MMAP(2) Linux Programmer's Manual MMAP(2)
NAME top
mmap, munmap - map or unmap files or devices into memory
SYNOPSIS top
#include <sys/mman.h>
void *mmap(void *addr, size_t length, int prot, int flags,
int fd, off_t offset);
int munmap(void *addr, size_t length);
DESCRIPTION top
mmap() creates a new mapping in the virtual address space of the calling
process. The starting address for the new mapping is specified in addr. The
length argument specifies the length of the mapping.
If addr is NULL, then the kernel chooses the address at which to create the
mapping; this is the most portable method of creating a new mapping. If addr
is not NULL, then the kernel takes it as a hint about where to place the
mapping; on Linux, the mapping will be created at a nearby page boundary. The
address of the new mapping is returned as the result of the call.
The contents of a file mapping (as opposed to an anonymous mapping; see
MAP_ANONYMOUS below), are initialized using length bytes starting at offset
offset in the file (or other object) referred to by the file descriptor fd.
offset must be a multiple of the page size as returned by
sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE).
The prot argument describes the desired memory protection of the mapping (and
must not conflict with the open mode of the file). It is either PROT_NONE or
the bitwise OR of one or more of the following flags:
PROT_EXEC Pages may be executed.
PROT_READ Pages may be read.
PROT_WRITE Pages may be written.
PROT_NONE Pages may not be accessed.
The flags argument determines whether updates to the mapping are visible to
other processes mapping the same region, and whether updates are carried
through to the underlying file. This behavior is determined by including
exactly one of the following values in flags:
MAP_SHARED Share this mapping. Updates to the mapping are visible to other
processes that map this file, and are carried through to the
underlying file. The file may not actually be updated until
msync(2) or munmap() is called.
MAP_PRIVATE
Create a private copy-on-write mapping. Updates to the mapping are
not visible to other processes mapping the same file, and are not
carried through to the underlying file. It is unspecified whether
changes made to the file after the mmap() call are visible in the
mapped region.
Both of these flags are described in POSIX.1-2001.
In addition, zero or more of the following values can be ORed in flags:
MAP_32BIT (since Linux 2.4.20, 2.6)
Put the mapping into the first 2 Gigabytes of the process address
space. This flag is only supported on x86-64, for 64-bit programs. It
was added to allow thread stacks to be allocated somewhere in the first
2GB of memory, so as to improve context-switch performance on some
early 64-bit processors. Modern x86-64 processors no longer have this
performance problem, so use of this flag is not required on those
systems. The MAP_32BIT flag is ignored when MAP_FIXED is set.
MAP_ANON
Synonym for MAP_ANONYMOUS. Deprecated.
MAP_ANONYMOUS
The mapping is not backed by any file; its contents are initialized to
zero. The fd and offset arguments are ignored; however, some
implementations require fd to be -1 if MAP_ANONYMOUS (or MAP_ANON) is
specified, and portable applications should ensure this. The use of
MAP_ANONYMOUS in conjunction with MAP_SHARED is only supported on Linux
since kernel 2.4.
MAP_DENYWRITE
This flag is ignored. (Long ago, it signaled that attempts to write to
the underlying file should fail with ETXTBUSY. But this was a source
of denial-of-service attacks.)
MAP_EXECUTABLE
This flag is ignored.
MAP_FILE
Compatibility flag. Ignored.
MAP_FIXED
Don't interpret addr as a hint: place the mapping at exactly that
address. addr must be a multiple of the page size. If the memory
region specified by addr and len overlaps pages of any existing
mapping(s), then the overlapped part of the existing mapping(s) will be
discarded. If the specified address cannot be used, mmap() will fail.
Because requiring a fixed address for a mapping is less portable, the
use of this option is discouraged.
MAP_GROWSDOWN
Used for stacks. Indicates to the kernel virtual memory system that
the mapping should extend downward in memory.
MAP_HUGETLB (since Linux 2.6.32)
Allocate the mapping using "huge pages." See the kernel source file
Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt for further information.
MAP_LOCKED (since Linux 2.5.37)
Lock the pages of the mapped region into memory in the manner of
mlock(2). This flag is ignored in older kernels.
MAP_NONBLOCK (since Linux 2.5.46)
Only meaningful in conjunction with MAP_POPULATE. Don't perform read-
ahead: only create page tables entries for pages that are already
present in RAM. Since Linux 2.6.23, this flag causes MAP_POPULATE to
do nothing. One day the combination of MAP_POPULATE and MAP_NONBLOCK
may be reimplemented.
MAP_NORESERVE
Do not reserve swap space for this mapping. When swap space is
reserved, one has the guarantee that it is possible to modify the
mapping. When swap space is not reserved one might get SIGSEGV upon a
write if no physical memory is available. See also the discussion of
the file /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory in proc(5). In kernels before
2.6, this flag only had effect for private writable mappings.
MAP_POPULATE (since Linux 2.5.46)
Populate (prefault) page tables for a mapping. For a file mapping,
this causes read-ahead on the file. Later accesses to the mapping will
not be blocked by page faults. MAP_POPULATE is only supported for
private mappings since Linux 2.6.23.
MAP_STACK (since Linux 2.6.27)
Allocate the mapping at an address suitable for a process or thread
stack. This flag is currently a no-op, but is used in the glibc
threading implementation so that if some architectures require special
treatment for stack allocations, support can later be transparently
implemented for glibc.
MAP_UNINITIALIZED (since Linux 2.6.33)
Don't clear anonymous pages. This flag is intended to improve
performance on embedded devices. This flag is only honored if the
kernel was configured with the CONFIG_MMAP_ALLOW_UNINITIALIZED option.
Because of the security implications, that option is normally enabled
only on embedded devices (i.e., devices where one has complete control
of the contents of user memory).
Of the above flags, only MAP_FIXED is specified in POSIX.1-2001. However,
most systems also support MAP_ANONYMOUS (or its synonym MAP_ANON).
Some systems document the additional flags MAP_AUTOGROW, MAP_AUTORESRV,
MAP_COPY, and MAP_LOCAL.
Memory mapped by mmap() is preserved across fork(2), with the same attributes.
A file is mapped in multiples of the page size. For a file that is not a
multiple of the page size, the remaining memory is zeroed when mapped, and
writes to that region are not written out to the file. The effect of changing
the size of the underlying file of a mapping on the pages that correspond to
added or removed regions of the file is unspecified.
munmap()
The munmap() system call deletes the mappings for the specified address range,
and causes further references to addresses within the range to generate
invalid memory references. The region is also automatically unmapped when the
process is terminated. On the other hand, closing the file descriptor does
not unmap the region.
The address addr must be a multiple of the page size. All pages containing a
part of the indicated range are unmapped, and subsequent references to these
pages will generate SIGSEGV. It is not an error if the indicated range does
not contain any mapped pages.
Timestamps changes for file-backed mappings
For file-backed mappings, the st_atime field for the mapped file may be
updated at any time between the mmap() and the corresponding unmapping; the
first reference to a mapped page will update the field if it has not been
already.
The st_ctime and st_mtime field for a file mapped with PROT_WRITE and
MAP_SHARED will be updated after a write to the mapped region, and before a
subsequent msync(2) with the MS_SYNC or MS_ASYNC flag, if one occurs.
RETURN VALUE top
On success, mmap() returns a pointer to the mapped area. On error, the value
MAP_FAILED (that is, (void *) -1) is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
On success, munmap() returns 0, on failure -1, and errno is set (probably to
EINVAL).
ERRORS top
EACCES A file descriptor refers to a non-regular file. Or MAP_PRIVATE was
requested, but fd is not open for reading. Or MAP_SHARED was requested
and PROT_WRITE is set, but fd is not open in read/write (O_RDWR) mode.
Or PROT_WRITE is set, but the file is append-only.
EAGAIN The file has been locked, or too much memory has been locked (see
setrlimit(2)).
EBADF fd is not a valid file descriptor (and MAP_ANONYMOUS was not set).
EINVAL We don't like addr, length, or offset (e.g., they are too large, or not
aligned on a page boundary).
EINVAL (since Linux 2.6.12) length was 0.
EINVAL flags contained neither MAP_PRIVATE or MAP_SHARED, or contained both of
these values.
ENFILE The system limit on the total number of open files has been reached.
ENODEV The underlying file system of the specified file does not support
memory mapping.
ENOMEM No memory is available, or the process's maximum number of mappings
would have been exceeded.
EPERM The prot argument asks for PROT_EXEC but the mapped area belongs to a
file on a file system that was mounted no-exec.
ETXTBSY
MAP_DENYWRITE was set but the object specified by fd is open for
writing.
Use of a mapped region can result in these signals:
SIGSEGV
Attempted write into a region mapped as read-only.
SIGBUS Attempted access to a portion of the buffer that does not correspond to
the file (for example, beyond the end of the file, including the case
where another process has truncated the file).
CONFORMING TO top
SVr4, 4.4BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
AVAILABILITY top
On POSIX systems on which mmap(), msync(2) and munmap() are available,
_POSIX_MAPPED_FILES is defined in <unistd.h> to a value greater than 0. (See
also sysconf(3).)
NOTES top
Since kernel 2.4, this system call has been superseded by mmap2(2). Nowadays,
the glibc mmap() wrapper function invokes mmap2(2) with a suitably adjusted
value for offset.
On some hardware architectures (e.g., i386), PROT_WRITE implies PROT_READ. It
is architecture dependent whether PROT_READ implies PROT_EXEC or not.
Portable programs should always set PROT_EXEC if they intend to execute code
in the new mapping.
The portable way to create a mapping is to specify addr as 0 (NULL), and omit
MAP_FIXED from flags. In this case, the system chooses the address for the
mapping; the address is chosen so as not to conflict with any existing
mapping, and will not be 0. If the MAP_FIXED flag is specified, and addr is 0
(NULL), then the mapped address will be 0 (NULL).
BUGS top
On Linux there are no guarantees like those suggested above under
MAP_NORESERVE. By default, any process can be killed at any moment when the
system runs out of memory.
In kernels before 2.6.7, the MAP_POPULATE flag only has effect if prot is
specified as PROT_NONE.
SUSv3 specifies that mmap() should fail if length is 0. However, in kernels
before 2.6.12, mmap() succeeded in this case: no mapping was created and the
call returned addr. Since kernel 2.6.12, mmap() fails with the error EINVAL
for this case.
EXAMPLE top
The following program prints part of the file specified in its first command-
line argument to standard output. The range of bytes to be printed is
specified via offset and length values in the second and third command-line
arguments. The program creates a memory mapping of the required pages of the
file and then uses write(2) to output the desired bytes.
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define handle_error(msg) \
do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *addr;
int fd;
struct stat sb;
off_t offset, pa_offset;
size_t length;
ssize_t s;
if (argc < 3 || argc > 4) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s file offset [length]\n", argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY);
if (fd == -1)
handle_error("open");
if (fstat(fd, &sb) == -1) /* To obtain file size */
handle_error("fstat");
offset = atoi(argv[2]);
pa_offset = offset & ~(sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE) - 1);
/* offset for mmap() must be page aligned */
if (offset >= sb.st_size) {
fprintf(stderr, "offset is past end of file\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
if (argc == 4) {
length = atoi(argv[3]);
if (offset + length > sb.st_size)
length = sb.st_size - offset;
/* Can't display bytes past end of file */
} else { /* No length arg ==> display to end of file */
length = sb.st_size - offset;
}
addr = mmap(NULL, length + offset - pa_offset, PROT_READ,
MAP_PRIVATE, fd, pa_offset);
if (addr == MAP_FAILED)
handle_error("mmap");
s = write(STDOUT_FILENO, addr + offset - pa_offset, length);
if (s != length) {
if (s == -1)
handle_error("write");
fprintf(stderr, "partial write");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
SEE ALSO top
getpagesize(2), mincore(2), mlock(2), mmap2(2), mprotect(2), mremap(2),
msync(2), remap_file_pages(2), setrlimit(2), shmat(2), shm_open(3),
shm_overview(7)
B.O. Gallmeister, POSIX.4, O'Reilly, pp. 128-129 and 389-391.
COLOPHON top
This page is part of release 3.32 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2010-06-20 MMAP(2)
