Re: [PATCH] /proc/kmalloc

[Baruch Even <baruch@ev-en.org>]

Matt Mackall wrote:
> I've been sitting on this for over a year now, kicking it out in the
> hopes that someone finds it useful. kernel.org was down when I was
> tidying this up so it's against 2.6.10 which is what I had handy.
> 
> /proc/kmalloc allocation tracing
> 
> This quick hack adds accounting for kmalloc/kfree callers. This can
> aid in tracking down memory leaks and large dynamic memory users. The
> stock version use ~280k of memory for hash tables and can track 32k
> active allocations.

One thing I've seen once that might be worth adding is the ability to 
mark generations and then ask "what allocations exist from generation x?".

So you do something like:
echo 5 > /proc/kmalloc_generation
run some tests
echo 6 > /proc/kmalloc_generation
Print all allocations from generation 5:
   echo 5 > /proc/kmalloc_print_generations

Now you get all buffers that were allocated in generation 5 and not 
released. Not all of these are leaks, but it's easier to wade through 
this list to see what is and what isn't a leak.

Sometimes it's better to summarize all allocations according to the 
caller who asked for the allocation, it makes it easier to see if there 
is an undue increase from certain callers.

Just some ideas.

Baruch