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diff --git a/Documentation/mm/page_owner.rst b/Documentation/mm/page_owner.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..127514955a5e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/mm/page_owner.rst @@ -0,0 +1,189 @@ +.. _page_owner: + +================================================== +page owner: Tracking about who allocated each page +================================================== + +Introduction +============ + +page owner is for the tracking about who allocated each page. +It can be used to debug memory leak or to find a memory hogger. +When allocation happens, information about allocation such as call stack +and order of pages is stored into certain storage for each page. +When we need to know about status of all pages, we can get and analyze +this information. + +Although we already have tracepoint for tracing page allocation/free, +using it for analyzing who allocate each page is rather complex. We need +to enlarge the trace buffer for preventing overlapping until userspace +program launched. And, launched program continually dump out the trace +buffer for later analysis and it would change system behaviour with more +possibility rather than just keeping it in memory, so bad for debugging. + +page owner can also be used for various purposes. For example, accurate +fragmentation statistics can be obtained through gfp flag information of +each page. It is already implemented and activated if page owner is +enabled. Other usages are more than welcome. + +page owner is disabled by default. So, if you'd like to use it, you need +to add "page_owner=on" to your boot cmdline. If the kernel is built +with page owner and page owner is disabled in runtime due to not enabling +boot option, runtime overhead is marginal. If disabled in runtime, it +doesn't require memory to store owner information, so there is no runtime +memory overhead. And, page owner inserts just two unlikely branches into +the page allocator hotpath and if not enabled, then allocation is done +like as the kernel without page owner. These two unlikely branches should +not affect to allocation performance, especially if the static keys jump +label patching functionality is available. Following is the kernel's code +size change due to this facility. + +Although enabling page owner increases kernel size by several kilobytes, +most of this code is outside page allocator and its hot path. Building +the kernel with page owner and turning it on if needed would be great +option to debug kernel memory problem. + +There is one notice that is caused by implementation detail. page owner +stores information into the memory from struct page extension. This memory +is initialized some time later than that page allocator starts in sparse +memory system, so, until initialization, many pages can be allocated and +they would have no owner information. To fix it up, these early allocated +pages are investigated and marked as allocated in initialization phase. +Although it doesn't mean that they have the right owner information, +at least, we can tell whether the page is allocated or not, +more accurately. On 2GB memory x86-64 VM box, 13343 early allocated pages +are catched and marked, although they are mostly allocated from struct +page extension feature. Anyway, after that, no page is left in +un-tracking state. + +Usage +===== + +1) Build user-space helper:: + + cd tools/vm + make page_owner_sort + +2) Enable page owner: add "page_owner=on" to boot cmdline. + +3) Do the job that you want to debug. + +4) Analyze information from page owner:: + + cat /sys/kernel/debug/page_owner > page_owner_full.txt + ./page_owner_sort page_owner_full.txt sorted_page_owner.txt + + The general output of ``page_owner_full.txt`` is as follows:: + + Page allocated via order XXX, ... + PFN XXX ... + // Detailed stack + + Page allocated via order XXX, ... + PFN XXX ... + // Detailed stack + By default, it will do full pfn dump, to start with a given pfn, + page_owner supports fseek. + + FILE *fp = fopen("/sys/kernel/debug/page_owner", "r"); + fseek(fp, pfn_start, SEEK_SET); + + The ``page_owner_sort`` tool ignores ``PFN`` rows, puts the remaining rows + in buf, uses regexp to extract the page order value, counts the times + and pages of buf, and finally sorts them according to the parameter(s). + + See the result about who allocated each page + in the ``sorted_page_owner.txt``. General output:: + + XXX times, XXX pages: + Page allocated via order XXX, ... + // Detailed stack + + By default, ``page_owner_sort`` is sorted according to the times of buf. + If you want to sort by the page nums of buf, use the ``-m`` parameter. + The detailed parameters are: + + fundamental function:: + + Sort: + -a Sort by memory allocation time. + -m Sort by total memory. + -p Sort by pid. + -P Sort by tgid. + -n Sort by task command name. + -r Sort by memory release time. + -s Sort by stack trace. + -t Sort by times (default). + --sort <order> Specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]. + Choose a key from the **STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS** section. The "+" is + optional since default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic + order. Mixed use of abbreviated and complete-form of keys is allowed. + + Examples: + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --sort=n,+pid,-tgid + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --sort=at + + additional function:: + + Cull: + --cull <rules> + Specify culling rules.Culling syntax is key[,key[,...]].Choose a + multi-letter key from the **STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS** section. + + <rules> is a single argument in the form of a comma-separated list, + which offers a way to specify individual culling rules. The recognized + keywords are described in the **STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS** section below. + <rules> can be specified by the sequence of keys k1,k2, ..., as described in + the STANDARD SORT KEYS section below. Mixed use of abbreviated and + complete-form of keys is allowed. + + Examples: + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --cull=stacktrace + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --cull=st,pid,name + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --cull=n,f + + Filter: + -f Filter out the information of blocks whose memory has been released. + + Select: + --pid <pidlist> Select by pid. This selects the blocks whose process ID + numbers appear in <pidlist>. + --tgid <tgidlist> Select by tgid. This selects the blocks whose thread + group ID numbers appear in <tgidlist>. + --name <cmdlist> Select by task command name. This selects the blocks whose + task command name appear in <cmdlist>. + + <pidlist>, <tgidlist>, <cmdlist> are single arguments in the form of a comma-separated list, + which offers a way to specify individual selecting rules. + + + Examples: + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --pid=1 + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --tgid=1,2,3 + ./page_owner_sort <input> <output> --name name1,name2 + +STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS +========================== +:: + + For --sort option: + + KEY LONG DESCRIPTION + p pid process ID + tg tgid thread group ID + n name task command name + st stacktrace stack trace of the page allocation + T txt full text of block + ft free_ts timestamp of the page when it was released + at alloc_ts timestamp of the page when it was allocated + ator allocator memory allocator for pages + + For --curl option: + + KEY LONG DESCRIPTION + p pid process ID + tg tgid thread group ID + n name task command name + f free whether the page has been released or not + st stacktrace stack trace of the page allocation + ator allocator memory allocator for pages |