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diff --git a/tools/testing/memblock/README b/tools/testing/memblock/README new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7ca437d81 --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/testing/memblock/README @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +================== +Memblock simulator +================== + +Introduction +============ + +Memblock is a boot time memory allocator[1] that manages memory regions before +the actual memory management is initialized. Its APIs allow to register physical +memory regions, mark them as available or reserved, allocate a block of memory +within the requested range and/or in specific NUMA node, and many more. + +Because it is used so early in the booting process, testing and debugging it is +difficult. This test suite, usually referred as memblock simulator, is +an attempt at testing the memblock mechanism. It runs one monolithic test that +consist of a series of checks that exercise both the basic operations and +allocation functionalities of memblock. The main data structure of the boot time +memory allocator is initialized at the build time, so the checks here reuse its +instance throughout the duration of the test. To ensure that tests don't affect +each other, region arrays are reset in between. + +As this project uses the actual memblock code and has to run in user space, +some of the kernel definitions were stubbed by the initial commit that +introduced memblock simulator (commit 16802e55dea9 ("memblock tests: Add +skeleton of the memblock simulator")) and a few preparation commits just +before it. Most of them don't match the kernel implementation, so one should +consult them first before making any significant changes to the project. + +Usage +===== + +To run the tests, build the main target and run it: + +$ make && ./main + +A successful run produces no output. It is possible to control the behavior +by passing options from command line. For example, to include verbose output, +append the `-v` options when you run the tests: + +$ ./main -v + +This will print information about which functions are being tested and the +number of test cases that passed. + +For the full list of options from command line, see `./main --help`. + +It is also possible to override different configuration parameters to change +the test functions. For example, to simulate enabled NUMA, use: + +$ make NUMA=1 + +For the full list of build options, see `make help`. + +Project structure +================= + +The project has one target, main, which calls a group of checks for basic and +allocation functions. Tests for each group are defined in dedicated files, as it +can be seen here: + +memblock +|-- asm ------------------, +|-- lib |-- implement function and struct stubs +|-- linux ------------------' +|-- scripts +| |-- Makefile.include -- handles `make` parameters +|-- tests +| |-- alloc_api.(c|h) -- memblock_alloc tests +| |-- alloc_helpers_api.(c|h) -- memblock_alloc_from tests +| |-- alloc_nid_api.(c|h) -- memblock_alloc_try_nid tests +| |-- basic_api.(c|h) -- memblock_add/memblock_reserve/... tests +| |-- common.(c|h) -- helper functions for resetting memblock; +|-- main.c --------------. dummy physical memory definition +|-- Makefile `- test runner +|-- README +|-- TODO +|-- .gitignore + +Simulating physical memory +========================== + +Some allocation functions clear the memory in the process, so it is required for +memblock to track valid memory ranges. To achieve this, the test suite registers +with memblock memory stored by test_memory struct. It is a small wrapper that +points to a block of memory allocated via malloc. For each group of allocation +tests, dummy physical memory is allocated, added to memblock, and then released +at the end of the test run. The structure of a test runner checking allocation +functions is as follows: + +int memblock_alloc_foo_checks(void) +{ + reset_memblock_attributes(); /* data structure reset */ + dummy_physical_memory_init(); /* allocate and register memory */ + + (...allocation checks...) + + dummy_physical_memory_cleanup(); /* free the memory */ +} + +There's no need to explicitly free the dummy memory from memblock via +memblock_free() call. The entry will be erased by reset_memblock_regions(), +called at the beginning of each test. + +Known issues +============ + +1. Requesting a specific NUMA node via memblock_alloc_node() does not work as + intended. Once the fix is in place, tests for this function can be added. + +2. Tests for memblock_alloc_low() can't be easily implemented. The function uses + ARCH_LOW_ADDRESS_LIMIT marco, which can't be changed to point at the low + memory of the memory_block. + +References +========== + +1. Boot time memory management documentation page: + https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/core-api/boot-time-mm.html |