memcntl(2)                                                          memcntl(2)


NAME
     memcntl - memory management control

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/mman.h>
     int memcntl(void *addr, size_t len, int cmd, void *arg,        int attr, int mask);

DESCRIPTION
     NOTE: this function is not currently implemented in IRIX.  Any calls to
     this function will return ENOSYS.

     The function memcntl allows the calling process to apply a variety of
     control operations over the address space identified by the mappings
     established for the address range [addr, addr + len).

     addr must be a multiple of the pagesize as returned by sysconf(3C).  The
     scope of the control operations can be further defined with additional
     selection criteria (in the form of attributes) according to the bit
     pattern contained in attr.

     The following attributes specify page mapping selection criteria:

     SHARED     Page is mapped shared.
     PRIVATE    Page is mapped private.

     The following attributes specify page protection selection criteria:

     PROT_READ    Page can be read.
     PROT_WRITE   Page can be written.
     PROT_EXEC    Page can be executed.

     The selection criteria are constructed by an OR of the attribute bits and
     must match exactly.

     In addition, the following criteria may be specified:

     PROC_TEXT   process text
     PROC_DATA   process data
     where PROC_TEXT specifies all privately mapped segments with read and
     execute permission, and PROC_DATA specifies all privately mapped segments
     with write permission.

     Selection criteria can be used to describe various abstract memory
     objects within the address space on which to operate.  If an operation
     shall not be constrained by the selection criteria, attr must have the
     value 0.

     The operation to be performed is identified by the argument cmd.  The
     symbolic names for the operations are defined in <sys/mman.h> as follows:


     MC_LOCK   Lock in memory all pages in the range with attributes attr.  A
               given page may be locked multiple times through different
               mappings; however, within a given mapping, page locks do not
               nest.  Multiple lock operations on the same address in the same
               process will all be removed with a single unlock operation.  A
               page locked in one process and mapped in another (or visible
               through a different mapping in the locking process) is locked
               in memory as long as the locking process does neither an
               implicit nor explicit unlock operation.  If a locked mapping is
               removed, or a page is deleted through file removal or
               truncation, an unlock operation is implicitly performed.  If a
               writable MAP_PRIVATE page in the address range is changed, the
               lock will be transferred to the private page.

               At present arg is unused, but must be 0 to ensure compatibility
               with potential future enhancements.

     MC_LOCKAS Lock in memory all pages mapped by the address space with
               attributes attr.  At present addr and len are unused, but must
               be NULL and 0 respectively, to ensure compatibility with
               potential future enhancements.  arg is a bit pattern built from
               the flags:
                  MCL_CURRENT   Lock current mappings
                  MCL_FUTURE    Lock future mappings

               The value of arg determines whether the pages to be locked are
               those currently mapped by the address space, those that will be
               mapped in the future, or both.  If MCL_FUTURE is specified,
               then all mappings subsequently added to the address space will
               be locked, provided sufficient memory is available.

     MC_SYNC   Write to their backing storage locations all modified pages in
               the range with attributes attr.  Optionally, invalidate cache
               copies.  The backing storage for a modified MAP_SHARED mapping
               is the file the page is mapped to; the backing storage for a
               modified MAP_PRIVATE mapping is its swap area.  arg is a bit
               pattern built from the flags used to control the behavior of
               the operation:
                  MS_ASYNC        perform asynchronous writes
                  MS_SYNC         perform synchronous writes
                  MS_INVALIDATE   invalidate mappings

               MS_ASYNC returns immediately once all write operations are
               scheduled; with MS_SYNC the system call will not return until
               all write operations are completed.

               MS_INVALIDATE invalidates all cached copies of data in memory,
               so that further references to the pages will be obtained by the
               system from their backing storage locations.  This operation
               should be used by applications that require a memory object to
               be in a known state.


     MC_UNLOCK Unlock all pages in the range with attributes attr.  At present
               arg is unused, but must be 0 to ensure compatibility with
               potential future enhancements.

     MC_UNLOCKAS
               Remove address space memory locks, and locks on all pages in
               the address space with attributes attr.  At present addr, len,
               and arg are unused, but must be NULL, 0 and 0 respectively, to
               ensure compatibility with potential future enhancements.

     The mask argument must be zero; it is reserved for future use.

     Locks established with the lock operations are not inherited by a child
     process after fork.  memcntl fails if it attempts to lock more memory
     than a system-specific limit.

     Due to the potential impact on system resources, all operations, with the
     exception of MC_SYNC, are restricted to processes with appropriate
     privileges (P_PLOCK).

     The memcntl function subsumes the operations of plock and mctl.

RETURN VALUE
     On success, memcntl returns 0; on failure, memcntl returns -1 and sets
     errno to indicate an error.

ERRORS
     Under the following conditions, the function memcntl fails and sets errno
     to:

     EAGAIN      Some or all of the memory identified by the operation could
                 not be locked when MC_LOCK or MC_LOCKAS is specified.

     EBUSY       Some or all the addresses in the range [addr, addr + len) are
                 locked and MC_SYNC with MS_INVALIDATE option is specified.

     EFAULT      The page to be locked has been aborted (e.g.  by a file
                 truncate operation), or pages following the end of an object
                 are not allocated.

     EINVAL      addr is not a multiple of the page size as returned by
                 sysconf.

     EINVAL      addr and/or len do not have the value 0 when MC_LOCKAS or
                 MC_UNLOCKAS is specified.

     EINVAL      arg is not valid for the function specified.

     EINVAL      Invalid selection criteria are specified in attr.


     EIO         An I/O error occurred when attempting to read the page from a
                 device or a network.

     ENOMEM      The argument len has a value less than or equal to 0.

     ENOMEM      Some or all the addresses in the range [addr, addr + len) are
                 invalid for the address space of the process or pages not
                 mapped are specified.

     EPERM       The process does not have appropriate privilege (P_PLOCK) and
                 one of MC_LOCK, MC_LOCKAS, MC_UNLOCK, MC_UNLOCKAS was
                 specified.

SEE ALSO
     mmap(2), mprotect(2), plock(2), mlock(3C), mlockall(3C), msync(3C),
     sysconf(3C)


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