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authorBenjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>2009-06-18 11:16:55 +1000
committerBenjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>2009-06-18 11:16:55 +1000
commit4b337c5f245b6587ba844ac7bb13c313a2912f7b (patch)
tree999c6a6580b76a083c8efb9dabff709d1c49fcd0 /mm/util.c
parent492b057c426e4aa747484958e18e9da29003985d (diff)
parent3fe0344faf7fdcb158bd5c1a9aec960a8d70c8e8 (diff)
Merge commit 'origin/master' into next
Diffstat (limited to 'mm/util.c')
-rw-r--r--mm/util.c20
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/mm/util.c b/mm/util.c
index abc65aa7cdf..7c35ad95f92 100644
--- a/mm/util.c
+++ b/mm/util.c
@@ -168,6 +168,10 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(krealloc);
*
* The memory of the object @p points to is zeroed before freed.
* If @p is %NULL, kzfree() does nothing.
+ *
+ * Note: this function zeroes the whole allocated buffer which can be a good
+ * deal bigger than the requested buffer size passed to kmalloc(). So be
+ * careful when using this function in performance sensitive code.
*/
void kzfree(const void *p)
{
@@ -233,13 +237,21 @@ void arch_pick_mmap_layout(struct mm_struct *mm)
* @pages: array that receives pointers to the pages pinned.
* Should be at least nr_pages long.
*
- * Attempt to pin user pages in memory without taking mm->mmap_sem.
- * If not successful, it will fall back to taking the lock and
- * calling get_user_pages().
- *
* Returns number of pages pinned. This may be fewer than the number
* requested. If nr_pages is 0 or negative, returns 0. If no pages
* were pinned, returns -errno.
+ *
+ * get_user_pages_fast provides equivalent functionality to get_user_pages,
+ * operating on current and current->mm, with force=0 and vma=NULL. However
+ * unlike get_user_pages, it must be called without mmap_sem held.
+ *
+ * get_user_pages_fast may take mmap_sem and page table locks, so no
+ * assumptions can be made about lack of locking. get_user_pages_fast is to be
+ * implemented in a way that is advantageous (vs get_user_pages()) when the
+ * user memory area is already faulted in and present in ptes. However if the
+ * pages have to be faulted in, it may turn out to be slightly slower so
+ * callers need to carefully consider what to use. On many architectures,
+ * get_user_pages_fast simply falls back to get_user_pages.
*/
int __attribute__((weak)) get_user_pages_fast(unsigned long start,
int nr_pages, int write, struct page **pages)