On 06/08/18 at 07:20am, Dave Hansen wrote: > On 06/07/2018 11:27 PM, Baoquan He wrote: > > In alloc_usemap_and_memmap(), it will call > > sparse_early_usemaps_alloc_node() or sparse_early_mem_maps_alloc_node() > > to allocate usemap and memmap for each node and install them into > > usemap_map[] and map_map[]. Here we need pass in the number of present > > sections on this node so that we can move pointer of usemap_map[] and > > map_map[] to right position. > > > > How do think about above words? > > But you're now passing in the size of the data structure. Why is that > needed all of a sudden? Oh, it's the size of the data structure. Because alloc_usemap_and_memmap() is reused for both usemap and memmap allocation, then inside alloc_usemap_and_memmap(), we need move forward the passed in pointer which points at the starting address of usemap_map or memmap_map, to a new position which points at the next starting address on new node. You can see we passed the usemap_map, map_map, and the array element size. void __init sparse_init(void) { ... alloc_usemap_and_memmap(sparse_early_usemaps_alloc_node, (void *)usemap_map, sizeof(usemap_map[0])); ... alloc_usemap_and_memmap(sparse_early_mem_maps_alloc_node, (void *)map_map, sizeof(map_map[0])); ... } Then inside alloc_usemap_and_memmap(), For each node, we get how many present sections on this node, call hook alloc_func(). Then we update the pointer to point at a new position of usemap_map[] or map_map[]. Here usemap_map[] is (unsigned long *), map_map[] is (struct page*). Even though both of them are pointer, I think it might be not good to assume that in alloc_usemap_and_memmap() because alloc_usemap_and_memmap() doesn't know what is stored in its 2nd parameter, namely (void * data). So add this new parameter to tell it. Combine with patch 4/4, it might be easier to understand. static void __init alloc_usemap_and_memmap(void (*alloc_func) .. { ... for_each_present_section_nr(pnum_begin + 1, pnum) { alloc_func(data, pnum_begin, pnum, map_count, nodeid_begin); ... data += map_count * data_unit_size; ... } ... }