Re: Question on pte bits
From: Rik van Riel <hidden>
Date: 2002-12-06 16:08:26
On Fri, 6 Dec 2002, Martin Maletinsky wrote:
After getting the corresponding page table entry, the function makes a check, which I don't quite understand - if write access is requested to the page, it not only checks the write permission in the page table entry (with pte_write()), but also the dirty bit (with pte_dirty()). Why does a page need to be dirty in the case write == 1 (see line 444 in the code excerpt below?
If write == 1, then somebody wants to write to the page NOW. In that case it's more efficient to just set the dirty bit than to take a trap later on; remember that many CPUs can't keep track of the dirty bit in hardware but trap to the OS. Rik -- A: No. Q: Should I include quotations after my reply? http://www.surriel.com/ http://guru.conectiva.com/ -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/