summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDanilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>2026-08-13 18:52:04 +0200
committerDanilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>2026-08-17 01:41:36 +0200
commitf146c7bc85a51f95c05e0f8173d484eb301ece78 (patch)
tree07296ae54ed6551492b0c609dc0f5463f61f89ca /Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst
downloadlinux-stable-f146c7bc85a51f95c05e0f8173d484eb301ece78.tar.gz
linux-stable-f146c7bc85a51f95c05e0f8173d484eb301ece78.zip
PCI: Add pci_irq_type() to query the allocated interrupt typegrafted
Add a helper that returns PCI_IRQ_MSIX, PCI_IRQ_MSI, or PCI_IRQ_INTX based on the interrupt type the PCI core selected after pci_alloc_irq_vectors(). Several drivers already open-code this check against pdev->msix_enabled and pdev->msi_enabled, or even open code this helper [1]. A common helper avoids the duplication and keeps drivers from accessing the bitfield directly (see also [2]). Acked-by: Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@google.com> Tested-by: John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com> Link: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.1/source/drivers/net/ethernet/aquantia/atlantic/aq_pci_func.c#L196 [1] Inspired-by: John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/DKKG2QM3YJYB.Z2H2B2UXJ75N@kernel.org/ [2] Reviewed-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260813165234.620555-5-dakr@kernel.org [ Add missing pci_irq_type() stub for CONFIG_PCI=n. ] Signed-off-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst85
1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst b/Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e2263477f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/mm/overcommit-accounting.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+=====================
+Overcommit Accounting
+=====================
+
+The Linux kernel supports the following overcommit handling modes
+
+0
+ Heuristic overcommit handling. Obvious overcommits of address
+ space are refused. Used for a typical system. It ensures a
+ seriously wild allocation fails while allowing overcommit to
+ reduce swap usage. This is the default.
+
+1
+ Always overcommit. Appropriate for some scientific
+ applications. Classic example is code using sparse arrays and
+ just relying on the virtual memory consisting almost entirely
+ of zero pages.
+
+2
+ Don't overcommit. The total address space commit for the
+ system is not permitted to exceed swap + a configurable amount
+ (default is 50%) of physical RAM. Depending on the amount you
+ use, in most situations this means a process will not be
+ killed while accessing pages but will receive errors on memory
+ allocation as appropriate.
+
+ Useful for applications that want to guarantee their memory
+ allocations will be available in the future without having to
+ initialize every page.
+
+The overcommit policy is set via the sysctl ``vm.overcommit_memory``.
+
+The overcommit amount can be set via ``vm.overcommit_ratio`` (percentage)
+or ``vm.overcommit_kbytes`` (absolute value). These only have an effect
+when ``vm.overcommit_memory`` is set to 2.
+
+The current overcommit limit and amount committed are viewable in
+``/proc/meminfo`` as CommitLimit and Committed_AS respectively.
+
+Gotchas
+=======
+
+The C language stack growth does an implicit mremap. If you want absolute
+guarantees and run close to the edge you MUST mmap your stack for the
+largest size you think you will need. For typical stack usage this does
+not matter much but it's a corner case if you really really care
+
+In mode 2 the MAP_NORESERVE flag is ignored.
+
+
+How It Works
+============
+
+The overcommit is based on the following rules
+
+For a file backed map
+ | SHARED or READ-only - 0 cost (the file is the map not swap)
+ | PRIVATE WRITABLE - size of mapping per instance
+
+For an anonymous or ``/dev/zero`` map
+ | SHARED - size of mapping
+ | PRIVATE READ-only - 0 cost (but of little use)
+ | PRIVATE WRITABLE - size of mapping per instance
+
+Additional accounting
+ | Pages made writable copies by mmap
+ | shmfs memory drawn from the same pool
+
+Status
+======
+
+* We account mmap memory mappings
+* We account mprotect changes in commit
+* We account mremap changes in size
+* We account brk
+* We account munmap
+* We report the commit status in /proc
+* Account and check on fork
+* Review stack handling/building on exec
+* SHMfs accounting
+* Implement actual limit enforcement
+
+To Do
+=====
+* Account ptrace pages (this is hard)