docs/vm: rename documentation files to .rst

Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>

1 files changed, 386 insertions, 0 deletions

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+.. _hugetlbpage:
+
+=============
+HugeTLB Pages
+=============
+
+Overview
+========
+
+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
+default huge page size and information about the number of free, reserved
+and surplus huge pages in the pool of huge pages of default 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: uuu
+	HugePages_Free:  vvv
+	HugePages_Rsvd:  www
+	HugePages_Surp:  xxx
+	Hugepagesize:    yyy kB
+	Hugetlb:         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``.
+Hugepagesize
+	is the default hugepage size (in Kb).
+Hugetlb
+        is the total amount of memory (in kB), consumed by huge
+        pages of all sizes.
+        If huge pages of different sizes are in use, this number
+        will exceed HugePages_Total \* Hugepagesize. To get more
+        detailed information, please, refer to
+        ``/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages`` (described below).
+
+
+``/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:
+
+#. Regardless of mempolicy mode [see Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.rst],
+   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.
+
+#. 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.
+
+#. 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.
+
+#. Any task mempolicy specified--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.
+
+#. 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 platform 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 platform'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
+:ref:`map_hugetlb <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
+========
+
+.. _map_hugetlb:
+
+``map_hugetlb``
+	see tools/testing/selftests/vm/map_hugetlb.c
+
+``hugepage-shm``
+	see tools/testing/selftests/vm/hugepage-shm.c
+
+``hugepage-mmap``
+	see tools/testing/selftests/vm/hugepage-mmap.c
+
+The `libhugetlbfs`_  library provides a wide range of userspace tools
+to help with huge page usability, environment setup, and control.
+
+.. _libhugetlbfs: https://github.com/libhugetlbfs/libhugetlbfs
+
+Kernel development regression testing
+=====================================
+
+The most complete set of hugetlb tests are in the libhugetlbfs repository.
+If you modify any hugetlb related code, use the libhugetlbfs test suite
+to check for regressions.  In addition, if you add any new hugetlb
+functionality, please add appropriate tests to libhugetlbfs.