[PATCH 1/2] docs/core-api: memory-allocation: add k[mz]alloc_obj() and clarify kmalloc
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COLD38d
From: "Mike Rapoport (Microsoft)" <rppt@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-08-31 15:13:12
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documentation, the rest · Maintainers:
Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds
Since v7.0 the most used memory allocation function is kzalloc_obj(). Update hte memory-allocation guide to describe k[mz]alloc_obj() family and make kzalloc_obj() the first answer to "How should I allocate memory?" question. While on it, clarify description of kmalloc() size limitations. Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@kernel.org> --- Documentation/core-api/memory-allocation.rst | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/memory-allocation.rst b/Documentation/core-api/memory-allocation.rst
index 0f19dd5243239..8ecfa4d35f4f5 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/memory-allocation.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/memory-allocation.rst@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ Diversity of the allocation APIs combined with the numerous GFP flags makes the question "How should I allocate memory?" not that easy to answer, although very likely you should use +:: + + kzalloc_obj(<VAR_OR_TYPE>); + +or + :: kzalloc(<size>, GFP_KERNEL);
@@ -139,10 +145,13 @@ allocate memory for an array, there are kmalloc_array() and kcalloc() helpers. The helpers struct_size(), array_size() and array3_size() can be used to safely calculate object sizes without overflowing. -The maximal size of a chunk that can be allocated with `kmalloc` is -limited. The actual limit depends on the hardware and the kernel -configuration, but it is a good practice to use `kmalloc` for objects -smaller than page size. +Since 7.0 there are type aware kmalloc-family helpers that let you safely and +conveniently allocate a single object or arrays of objects with kzalloc_obj() +and kmalloc_obj() and their array versions kzalloc_objs() and +kmalloc_objs(). These helpers only need the type of the object that should be +allocated and the count of elements in the array for the array versions. + +As of v7.2, vast majority of the memory allocations use kzalloc_obj(). The address of a chunk allocated with `kmalloc` is aligned to at least ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN bytes. For sizes which are a power of two, the
@@ -154,9 +163,16 @@ Chunks allocated with kmalloc() can be resized with krealloc(). Similarly to kmalloc_array(): a helper for resizing arrays is provided in the form of krealloc_array(). -For large allocations you can use vmalloc() and vzalloc(), or directly -request pages from the page allocator. The memory allocated by `vmalloc` -and related functions is not physically contiguous. +`kmalloc` always allocates physically contiguous memory and the maximal size of +a chunk that can be allocated with `kmalloc` is limited by `MAX_ORDER`, the +same limit also applies to the page allocator. + +Internally, slab allocator differentiates allocations of different orders and +delegates larger allocations to the page allocator, but for the users of +`kmalloc` family it is entirely transparent. + +For large allocations that do not require physically contiguous memory you can +use vmalloc() and vzalloc() family. If you are not sure whether the allocation size is too large for `kmalloc`, it is possible to use kvmalloc() and its derivatives. It will
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2.53.0