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ioctl_pagemap_scan(2) System Calls Manual ioctl_pagemap_scan(2)

NAME

ioctl_pagemap_scan - get and/or clear page flags

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <linux/fs.h>  /* Definition of struct pm_scan_arg,
                          struct page_region, and PAGE_IS_* constants */
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
int ioctl(int pagemap_fd, PAGEMAP_SCAN, struct pm_scan_arg *arg);

DESCRIPTION

This ioctl(2) is used to get and optionally clear some specific flags from page table entries. The information is returned with PAGE_SIZE granularity.

To start tracking the written state (flag) of a page or range of memory, the UFFD_FEATURE_WP_ASYNC must be enabled by UFFDIO_API ioctl(2) on userfaultfd and memory range must be registered with UFFDIO_REGISTER ioctl(2) in UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_WP mode.

Supported page flags

The following page table entry flags are supported:

The page has asynchronous write-protection enabled.
The page has been written to from the time it was write protected.
The page is file backed.
The page is present in the memory.
The page is swapped.
The page has zero PFN.
The page is THP or Hugetlb backed.

Supported operations

The get operation is always performed if the output buffer is specified. The other operations are as following:

Write protect the matched pages.
Abort the scan when a page is found which doesn't have the Userfaultfd Asynchronous Write protection enabled.

The struct pm_scan_arg argument

struct pm_scan_arg {

__u64 size;
__u64 flags;
__u64 start;
__u64 end;
__u64 walk_end;
__u64 vec;
__u64 vec_len;
__u64 max_pages
__u64 category_inverted;
__u64 category_mask;
__u64 category_anyof_mask
__u64 return_mask; };
This field should be set to the size of the structure in bytes, as in sizeof(struct pm_scan_arg).
The operations to be performed are specified in it.
The starting address of the scan is specified in it.
The ending address of the scan is specified in it.
The kernel returns the scan's ending address in it. The walk_end equal to end means that scan has completed on the entire range.
The address of page_region array for output.

struct page_region {

__u64 start;
__u64 end;
__u64 categories; };

The length of the page_region struct array.
It is the optional limit for the number of output pages required.
PAGE_IS_* categories which values match if 0 instead of 1.
Skip pages for which any PAGE_IS_* category doesn't match.
Skip pages for which no PAGE_IS_* category matches.
PAGE_IS_* categories that are to be reported in page_region.

RETURN VALUE

On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

Error codes can be one of, but are not limited to, the following:

Invalid arguments i.e., invalid size of the argument, invalid flags, invalid categories, the start address isn't aligned with PAGE_SIZE, or vec_len is specified when vec is NULL.
Invalid arg pointer, invalid vec pointer, or invalid address range specified by start and end.
No memory is available.
Fetal signal is pending.

STANDARDS

Linux.

HISTORY

Linux 6.7.

SEE ALSO

ioctl(2)

2024-05-02 Linux man-pages 6.8