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Subject: Re: [PATCH 11/11] docs/mm: add description of boot time memory
 management
To:     Mike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc:     Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        linux-doc <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux-mm <linux-mm@kvack.org>,
        lkml <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
References: <1529341199-17682-1-git-send-email-rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
 <1529341199-17682-12-git-send-email-rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
From:   Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Message-ID: <3d0f5f7f-7444-4559-c993-f85e7198eb38@infradead.org>
Date:   Mon, 18 Jun 2018 10:32:46 -0700
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On 06/18/2018 09:59 AM, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> Both bootmem and memblock are have pretty good internal documentation
> coverage. With addition of some overview we get a nice description of the
> early memory management.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/core-api/boot-time-mm.rst | 92 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  Documentation/core-api/index.rst        |  1 +
>  2 files changed, 93 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/core-api/boot-time-mm.rst
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/boot-time-mm.rst b/Documentation/core-api/boot-time-mm.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..379e5a3
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/core-api/boot-time-mm.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
> +===========================
> +Boot time memory management
> +===========================
> +
> +Early system initialization cannot use "normal" memory management
> +simply because it is not set up yet. But there is still need to
> +allocate memory for various data structures, for instance for the
> +physical page allocator. To address this, a specialized allocator
> +called the :ref:`Boot Memory Allocator <bootmem>`, or bootmem, was
> +introduced. Several years later PowerPC developers added a "Logical
> +Memory Blocks" which was later adopted by other architectures and

   Memory Blocks" allocator, which was later ...

> +renamed to :ref:`memblock <memblock>`. There is also a compatibility
> +layer called `nobootmem` that translates bootmem allocation interfaces
> +to memblock calls.
> +
> +The selection of the early alocator is done using

                              allocator

> +``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM`` and ``CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK`` kernel
> +configuration options. These options are enabled or disabled
> +statically by the architectures' Kconfig files.
> +
> +* Architectures that rely only on bootmem select ``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM=n
> +  && CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK=n``.
> +* The users of memblock with the nobootmem compatibility layer set
> +  ``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM=y && CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK=y``.
> +* And for those that use both memblock and bootmem the configuration
> +  includes ``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM=n && CONFIG_HAVE_MEMBLOCK=y

             fix ending:                                   =y``.

> +
> +Whichever allocator is used, it is the responsibility of the
> +architecture specific initialization to set it up in
> +:c:func:`setup_arch` and tear it down in :c:func:`mem_init` functions.
> +
> +Once the early memory manegement is available it offers variety of

                         management                 offers a variety of

> +functions and macros for memory allocations. The allocation request
> +may be directed to the first (and probably the only) node or to a
> +particular node in a NUMA system. There are API variants that panic
> +when an allocation fails and those that don't. And more recent and
> +advanced memblock even allows controlling its own behaviour.
> +
> +.. _bootmem:
> +
> +Bootmem
> +=======
> +
> +(mostly stolen from Mel Gorman's "Understanding the Linux Virtual
> +Memory Manager" `book`_)
> +
> +.. _book: https://www.kernel.org/doc/gorman/
> +
> +.. kernel-doc:: mm/bootmem.c
> +   :doc: bootmem overview
> +
> +.. _memblock:
> +
> +Memblock
> +========
> +
> +.. kernel-doc:: mm/memblock.c
> +   :doc: memblock overview
> +
> +
> +Functions and structures
> +========================
> +
> +Common API
> +----------
> +
> +The functions that are described in this section are available
> +regardless of what early memory manager is enabled.
> +
> +.. kernel-doc:: mm/nobootmem.c
> +
> +Bootmem specific API
> +--------------------
> +
> +The interfaces available only with bootmem, i.e when ``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM=n``

                                               i.e.
How about:

  These interfaces are available only with bootmem, i.e. when ``CONFIG_NO_BOOTMEM=n``.

> +
> +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bootmem.h
> +.. kernel-doc:: mm/bootmem.c
> +   :nodocs:
> +
> +Memblock specific API
> +---------------------
> +
> +Here is the description of memblock data structures, functions and
> +macros. Some of them are actually internal, but since they are
> +documented it would be silly to omit them. Besides, reading the
> +descriptions for the internal functions can help to understand what
> +really happens under the hood.
> +
> +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/memblock.h
> +.. kernel-doc:: mm/memblock.c
> +   :nodocs:
> diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/index.rst b/Documentation/core-api/index.rst
> index f5a66b7..93d5a46 100644
> --- a/Documentation/core-api/index.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/core-api/index.rst
> @@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ Core utilities
>     printk-formats
>     circular-buffers
>     gfp_mask-from-fs-io
> +   boot-time-mm
>  
>  Interfaces for kernel debugging
>  ===============================
> 


-- 
~Randy