From d2bf6be8ab63aa84e6149aac934649aadf3828b1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nick Piggin Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:31:39 -0700 Subject: mm: clean up get_user_pages_fast() documentation Move more documentation for get_user_pages_fast into the new kerneldoc comment. Add some comments for get_user_pages as well. Also, move get_user_pages_fast declaration up to get_user_pages. It wasn't there initially because it was once a static inline function. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding-style fixes] Signed-off-by: Nick Piggin Cc: Andy Grover Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- mm/memory.c | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 50 insertions(+) (limited to 'mm/memory.c') diff --git a/mm/memory.c b/mm/memory.c index 4126dd16778c..891bad0613f4 100644 --- a/mm/memory.c +++ b/mm/memory.c @@ -1360,6 +1360,56 @@ int __get_user_pages(struct task_struct *tsk, struct mm_struct *mm, return i; } +/** + * get_user_pages() - pin user pages in memory + * @tsk: task_struct of target task + * @mm: mm_struct of target mm + * @start: starting user address + * @len: number of pages from start to pin + * @write: whether pages will be written to by the caller + * @force: whether to force write access even if user mapping is + * readonly. This will result in the page being COWed even + * in MAP_SHARED mappings. You do not want this. + * @pages: array that receives pointers to the pages pinned. + * Should be at least nr_pages long. Or NULL, if caller + * only intends to ensure the pages are faulted in. + * @vmas: array of pointers to vmas corresponding to each page. + * Or NULL if the caller does not require them. + * + * Returns number of pages pinned. This may be fewer than the number + * requested. If len is 0 or negative, returns 0. If no pages + * were pinned, returns -errno. Each page returned must be released + * with a put_page() call when it is finished with. vmas will only + * remain valid while mmap_sem is held. + * + * Must be called with mmap_sem held for read or write. + * + * get_user_pages walks a process's page tables and takes a reference to + * each struct page that each user address corresponds to at a given + * instant. That is, it takes the page that would be accessed if a user + * thread accesses the given user virtual address at that instant. + * + * This does not guarantee that the page exists in the user mappings when + * get_user_pages returns, and there may even be a completely different + * page there in some cases (eg. if mmapped pagecache has been invalidated + * and subsequently re faulted). However it does guarantee that the page + * won't be freed completely. And mostly callers simply care that the page + * contains data that was valid *at some point in time*. Typically, an IO + * or similar operation cannot guarantee anything stronger anyway because + * locks can't be held over the syscall boundary. + * + * If write=0, the page must not be written to. If the page is written to, + * set_page_dirty (or set_page_dirty_lock, as appropriate) must be called + * after the page is finished with, and before put_page is called. + * + * get_user_pages is typically used for fewer-copy IO operations, to get a + * handle on the memory by some means other than accesses via the user virtual + * addresses. The pages may be submitted for DMA to devices or accessed via + * their kernel linear mapping (via the kmap APIs). Care should be taken to + * use the correct cache flushing APIs. + * + * See also get_user_pages_fast, for performance critical applications. + */ int get_user_pages(struct task_struct *tsk, struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long start, int len, int write, int force, struct page **pages, struct vm_area_struct **vmas) -- cgit v1.2.3-55-g7522