linux-kernel - [PATCH 1/2] mmap.2: document new MAP_FIXED

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Message-Id: <20171213093110.3550-1-mhocko@kernel.org>
Date:   Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:31:09 +0100
From:   Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>
To:     Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@...il.com>
Cc:     linux-api@...r.kernel.org, Khalid Aziz <khalid.aziz@...cle.com>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>, <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
        Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>,
        John Hubbard <jhubbard@...dia.com>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>,
        Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] mmap.2: document new MAP_FIXED_SAFE flag

From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>

4.16+ kernels offer a new MAP_FIXED_SAFE flag which allows the caller to
atomicaly probe for a given address range.

[wording heavily updated by John Hubbard <jhubbard@...dia.com>]
Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
---
 man2/mmap.2 | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/mmap.2 b/man2/mmap.2
index a5a8eb47a263..02d391697ce6 100644
--- a/man2/mmap.2
+++ b/man2/mmap.2
@@ -227,6 +227,22 @@ in mind that the exact layout of a process' memory map is allowed to change
 significantly between kernel versions, C library versions, and operating system
 releases.
 .TP
+.BR MAP_FIXED_SAFE " (since Linux 4.16)"
+Similar to MAP_FIXED with respect to the
+.I
+addr
+enforcement, but different in that MAP_FIXED_SAFE never clobbers a pre-existing
+mapped range. If the requested range would collide with an existing
+mapping, then this call fails with
+.B EEXIST.
+This flag can therefore be used as a way to atomically (with respect to other
+threads) attempt to map an address range: one thread will succeed; all others
+will report failure. Please note that older kernels which do not recognize this
+flag will typically (upon detecting a collision with a pre-existing mapping)
+fall back to a "non-MAP_FIXED" type of behavior: they will return an address that
+is different than the requested one. Therefore, backward-compatible software
+should check the returned address against the requested address.
+.TP
 .B MAP_GROWSDOWN
 This flag is used for stacks.
 It indicates to the kernel virtual memory system that the mapping
@@ -451,6 +467,12 @@ is not a valid file descriptor (and
 .B MAP_ANONYMOUS
 was not set).
 .TP
+.B EEXIST
+range covered by
+.IR addr ,
+.IR length
+is clashing with an existing mapping.
+.TP
 .B EINVAL
 We don't like
 .IR addr ,
-- 
2.15.0