  sentences  should  be
         started  on new lines, and long sentences should split into
         lines at clause breaks (commas, semicolons, colons, and  so
         on).   This  convention,  sometimes known as "semantic new‐
         lines", makes it easier to see the effect of patches, which
         often  operate at the level of individual sentences or sen‐
         tence clauses.

Thanks, something like the following (also limiting to 80 characters
per page) work?

"
Populate (prefault) page tables readable for the whole range without actually
reading.
Depending on the underlying mapping,
map the shared zeropage,
preallocate memory or read the underlying file;
files with holes might or might not preallocate blocks.
"

quoted

quoted

+reading. Depending on the underlying mapping, map the shared zeropage,
+preallocate memory or read the underlying file; files with holes might or
+might not preallocate blocks.
+Do not generate
+.B SIGBUS
+when populating fails, return an error instead.
+.IP
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+succeeds, all page tables have been populated (prefaulted) readable once.
+If
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+fails, some page tables might have been populated.
+.IP
+.B MADV_POPULATE_READ
+cannot be applied to mappings without read permissions
+and special mappings marked with the kernel-internal
+.B VM_PFNMAP
+and
+.BR VM_IO .
+.IP
+Note that with
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_READ ,
+the process can be killed at any moment when the system runs out of memory.
+.TP
+.BR MADV_POPULATE_WRITE " (since Linux 5.14)

s/$/"/

Thanks!

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb