Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
ashmem: Anonymous shared memory subsystem
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
The anonymous shared memory (ashmem) subsystem provides a
Unix-y,file-based shared memory interface to user-space. It
works like anonymous memory (e.g. mmapping fd=0) except if
you share the file descriptor via the usual means, you will
share the mapping. The shared memory can be accessed via both
mmap or file I/O. The backing store is a simple shmem file.

Additionally, ashmem introduces the concept of page pinning.
Pinned pages (the default) behave like any anonymous memory.
Unpinned pages are available to the kernel for eviction during
VM pressure. When repinning the pages, the return value
instructs user-space as to any eviction. In this manner,
user-space processes may implement caching and similar
resource management that efficiently integrates with kernel
memory management.

Signed-off-by: Robert Love <rlove@google.com>

ashmem: Don't install fault handler for private mmaps.

Ashmem is used to create named private heaps. If this heap is backed
by a tmpfs file it will allocate two pages for every page touched.
In 2.6.27, the extra page would later be freed, but 2.6.29 does not
scan anonymous pages when running without swap so the memory is not
freed while the file is referenced. This change changes the behavior
of private ashmem mmaps to match /dev/zero instead tmpfs.

Signed-off-by: Arve Hjønnevåg <arve@android.com>

ashmem: Add common prefix to name reported in /proc/pid/maps

Signed-off-by: Arve Hjønnevåg <arve@android.com>

ashmem: don't require a page aligned size

This makes ashmem more similar to shmem and mmap, by
not requiring the specified size to be page aligned,
instead rounding it internally as needed.

Signed-off-by: Marco Nelissen <marcone@android.com>
[jstultz: Improved commit subject and included patch description
from rlove. Also moved ashmem files to staging dir, and reworked
code to avoid touching mm/shmem.c while we're in staging.]
CC: Brian Swetland <swetland@google.com>
CC: Colin Cross <ccross@android.com>
CC: Arve Hjønnevåg <arve@android.com>
CC: Dima Zavin <dima@android.com>
CC: Robert Love <rlove@google.com>
Signed-off-by: John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
  • Loading branch information
Robert Love authored and Greg Kroah-Hartman committed Dec 21, 2011
1 parent b6aba85 commit 11980c2
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Showing 4 changed files with 736 additions and 0 deletions.
9 changes: 9 additions & 0 deletions drivers/staging/android/Kconfig
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -12,6 +12,15 @@ config ANDROID_BINDER_IPC
bool "Android Binder IPC Driver"
default n

config ASHMEM
bool "Enable the Anonymous Shared Memory Subsystem"
default n
depends on SHMEM || TINY_SHMEM
help
The ashmem subsystem is a new shared memory allocator, similar to
POSIX SHM but with different behavior and sporting a simpler
file-based API.

config ANDROID_LOGGER
tristate "Android log driver"
default n
Expand Down
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions drivers/staging/android/Makefile
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
obj-$(CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC) += binder.o
obj-$(CONFIG_ASHMEM) += ashmem.o
obj-$(CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGGER) += logger.o
obj-$(CONFIG_ANDROID_RAM_CONSOLE) += ram_console.o
obj-$(CONFIG_ANDROID_TIMED_OUTPUT) += timed_output.o
Expand Down
Loading

0 comments on commit 11980c2

Please sign in to comment.