xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man9/lwbuf.9 (revision cfd1aba3)
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34.Dd March 17, 2010
35.Dt LWBUF 9
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm lwbuf_alloc ,
39.Nm lwbuf_free ,
40.Nm lwbuf_page ,
41.Nm lwbuf_kva ,
42.Nm lwbuf_set_global
43.Nd lightweight buffers
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In cpu/lwbuf.h
46.Ft "struct lwbuf *"
47.Fn lwbuf_alloc "vm_page_t m" "struct lwbuf *"
48.Ft void
49.Fn lwbuf_free "struct lwbuf *lwb"
50.Ft vm_page_t
51.Fn lwbuf_page "struct lwbuf *lwb"
52.Ft vm_offset_t
53.Fn lwbuf_kva "struct lwbuf *lwb"
54.Ft void
55.Fn lwbuf_set_global "struct lwbuf *lwb"
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The
58.Nm lwbuf
59kernel functions are used for maintaining a lightweight reference to and
60accessing an arbitrary
61.Vt vm_page_t .
62.Pp
63.Fn lwbuf_alloc
64returns a pointer to a lightweight buffer representing
65.Fa m .
66The
67.Fa lwb
68argument is an lwbuf structure, used to avoid allocation of an lwbuf
69on the x86_64 architecture. The
70.Fa lwb
71argument is unused on the i386 architecture.
72.Pp
73.Fn lwbuf_free
74frees all resources associated with the lightweight buffer
75.Fa lwb .
76.Pp
77.Fn lwbuf_page
78and
79.Fn lwbuf_kva
80return the associated
81.Vt vm_page_t
82or
83.Vt vm_offset_t
84of the lightweight buffer
85.Fa lwb .
86.Pp
87.Fn lwbuf_set_global
88ensures that a
89.Vt vm_offset_t
90previously obtained through
91.Fa lwbuf_kva
92will be valid on all processors without subsequent calls to
93.Fa lwbuf_kva .
94It should not be used.
95.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
96The implementation of
97.Nm lwbuf
98is CPU-dependent.
99On i386, pages taken from
100per-processor pools of kernel virtual address space (KVA) are used to map
101arbitrary
102.Vt vm_page_t
103objects.
104On x86_64 such tricks are unnecessary, the
105kernel maintains a direct map of KVA covering all physical memory.
106.Pp
107Lightweight buffers are thread and cross-processor safe with a number of
108limitations.
109Allocated buffers are not internally cached or reference counted.
110Any consumer of lightweight buffers may elect to share allocated buffers
111or allow them to be used in other threads or on other processors, but care
112must be taken.
113Buffers must be externally refcounted or in some other manner
114freed only after last use.
115.Sh HISTORY
116A
117.Nm lwbuf
118implementation first appeared in
119.Dx 2.5 .
120.Sh AUTHORS
121The
122.Nm lwbuf
123implementation and this manpage were written by
124.An Samuel J. Greear .
125