Method and System for Allocating Memory in a Computing Environment

• US 20100049775A1
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Rajawat, Mayank
• Application Number:
  US12/596,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049775A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/813
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory

Abstract

A method and product for allocating memory in a computing environment, the method comprising providing a memory allocation routine adapted to use mmap( ) with a MAP SHARED or equivalent flag specified so that the memory is allocated from a file system buffer cache. In one embodiment, the method comprises allocating the memory by using mmap( ) with a MAP_SHARED or equivalent flag specified so that the memory is allocated from a file system buffer cache.

Claims

1. A method of allocating memory in a computing environment, comprising:

providing a memory allocation routine adapted to use mmap( ) with a MAP_SHARED or equivalent flag specified so that said memory is allocated from a file system buffer cache.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory allocation routine comprises a memory reallocation routine.

8. A product as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a another configuration command for controlling only a next call to said memory allocation routine to use MAP_SHARED.

9. A product as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a another configuration command for switching off use of MAP_SHARED, so that said memory allocation routine behaves like conventional malloc( ).

20. A computer readable medium provided with program data that, when executed on a computing system, implements the method of claim 1.

3. A method of allocating memory in a computing environment, comprising:

allocating said memory by using mmap( ) with a MAP_SHARED or equivalent flag specified so that said memory is allocated from a file system buffer cache.

4. A software product for adjusting parameters for dynamic memory allocation, comprising:

a configuration command usable to control a memory allocation routine invocation to use mmap( ) with MAP SHARED.

5. A product as claimed in claim 4, wherein said configuration command is also usable to control said memory allocation routine to allocate memory backed to swap space.

6. A product as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a another configuration command for said memory allocation routine invocation to give preference to MAP_SHARED on MAP_PRIVATE or brk( ).

7. A product as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a another configuration command for allocating memory in safe mode to allow said memory to have an overflow/underflow check.

10. A computing system, comprising:

a memory allocation routine adapted to use mmap( ) with a MAP_SHARED or equivalent flag specified so that said memory is allocated from a file system buffer cache.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said memory allocation routine comprises a memory reallocation routine.

12. A computing system, comprising:

a memory allocation routine adapted to invoke mmap( ) to allocate memory from a file system buffer cache.

13. A computing system, comprising:

a product for adjusting parameters for dynamic memory allocation comprising a configuration command usable to control a memory allocation routine invocation to use mmap( ) with MAP_SHARED.

14. A system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said memory allocation routine comprises malloc( ) or realloc( ).

15. A system as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a another configuration command for said memory allocation routine invocation to give preference to MAP_SHARED on MAP_PRIVATE or brk( ).

16. A system as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a another configuration command for allocating memory in safe mode to allow said memory to have an overflow/underflow check.

17. A system as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a another configuration command for controlling only a next call to said memory allocation routine to use MAP_SHARED.

18. A system as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a another configuration command for switching off use of MAP_SHARED, so that said memory allocation routine behaves like conventional malloc( ).

19. A method of allocating memory in a computing environment, comprising:

setting an environmental variable;

initiating a software application;

said software application invoking malloc( );

malloc( ) controlling an operating system to create a file object;

malloc( ) calling mmap, mmap being called with MAP_SHARED or equivalent flag specified owing to said environmental variable being set; and

mmap returning memory from a file system buffer cache.