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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-11 08:27:49 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-11 08:27:49 +0000 |
commit | ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6 (patch) | |
tree | b2d64bc10158fdd5497876388cd68142ca374ed3 /Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst | |
parent | Initial commit. (diff) | |
download | linux-ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6.tar.xz linux-ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6.zip |
Adding upstream version 6.6.15.upstream/6.6.15
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst | 252 |
1 files changed, 252 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..56a26c843d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst @@ -0,0 +1,252 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +===== +Tmpfs +===== + +Tmpfs is a file system which keeps all of its files in virtual memory. + + +Everything in tmpfs is temporary in the sense that no files will be +created on your hard drive. If you unmount a tmpfs instance, +everything stored therein is lost. + +tmpfs puts everything into the kernel internal caches and grows and +shrinks to accommodate the files it contains and is able to swap +unneeded pages out to swap space, if swap was enabled for the tmpfs +mount. tmpfs also supports THP. + +tmpfs extends ramfs with a few userspace configurable options listed and +explained further below, some of which can be reconfigured dynamically on the +fly using a remount ('mount -o remount ...') of the filesystem. A tmpfs +filesystem can be resized but it cannot be resized to a size below its current +usage. tmpfs also supports POSIX ACLs, and extended attributes for the +trusted.*, security.* and user.* namespaces. ramfs does not use swap and you +cannot modify any parameter for a ramfs filesystem. The size limit of a ramfs +filesystem is how much memory you have available, and so care must be taken if +used so to not run out of memory. + +An alternative to tmpfs and ramfs is to use brd to create RAM disks +(/dev/ram*), which allows you to simulate a block device disk in physical RAM. +To write data you would just then need to create an regular filesystem on top +this ramdisk. As with ramfs, brd ramdisks cannot swap. brd ramdisks are also +configured in size at initialization and you cannot dynamically resize them. +Contrary to brd ramdisks, tmpfs has its own filesystem, it does not rely on the +block layer at all. + +Since tmpfs lives completely in the page cache and optionally on swap, +all tmpfs pages will be shown as "Shmem" in /proc/meminfo and "Shared" in +free(1). Notice that these counters also include shared memory +(shmem, see ipcs(1)). The most reliable way to get the count is +using df(1) and du(1). + +tmpfs has the following uses: + +1) There is always a kernel internal mount which you will not see at + all. This is used for shared anonymous mappings and SYSV shared + memory. + + This mount does not depend on CONFIG_TMPFS. If CONFIG_TMPFS is not + set, the user visible part of tmpfs is not built. But the internal + mechanisms are always present. + +2) glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for + POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink). Adding the following + line to /etc/fstab should take care of this:: + + tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 + + Remember to create the directory that you intend to mount tmpfs on + if necessary. + + This mount is _not_ needed for SYSV shared memory. The internal + mount is used for that. (In the 2.3 kernel versions it was + necessary to mount the predecessor of tmpfs (shm fs) to use SYSV + shared memory.) + +3) Some people (including me) find it very convenient to mount it + e.g. on /tmp and /var/tmp and have a big swap partition. And now + loop mounts of tmpfs files do work, so mkinitrd shipped by most + distributions should succeed with a tmpfs /tmp. + +4) And probably a lot more I do not know about :-) + + +tmpfs has three mount options for sizing: + +========= ============================================================ +size The limit of allocated bytes for this tmpfs instance. The + default is half of your physical RAM without swap. If you + oversize your tmpfs instances the machine will deadlock + since the OOM handler will not be able to free that memory. +nr_blocks The same as size, but in blocks of PAGE_SIZE. +nr_inodes The maximum number of inodes for this instance. The default + is half of the number of your physical RAM pages, or (on a + machine with highmem) the number of lowmem RAM pages, + whichever is the lower. +========= ============================================================ + +These parameters accept a suffix k, m or g for kilo, mega and giga and +can be changed on remount. The size parameter also accepts a suffix % +to limit this tmpfs instance to that percentage of your physical RAM: +the default, when neither size nor nr_blocks is specified, is size=50% + +If nr_blocks=0 (or size=0), blocks will not be limited in that instance; +if nr_inodes=0, inodes will not be limited. It is generally unwise to +mount with such options, since it allows any user with write access to +use up all the memory on the machine; but enhances the scalability of +that instance in a system with many CPUs making intensive use of it. + +If nr_inodes is not 0, that limited space for inodes is also used up by +extended attributes: "df -i"'s IUsed and IUse% increase, IFree decreases. + +tmpfs blocks may be swapped out, when there is a shortage of memory. +tmpfs has a mount option to disable its use of swap: + +====== =========================================================== +noswap Disables swap. Remounts must respect the original settings. + By default swap is enabled. +====== =========================================================== + +tmpfs also supports Transparent Huge Pages which requires a kernel +configured with CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE and with huge supported for +your system (has_transparent_hugepage(), which is architecture specific). +The mount options for this are: + +================ ============================================================== +huge=never Do not allocate huge pages. This is the default. +huge=always Attempt to allocate huge page every time a new page is needed. +huge=within_size Only allocate huge page if it will be fully within i_size. + Also respect madvise(2) hints. +huge=advise Only allocate huge page if requested with madvise(2). +================ ============================================================== + +See also Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst, which describes the +sysfs file /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/shmem_enabled: which can +be used to deny huge pages on all tmpfs mounts in an emergency, or to +force huge pages on all tmpfs mounts for testing. + +tmpfs also supports quota with the following mount options + +======================== ================================================= +quota User and group quota accounting and enforcement + is enabled on the mount. Tmpfs is using hidden + system quota files that are initialized on mount. +usrquota User quota accounting and enforcement is enabled + on the mount. +grpquota Group quota accounting and enforcement is enabled + on the mount. +usrquota_block_hardlimit Set global user quota block hard limit. +usrquota_inode_hardlimit Set global user quota inode hard limit. +grpquota_block_hardlimit Set global group quota block hard limit. +grpquota_inode_hardlimit Set global group quota inode hard limit. +======================== ================================================= + +None of the quota related mount options can be set or changed on remount. + +Quota limit parameters accept a suffix k, m or g for kilo, mega and giga +and can't be changed on remount. Default global quota limits are taking +effect for any and all user/group/project except root the first time the +quota entry for user/group/project id is being accessed - typically the +first time an inode with a particular id ownership is being created after +the mount. In other words, instead of the limits being initialized to zero, +they are initialized with the particular value provided with these mount +options. The limits can be changed for any user/group id at any time as they +normally can be. + +Note that tmpfs quotas do not support user namespaces so no uid/gid +translation is done if quotas are enabled inside user namespaces. + +tmpfs has a mount option to set the NUMA memory allocation policy for +all files in that instance (if CONFIG_NUMA is enabled) - which can be +adjusted on the fly via 'mount -o remount ...' + +======================== ============================================== +mpol=default use the process allocation policy + (see set_mempolicy(2)) +mpol=prefer:Node prefers to allocate memory from the given Node +mpol=bind:NodeList allocates memory only from nodes in NodeList +mpol=interleave prefers to allocate from each node in turn +mpol=interleave:NodeList allocates from each node of NodeList in turn +mpol=local prefers to allocate memory from the local node +======================== ============================================== + +NodeList format is a comma-separated list of decimal numbers and ranges, +a range being two hyphen-separated decimal numbers, the smallest and +largest node numbers in the range. For example, mpol=bind:0-3,5,7,9-15 + +A memory policy with a valid NodeList will be saved, as specified, for +use at file creation time. When a task allocates a file in the file +system, the mount option memory policy will be applied with a NodeList, +if any, modified by the calling task's cpuset constraints +[See Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v1/cpusets.rst] and any optional flags, +listed below. If the resulting NodeLists is the empty set, the effective +memory policy for the file will revert to "default" policy. + +NUMA memory allocation policies have optional flags that can be used in +conjunction with their modes. These optional flags can be specified +when tmpfs is mounted by appending them to the mode before the NodeList. +See Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst for a list of +all available memory allocation policy mode flags and their effect on +memory policy. + +:: + + =static is equivalent to MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES + =relative is equivalent to MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES + +For example, mpol=bind=static:NodeList, is the equivalent of an +allocation policy of MPOL_BIND | MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES. + +Note that trying to mount a tmpfs with an mpol option will fail if the +running kernel does not support NUMA; and will fail if its nodelist +specifies a node which is not online. If your system relies on that +tmpfs being mounted, but from time to time runs a kernel built without +NUMA capability (perhaps a safe recovery kernel), or with fewer nodes +online, then it is advisable to omit the mpol option from automatic +mount options. It can be added later, when the tmpfs is already mounted +on MountPoint, by 'mount -o remount,mpol=Policy:NodeList MountPoint'. + + +To specify the initial root directory you can use the following mount +options: + +==== ================================== +mode The permissions as an octal number +uid The user id +gid The group id +==== ================================== + +These options do not have any effect on remount. You can change these +parameters with chmod(1), chown(1) and chgrp(1) on a mounted filesystem. + + +tmpfs has a mount option to select whether it will wrap at 32- or 64-bit inode +numbers: + +======= ======================== +inode64 Use 64-bit inode numbers +inode32 Use 32-bit inode numbers +======= ======================== + +On a 32-bit kernel, inode32 is implicit, and inode64 is refused at mount time. +On a 64-bit kernel, CONFIG_TMPFS_INODE64 sets the default. inode64 avoids the +possibility of multiple files with the same inode number on a single device; +but risks glibc failing with EOVERFLOW once 33-bit inode numbers are reached - +if a long-lived tmpfs is accessed by 32-bit applications so ancient that +opening a file larger than 2GiB fails with EINVAL. + + +So 'mount -t tmpfs -o size=10G,nr_inodes=10k,mode=700 tmpfs /mytmpfs' +will give you tmpfs instance on /mytmpfs which can allocate 10GB +RAM/SWAP in 10240 inodes and it is only accessible by root. + + +:Author: + Christoph Rohland <cr@sap.com>, 1.12.01 +:Updated: + Hugh Dickins, 4 June 2007 +:Updated: + KOSAKI Motohiro, 16 Mar 2010 +:Updated: + Chris Down, 13 July 2020 |