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-rw-r--r--Documentation/kmemleak.txt23
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
index 0112da3b9ab..89068030b01 100644
--- a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kmemleak.txt
@@ -16,13 +16,17 @@ Usage
-----
CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel
-thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints any new
-unreferenced objects found. To trigger an intermediate scan and display
-all the possible memory leaks:
+thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints the
+number of new unreferenced objects found. To display the details of all
+the possible memory leaks:
# mount -t debugfs nodev /sys/kernel/debug/
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
+To trigger an intermediate memory scan:
+
+ # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
+
Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated
and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent
objects to be reported as orphan.
@@ -31,16 +35,21 @@ Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the
/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak file. The following parameters are supported:
off - disable kmemleak (irreversible)
- stack=on - enable the task stacks scanning
+ stack=on - enable the task stacks scanning (default)
stack=off - disable the tasks stacks scanning
- scan=on - start the automatic memory scanning thread
+ scan=on - start the automatic memory scanning thread (default)
scan=off - stop the automatic memory scanning thread
- scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds (0
- to disable it)
+ scan=<secs> - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds
+ (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning)
+ scan - trigger a memory scan
Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing "kmemleak=off" on
the kernel command line.
+Memory may be allocated or freed before kmemleak is initialised and
+these actions are stored in an early log buffer. The size of this buffer
+is configured via the CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_EARLY_LOG_SIZE option.
+
Basic Algorithm
---------------