public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Mauricio Lin <mauriciolin@gmail.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: How to identify cow (copy-on-write) pages during kernel execution?
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:45:04 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <3f250c7105061922454dfe31ed@mail.gmail.com> (raw)

Hi all,

I would like to know if there is a way to identify
struct page that is cow (copy-on-write).

The way I figured out to identify cow pages is when
copy-on-write happens. I mean I identify cow pages
inside the do_wp_page(), the function that handles
copy-on-write. I have checked do_no_page() as well.

I have included a field (is_cow) in the struct page to
identify cow page.

struct page {
     ...
     atomic_t is_cow;
}

But I wonder if it is possible to identify cow pages
before copy-on-write happens. So identify cow pages in
advance before any process tries to write to a cow
page.

I have checked the do_fork(), copy_process() and
copy_mm() function to try to identify cow pages during
the process creation, but no success. In copy_mm(),
just the mm (of current process) is provided to the
child process, but there are no references to struct
pages related to mm and its VMAs.

So when a page struct is considered a cow in the
kernel and its count variable is updated? Certainly
the counter page (page->_count) is updated when a page
is shared because of copy-on-write feature. 
How can I identify cow pages when it becomes cow? Is
there any feasible way to perform that?

BR,

Mauricio Lin.

             reply	other threads:[~2005-06-20  5:45 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2005-06-20  5:45 Mauricio Lin [this message]
2005-06-20  6:33 ` How to identify cow (copy-on-write) pages during kernel execution? Nick Piggin
2005-06-20 11:09 ` Carsten Otte
2005-06-20 11:30   ` Mauricio Lin
2005-06-20 11:35     ` Carsten Otte

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=3f250c7105061922454dfe31ed@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=mauriciolin@gmail.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox