MALLOC(9) OpenBSD Kernel Manual MALLOC(9)NAME
malloc, free - kernel memory allocator
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/malloc.h>
void *
malloc(unsigned long size, int type, int flags);
void
free(void *addr, int type);
DESCRIPTION
The malloc() function allocates uninitialized memory in kernel address
space for an object whose size is specified by size. free() releases
memory at address addr that was previously allocated by malloc() for re-
use.
The flags argument further qualifies malloc's operational characteristics
as follows:
M_WAITOK
The same as having no other flags specified. If memory is
currently unavailable, malloc() may call sleep to wait for
resources to be released by other processes.
M_NOWAIT
Causes malloc() to return NULL if the request cannot be
immediately fulfilled due to resource shortage. One of
M_NOWAIT or M_WAITOK must be specified.
M_CANFAIL
In the M_WAITOK case, if not enough memory is available,
return NULL instead of calling panic(9). M_CANFAIL has no
effect if M_NOWAIT is specified.
M_ZERO
Causes malloc() to return zeroed memory.
The type argument broadly identifies the kernel subsystem for which the
allocated memory was needed, and is commonly used to maintain statistics
about kernel memory usage. These statistics can be examined using
vmstat(8) or systat(1) if either of the kernel options(4) KMEMSTATS or
DEBUG are enabled.
The following types are currently defined:
M_FREE Should be on free list.
M_DEVBUF Device driver memory.
M_DEBUG malloc debug structures.
M_PCB Protocol control blocks.
M_RTABLE Routing tables.
M_FTABLE Fragment reassembly headers.
M_IFADDR Interface addresses.
M_SOOPTS Socket options.
M_SYSCTL Sysctl persistent buffers.
M_IOCTLOPS Ioctl data buffers.
M_IOV Large IOVs.
M_MOUNT VFS mount structs.
M_NFSREQ NFS request headers.
M_NFSMNT NFS mount structures.
M_VNODE Dynamically allocated vnodes.
M_CACHE Dynamically allocated cache entries.
M_DQUOT UFS quota entries.
M_UFSMNT UFS mount structures.
M_SHM SVID compatible shared memory segments.
M_VMMAP VM map structures.
M_SEM SVID compatible semaphores.
M_DIRHASH UFS directory hash structures.
M_ACPI ACPI structures.
M_VMPMAP VM pmap data.
M_FILE Open file structures.
M_FILEDESC Open file descriptor tables.
M_PROC Proc structures.
M_SUBPROC Proc sub-structures.
M_VCLUSTER Cluster for VFS.
M_MFSNODE MFS vnode private part.
M_NETADDR Export host address structures.
M_NFSSVC NFS server structures.
M_NFSD NFS server daemon structures.
M_IPMOPTS Internet multicast options.
M_IPMADDR Internet multicast addresses.
M_IFMADDR Link-level multicast addresses.
M_MRTABLE Multicast routing tables.
M_ISOFSMNT ISOFS mount structures.
M_ISOFSNODE ISOFS vnode private part.
M_MSDOSFSMNT MSDOS FS mount structures.
M_MSDOSFSFAT MSDOS FS FAT tables.
M_MSDOSFSNODE MSDOS FS vnode private part.
M_TTYS Allocated tty structures.
M_EXEC Argument lists & other mem used by exec.
M_MISCFSMNT Miscellaneous FS mount structures.
M_PFKEY Pfkey data.
M_TDB Transforms database.
M_XDATA IPsec data.
M_PAGEDEP File page dependencies.
M_INODEDEP Inode dependencies.
M_NEWBLK New block allocation.
M_RAIDFRAME RAIDframe data.
M_UVMAMAP UVM amap and related.
M_UVMAOBJ UVM aobj and related.
M_USB USB general.
M_USBDEV USB device driver.
M_USBHC USB host controller.
M_MEMDESC Memory range.
M_CRYPTO_DATA crypto(4) data buffers.
M_CREDENTIALS ipsec(4) related credentials.
M_PACKET_TAGS Packet-attached information tags.
M_EMULDATA Per process emulation data.
M_IP6OPT IPv6 options.
M_IP6NDP IPv6 neighbour discovery structures.
M_TEMP Miscellaneous temporary data buffers.
M_NTFSMNT NTFS mount structures.
M_NTFSNTNODE NTFS ntnode information.
M_NTFSNODE NTFS fnode information.
M_NTFSDIR NTFS directory buffers.
M_NTFSHASH NTFS ntnode hash tables.
M_NTFSVATTR NTFS file attribute information.
M_NTFSRDATA NTFS resident data.
M_NTFSDECOMP NTFS decompression temporary storage.
M_NTFSRUN NTFS vrun storage.
M_KEVENT kqueue(2) data structures.
M_BLUETOOTH Bluetooth data structures.
M_BWMETER Multicast upcall bandwidth meters.
M_UDFMOUNT UDF mount structures.
M_UDFFENTRY UDF file entries.
M_UDFFID UDF file ID.
M_BTHIDEV Bluetooth HID.
M_AGP AGP memory.
M_DRM Direct Rendering Manager.
RETURN VALUESmalloc() returns a kernel virtual address that is suitably aligned for
storage of any type of object.
DIAGNOSTICS
A kernel compiled with the DIAGNOSTIC configuration option attempts to
detect memory corruption caused by such things as writing outside the
allocated area and unbalanced calls to the malloc() and free() functions.
Failing consistency checks will cause a panic or a system console
message:
o panic: ``malloc - bogus type''
o panic: ``malloc: out of space in kmem_map''
o panic: ``malloc: allocation too large''
o panic: ``malloc: wrong bucket''
o panic: ``malloc: lost data''
o panic: ``free: unaligned addr''
o panic: ``free: duplicated free''
o panic: ``free: multiple frees''
o panic: ``kmeminit: minbucket too small/struct freelist too
big''
o ``multiply freed item <addr>''
o ``Data modified on freelist: <data object description>''
DEBUGGING
A kernel compiled with the MALLOC_DEBUG option allows for more extensive
debugging of memory allocations. The debug_malloc_type,
debug_malloc_size, debug_malloc_size_lo and debug_malloc_size_hi
variables choose which allocation to debug. debug_malloc_type should be
set to the memory type and debug_malloc_size should be set to the memory
size to debug. 0 can be used as a wildcard. debug_malloc_size_lo and
debug_malloc_size_hi can be used to specify a range of sizes if the exact
size to debug is not known. When those are used, debug_malloc_size needs
to be set to the wildcard. M_DEBUG can also be specified as an
allocation type to force allocation with debugging.
Every call to malloc() with a memory type and size that matches the
debugged type and size will allocate two virtual pages. The pointer
returned will be aligned so that the requested area will end at the page
boundary and the second virtual page will be left unmapped. This way we
can catch reads and writes outside the allocated area.
Every call to free() with memory that was returned by the debugging
malloc will cause the memory area to become unmapped so that we can catch
dangling reads and writes to freed memory.
There are no special diagnostics if any errors are caught by the
debugging malloc. The errors will look like normal access to unmapped
memory. On a memory access error, the show malloc command in ddb(4) can
be invoked to see what memory areas are allocated and freed. If the
faulting address is within two pages from an address on the allocated
list, there was an access outside the allocated area. If the faulting
address is within two pages from an address on the free list, there was
an access to freed memory.
Care needs to be taken when using the MALLOC_DEBUG option: the memory
consumption can run away pretty quickly and there is a severe performance
degradation when allocating and freeing debugged memory types.
SEE ALSOsystat(1), vmstat(8)OpenBSD 4.9 July 14, 2010 OpenBSD 4.9
