mbind - set memory policy for a memory range
NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) policy library (
libnuma,
-lnuma)
#include <numaif.h>
long mbind(void addr[.len], unsigned long len, int mode,
const unsigned long nodemask[(.maxnode + ULONG_WIDTH - 1)
/ ULONG_WIDTH],
unsigned long maxnode, unsigned int flags);
mbind() sets the NUMA memory policy, which consists of a policy mode and
zero or more nodes, for the memory range starting with
addr and
continuing for
len bytes. The memory policy defines from which node
memory is allocated.
If the memory range specified by the
addr and
len arguments
includes an "anonymous" region of memory—that is a region of
memory created using the
mmap(2) system call with the
MAP_ANONYMOUS—or a memory-mapped file, mapped using the
mmap(2) system call with the
MAP_PRIVATE flag, pages will be
allocated only according to the specified policy when the application writes
(stores) to the page. For anonymous regions, an initial read access will use a
shared page in the kernel containing all zeros. For a file mapped with
MAP_PRIVATE, an initial read access will allocate pages according to
the memory policy of the thread that causes the page to be allocated. This may
not be the thread that called
mbind().
The specified policy will be ignored for any
MAP_SHARED mappings in the
specified memory range. Rather the pages will be allocated according to the
memory policy of the thread that caused the page to be allocated. Again, this
may not be the thread that called
mbind().
If the specified memory range includes a shared memory region created using the
shmget(2) system call and attached using the
shmat(2) system
call, pages allocated for the anonymous or shared memory region will be
allocated according to the policy specified, regardless of which process
attached to the shared memory segment causes the allocation. If, however, the
shared memory region was created with the
SHM_HUGETLB flag, the huge
pages will be allocated according to the policy specified only if the page
allocation is caused by the process that calls
mbind() for that region.
By default,
mbind() has an effect only for new allocations; if the pages
inside the range have been already touched before setting the policy, then the
policy has no effect. This default behavior may be overridden by the
MPOL_MF_MOVE and
MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL flags described below.
The
mode argument must specify one of
MPOL_DEFAULT,
MPOL_BIND,
MPOL_INTERLEAVE,
MPOL_PREFERRED, or
MPOL_LOCAL (which are described in detail below). All policy modes
except
MPOL_DEFAULT require the caller to specify the node or nodes to
which the mode applies, via the
nodemask argument.
The
mode argument may also include an optional
mode flag. The
supported
mode flags are:
-
MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES (since Linux-2.6.26)
- A nonempty nodemask specifies physical node IDs.
Linux does not remap the nodemask when the thread moves to a
different cpuset context, nor when the set of nodes allowed by the
thread's current cpuset context changes.
-
MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES (since Linux-2.6.26)
- A nonempty nodemask specifies node IDs that are
relative to the set of node IDs allowed by the thread's current
cpuset.
nodemask points to a bit mask of nodes containing up to
maxnode
bits. The bit mask size is rounded to the next multiple of
sizeof(unsigned
long), but the kernel will use bits only up to
maxnode. A NULL
value of
nodemask or a
maxnode value of zero specifies the empty
set of nodes. If the value of
maxnode is zero, the
nodemask
argument is ignored. Where a
nodemask is required, it must contain at
least one node that is on-line, allowed by the thread's current cpuset context
(unless the
MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES mode flag is specified), and contains
memory.
The
mode argument must include one of the following values:
- MPOL_DEFAULT
- This mode requests that any nondefault policy be removed,
restoring default behavior. When applied to a range of memory via
mbind(), this means to use the thread memory policy, which may have
been set with set_mempolicy(2). If the mode of the thread memory
policy is also MPOL_DEFAULT, the system-wide default policy will be
used. The system-wide default policy allocates pages on the node of the
CPU that triggers the allocation. For MPOL_DEFAULT, the
nodemask and maxnode arguments must be specify the empty set
of nodes.
- MPOL_BIND
- This mode specifies a strict policy that restricts memory
allocation to the nodes specified in nodemask. If nodemask
specifies more than one node, page allocations will come from the node
with sufficient free memory that is closest to the node where the
allocation takes place. Pages will not be allocated from any node not
specified in the IR nodemask . (Before Linux 2.6.26, page allocations came
from the node with the lowest numeric node ID first, until that node
contained no free memory. Allocations then came from the node with the
next highest node ID specified in nodemask and so forth, until none
of the specified nodes contained free memory.)
- MPOL_INTERLEAVE
- This mode specifies that page allocations be interleaved
across the set of nodes specified in nodemask. This optimizes for
bandwidth instead of latency by spreading out pages and memory accesses to
those pages across multiple nodes. To be effective the memory area should
be fairly large, at least 1 MB or bigger with a fairly uniform
access pattern. Accesses to a single page of the area will still be
limited to the memory bandwidth of a single node.
- MPOL_PREFERRED
- This mode sets the preferred node for allocation. The
kernel will try to allocate pages from this node first and fall back to
other nodes if the preferred nodes is low on free memory. If
nodemask specifies more than one node ID, the first node in the
mask will be selected as the preferred node. If the nodemask and
maxnode arguments specify the empty set, then the memory is
allocated on the node of the CPU that triggered the allocation.
-
MPOL_LOCAL (since Linux 3.8)
- This mode specifies "local allocation"; the
memory is allocated on the node of the CPU that triggered the allocation
(the "local node"). The nodemask and maxnode
arguments must specify the empty set. If the "local node" is low
on free memory, the kernel will try to allocate memory from other nodes.
The kernel will allocate memory from the "local node" whenever
memory for this node is available. If the "local node" is not
allowed by the thread's current cpuset context, the kernel will try to
allocate memory from other nodes. The kernel will allocate memory from the
"local node" whenever it becomes allowed by the thread's current
cpuset context. By contrast, MPOL_DEFAULT reverts to the memory
policy of the thread (which may be set via set_mempolicy(2)); that
policy may be something other than "local allocation".
If
MPOL_MF_STRICT is passed in
flags and
mode is not
MPOL_DEFAULT, then the call fails with the error
EIO if the
existing pages in the memory range don't follow the policy.
If
MPOL_MF_MOVE is specified in
flags, then the kernel will
attempt to move all the existing pages in the memory range so that they follow
the policy. Pages that are shared with other processes will not be moved. If
MPOL_MF_STRICT is also specified, then the call fails with the error
EIO if some pages could not be moved.
If
MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL is passed in
flags, then the kernel will
attempt to move all existing pages in the memory range regardless of whether
other processes use the pages. The calling thread must be privileged
(
CAP_SYS_NICE) to use this flag. If
MPOL_MF_STRICT is also
specified, then the call fails with the error
EIO if some pages could
not be moved.
On success,
mbind() returns 0; on error, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to indicate the error.
- EFAULT
- Part or all of the memory range specified by
nodemask and maxnode points outside your accessible address
space. Or, there was an unmapped hole in the specified memory range
specified by addr and len.
- EINVAL
- An invalid value was specified for flags or
mode; or addr + len was less than addr; or
addr is not a multiple of the system page size. Or, mode is
MPOL_DEFAULT and nodemask specified a nonempty set; or
mode is MPOL_BIND or MPOL_INTERLEAVE and
nodemask is empty. Or, maxnode exceeds a kernel-imposed
limit. Or, nodemask specifies one or more node IDs that are greater
than the maximum supported node ID. Or, none of the node IDs specified by
nodemask are on-line and allowed by the thread's current cpuset
context, or none of the specified nodes contain memory. Or, the
mode argument specified both MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES and
MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES.
- EIO
-
MPOL_MF_STRICT was specified and an existing page
was already on a node that does not follow the policy; or
MPOL_MF_MOVE or MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL was specified and the
kernel was unable to move all existing pages in the range.
- ENOMEM
- Insufficient kernel memory was available.
- EPERM
- The flags argument included the
MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL flag and the caller does not have the
CAP_SYS_NICE privilege.
The
mbind() system call was added in Linux 2.6.7.
This system call is Linux-specific.
For information on library support, see
numa(7).
NUMA policy is not supported on a memory-mapped file range that was mapped with
the
MAP_SHARED flag.
The
MPOL_DEFAULT mode can have different effects for
mbind() and
set_mempolicy(2). When
MPOL_DEFAULT is specified for
set_mempolicy(2), the thread's memory policy reverts to the system
default policy or local allocation. When
MPOL_DEFAULT is specified for
a range of memory using
mbind(), any pages subsequently allocated for
that range will use the thread's memory policy, as set by
set_mempolicy(2). This effectively removes the explicit policy from the
specified range, "falling back" to a possibly nondefault policy. To
select explicit "local allocation" for a memory range, specify a
mode of
MPOL_LOCAL or
MPOL_PREFERRED with an empty set of
nodes. This method will work for
set_mempolicy(2), as well.
Support for huge page policy was added with Linux 2.6.16. For interleave policy
to be effective on huge page mappings the policied memory needs to be tens of
megabytes or larger.
Before Linux 5.7.
MPOL_MF_STRICT was ignored on huge page mappings.
MPOL_MF_MOVE and
MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL are available only on Linux
2.6.16 and later.
get_mempolicy(2),
getcpu(2),
mmap(2),
set_mempolicy(2),
shmat(2),
shmget(2),
numa(3),
cpuset(7),
numa(7),
numactl(8)