Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:30:38 -0800 | From | Randy Dunlap <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 02/14] kmemleak: Add documentation on the memory leak detector |
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Catalin Marinas wrote: > This patch adds the Documentation/kmemleak.txt file with some > information about how kmemleak works. > > Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com> > --- > Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt | 4 + > Documentation/kmemleak.txt | 142 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 2 files changed, 146 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) > create mode 100644 Documentation/kmemleak.txt > > diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt > index e0f346d..7f5f642 100644 > --- a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt > +++ b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt > @@ -1042,6 +1042,10 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file > Configure the RouterBoard 532 series on-chip > Ethernet adapter MAC address. > > + kmemleak= [KNL] Boot-time kmemleak enable/disable > + Valid arguments: on, off > + Default: on > + > l2cr= [PPC] > > l3cr= [PPC] > diff --git a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000..c84d91b > --- /dev/null > +++ b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt > @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ > +Kernel Memory Leak Detector > +=========================== > + > +Introduction > +------------ > + > +Kmemleak provides a way of detecting possible kernel memory leaks in a > +way similar to a tracing garbage collector > +(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29#Tracing_garbage_collectors), > +with the difference that the orphan objects are not freed but only > +reported via /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak. A similar method is used by the > +Valgrind tool (memcheck --leak-check) to detect the memory leaks in > +user-space applications. > + > +Usage > +----- > + > +CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel > +thread scans the memory every 10 min (by default) and prints any new
minutes
> +unreferenced objects found. To trigger an intermediate scan and display > +all the possible memory leaks:
Looks good otherwise. Thanks.
-- ~Randy
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