smalloc 1.0 review

smalloc short from Static memory buffer malloc, is an ideal memory manager for Realtime Linux Kernel modules that can't use dynamic m

License: Public Domain File size: 6K Developer: Calin A Culianu

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smalloc short from Static memory buffer malloc, is an ideal memory manager for Realtime Linux Kernel modules that can't use dynamic memory offered by kmalloc because of the non-realtime nature of kmalloc.

Like malloc(), smalloc() doles out memory to client code. Unlike malloc, however, smalloc takes a static memory buffer (as an initialization parameter). It is this buffer that smalloc manages when doling out memory to client code.

This design makes smalloc ideal for use inside a Realtime Linux kernel module. It also makes it much easire to port userspace code that relies on malloc() in C or operator new() in C++ for memory management to a realtime kernel module.

For example:

(the below is linux kernel code)

< code >

#include "smalloc.h"
#include < linux/slab.h >

#define MEMPOOLSZ (1024*1024*1024)
char *buf;

...

buf = kmalloc(MEMPOOLSZ, GFP_KERNEL); /* 1 megabyte buffer in kernel
module.. */
smalloc_set_memory_pool(buf, sizeof(buf));

...

MyStruct *s;

s = smalloc(sizeof(MyStruct)); /* example of code that uses this
static memory buffer */

< /code >

The above example is a typical usage pattern of smalloc.