On Thu 26-07-18 06:01:06, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 03:22:02PM +0300, Mike Rapoport wrote: > > +Memory Allocation Controls > > +========================== > > Perhaps call this section "Memory Allocation Flags" instead? > > > +Linux provides a variety of APIs for memory allocation from direct > > +calls to page allocator through slab caches and vmalloc to allocators > > +of compressed memory. Although these allocators have different > > +semantics and are used in different circumstances, they all share the > > +GFP (get free page) flags that control behavior of each allocation > > +request. > > While this isn't /wrong/, I think it might not be the most useful way > of explaining what the GFP flags are to someone who's just come across > them in some remote part of the kernel. How about this paragraph instead? > > Functions which need to allocate memory often use GFP flags to express > how that memory should be allocated. The GFP acronym stands for "get > free pages", the underlying memory allocation function. OK. > Not every GFP > flag is allowed to every function which may allocate memory. Most > users will want to use a plain ``GFP_KERNEL`` or ``GFP_ATOMIC``. Or rather than mentioning the two just use "Useful GFP flag combinations" comment segment from gfp.h -- Michal Hocko SUSE Labs
