Document revision date: 15 July 2002

Page-file sections are used to store temporary data in private or global (shared) sections of memory. In releases prior to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3, the maximum amount of data that could be backed up to page files was 32 GB per process (4 process page files, each 8 GB) and 504 GB per system (63 page files, each 8 GB).

With OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3, the previous limits for page-file sections were extended significantly to take advantage of larger physical memory. Now images that use 64-bit addressing can map and access an amount of dynamic virtual memory that is larger than the amount of physical memory available on the system.

With this design, if a process requires additional page-file space, page files can be allocated dynamically. Space is no longer reserved in a distinct page file, and pages are no longer bound to an initially assigned page file. Instead, if modified pages must be written back, they are written to the best available page file.

Each page or swap file can hold approximately 16 million pages (128 GB), and up to 254 page or swap files can be installed. Files larger than 128 GB are installed as multiple files.

Note the following DCL command display changes and system parameter changes as a result of the larger page-file section design:

• The SHOW MEMORY/FILES display reflects the nonreservable design. For example:

  $ SHOW MEMORY/FILES System Memory Resources on 22-MAY-2000 19:04:19.67 Swap File Usage (8KB pages): Index (1) Free Size DISK$ALPHASYS:[SYS48.SYSEXE]SWAPFILE.SYS 1 904 904 DISK$SWAP:[SYS48.SYSEXE]SWAPFILE.SYS;1 2 1048 1048 Total size of all swap files: 1952 Paging File Usage (8KB pages): Index (2) Free Size DISK$PAGE:[SYS48.SYSEXE]PAGEFILE.SYS;1 253 16888 16888 DISK$ALPHASYS:[SYS48.SYSEXE]PAGEFILE.SYS 254 16888 16888 Total size of all paging files: 33776 Total committed paging file usage: (3) 1964

  1. Number of swap files. Begins with an index value of 1 and increases in count.
  2. Number of page files. Begins with an index value of 254 and decreases in count.
  3. Total committed page file usage. As in previous releases, more pages can reside in page-file sections systemwide than would fit into installed page files.
• The SHOW MEMORY/FILES/FULL display no longer contains separate usage information for page and swap files. Because page-file information is no longer reserved, the system does not need to maintain the number of processes interested in a distinct page or swap file. For example:

  $ SHOW MEMORY/FILES/FULL System Memory Resources on 22-MAY-2000 18:47:10.21 Swap File Usage (8KB pages): Index Free Size DISK$ALPHASYS:[SYS48.SYSEXE]SWAPFILE.SYS 1 904 904 Paging File Usage (8KB pages): Index Free Size DISK$ALPHASYS:[SYS48.SYSEXE]PAGEFILE.SYS 254 16888 16888 Total committed paging file usage: 1960

• System parameters PAGFILCNT and SWPFILCNT are now obsolete. Up to 254 page and swap files can be installed.

This chapter describes the use of system services and run-time routines that VAX systems use to manage memory. It contains the following sections:

Section 13.1 describes the page size on VAX systems.

Section 13.2 describes the layout of virtual address space.

Section 13.3 describes extended addressing enhancements on selected VAX systems.

Section 13.4 describes the three levels of memory allocation routines.

Section 13.5 discusses how to use system services to add virtual address space, adjust working sets, control process swapping, and create and manage sections.

13.1 Virtual Page Size

To facilitate memory protection and mapping, the virtual addresss space on VAX systems is subdivided into segments of 512-byte sizes called pages. (On Alpha systems, memory page sizes are much larger and vary from system to system. See Chapter 12 for information about Alpha page sizes.) Versions of system services and run-time library routines that accept page-count values as arguments interpret these arguments in 512-byte quantities. Services and routines automatically round the specified addresses to page boundaries.

13.2 Virtual Address Space

The initial size of a process's virtual address space depends on the size of the image being executed. The virtual address space of an executing program consists of the following three regions:

• Process program region (P0)
  The process program region is also referred to as P0 space. P0 space contains the instructions and data for the current image.
  Your program can dynamically allocate storage in the process program region by calling run-time library (RTL) dynamic memory allocation routines or system services.
• Process control region (P1)
  The process control region is also referred to as P1 space. P1 space contains system control information and the user-mode process stack. The user mode stack expands as necessary toward the lower-addressed end of P1 space.

• Common system region (S0)
  The common system region is also referred to as S0 space. S0 space contains the operating system. Your program cannot allocate or free memory within the common system region from the user access mode.
  This common system region (S0) of system virtual address space can have appended to it additional virtual address space, known as a reserved region, or S1 space, that creates a single region of system space. As a result, the system virtual address space increases from 1 GB to 2 GB.

A summary of these regions appears in Figure 13-1.

Figure 13-1 Virtual Address Overview on VAX Systems

The memory management routines map and control the relationship between physical memory and the virtual address space of a process. These activities are, for the most part, transparent to you and your programs. In some cases, however, you can make a program more efficient by explicitly controlling its virtual memory usage.

The maximum size to which a process can increase its address space is controlled by the system parameter VIRTUALPAGECNT.

Using memory management system services, a process can add a specified number of pages to the end of either the program region or the control region. Adding pages to the program region provides the process with additional space for image execution, for example, for the dynamic creation of tables or data areas. Adding pages to the control region increases the size of the user stack. As new pages are referenced, the stack is automatically expanded, as shown in Figure 13-2. (By using the STACK= option in a linker options file, you can also expand the user stack when you link the image.)

Figure 13-2 illustrates the layout of a process's virtual memory. The initial size of a process's virtual address space depends on the size of the image being executed.

Figure 13-2 Layout of VAX Process Virtual Address Space

Selected VAX systems have extended addressing (XA) as part of the memory management subsystem. Extended addressing enhancement is supported on the VAX 6000 Model 600, VAX 7000 Model 600, and VAX 10000 Model 600 systems. Extended addressing contains the following two major enhancements that affect system images, system integrated products (SIPs), privileged layered products (LPs), and device drivers:

• Extended physical addressing (XPA)
• Extended virtual addressing (XVA)

Extended physical addressing increases the size of a physical address from 30 bits to 32 bits. This increases the capacity for physical memory from 512 MB to 3.5 GB as shown in Figure 13-3. The 512 MB is still reserved for I/O and adapter space.

Figure 13-3 Physical Address Space for VAX Systems with XPA

Extended virtual addressing (XVA) increases the size of the virtual page number field in the format of a system space address from 21 bits to 22 bits. The region of system virtual address space, known as the reserved region or S1 space, is appended to the existing region of system virtual address space known as S0 space, thereby creating a single region of system space. As a result, the system virtual address space increases from 1 GB to 2 GB as shown in Figure 13-4.

Figure 13-4 Virtual Address Space for VAX Systems with XVA

As shown in Figure 13-3, extended addressing increases the maximum physical address space supported by VAX systems from 1 GB to 4 GB. This is accomplished by expanding the page frame number (PFN) field in a page table entry (PTE) from 21 bits to 23 bits, and implementing changes in the memory management arrays that are indexed by PFN. Both the process page table entry and system page table entry are changed.

13.4 Levels of Memory Allocation Routines

Sophisticated software systems must often create and manage complex data structures. In these systems, the size and number of elements are not always known in advance. You can tailor the memory allocation for these elements by using dynamic memory allocation. By managing the memory allocation, you can avoid allocating fixed tables that may be too large or too small for your program. Managing memory directly can improve program efficiency. By allowing you to allocate specific amounts of memory, the operating system provides a hierarchy of routines and services for memory management. Memory allocation and deallocation routines allow you to allocate and free storage within the virtual address space available to your process.

There are three levels of memory allocation routines:

1. Memory management system services
   The memory management system services comprise the lowest level of memory allocation routines. These services include, but are not limited to, the following:

   SYS$EXPREG (Expand Region)
   SYS$CRETVA (Create Virtual Address Space)
   SYS$DELTVA (Delete Virtual Address Space)
   SYS$CRMPSC (Create and Map Section)
   SYS$MGBLSC (Map Global Section)
   SYS$DGBLSC (Delete Global Section)

   
   For most cases in which a system service is used for memory allocation, the Expand Region (SYS$EXPREG) system service is used to create pages of virtual memory.
   Because system services provide more control over allocation procedures than RTL routines, you must manage the allocation precisely. System services provide extensive control over address space allocation by allowing you to do the following types of tasks:
   • Add or delete virtual address space to the process program region (P0) or process control region (P1)
   • Add or delete virtual address space at a specific range of addresses
   • Increase or decrease the number of pages in a program's working set
   • Lock or delete pages of a program's working set in memory
   • Lock the entire program's working set in memory (by disabling process swapping)
   • Define disk files containing data or shareable images and map the files into the virtual address space of a process
2. RTL page management routines
   RTL routines are available for creating, deleting, and accessing information about virtual address space. You can either allocate a specified number of contiguous pages or create a zone of virtual address space. A zone is a logical unit of the memory pool or subheap that you can control as an independent area. It can be any size required by your program. Refer to Chapter 14 for more information about zones.
   The RTL page management routines LIB$GET_VM_PAGE and LIB$FREE_VM_PAGE provide a convenient mechanism for allocating and freeing pages of memory.
   These routines maintain a processwide pool of free pages. If unallocated pages are not available when LIB$GET_VM_PAGE is called, it calls SYS$EXPREG to create the required pages in the program region (P0 space).
3. RTL heap management routines
   The RTL heap management routines LIB$GET_VM and LIB$FREE_VM provide a mechanism for allocating and freeing blocks of memory of arbitrary size.
   The following are heap management routines based on the concept of zones:

   LIB$CREATE_VM_ZONE
   LIB$CREATE_USER_VM_ZONE
   LIB$DELETE_VM_ZONE
   LIB$FIND_VM_ZONE
   LIB$RESET_VM_ZONE
   LIB$SHOW_VM_ZONE
   LIB$VERIFY_VM_ZONE

   
   If an unallocated block is not available to satisfy a call to LIB$GET_VM, LIB$GET_VM calls LIB$GET_VM_PAGE to allocate additional pages.

Modular application programs can call routines at any or all levels of the hierarchy, depending on the kinds of services the application program needs. You must observe the following basic rule when using multiple levels of the hierarchy:

Memory that is allocated by an allocation routine at one level of the hierarchy must be freed by calling a deallocation routine at the same level of the hierarchy. For example, if you allocated a page of memory by calling LIB$GET_VM_PAGE, you can free it only by calling LIB$FREE_VM_PAGE.

Figure 13-5 shows the three levels of memory allocation routines.

Figure 13-5 Hierarchy of VAX Memory Management Routines

For information about using memory management RTLs, see Chapter 14.

13.5 Using System Services for Memory Allocation

This section describes how to use system services to perform the following tasks:

• Increase and decrease virtual address space
• Input and return address arrays
• Control page ownership and protection
• Control working set paging
• Control process swapping

The system services allow you to add address space anywhere within the process's program region (P0) or control region (P1). To add address space at the end of P0 or P1, use the Expand Program/Control Region (SYS$EXPREG) system service. SYS$EXPREG optionally returns the range of virtual addresses for the new pages. To add address space in other portions of P0 or P1, use SYS$CRETVA.

The format for SYS$EXPREG is as follows:

SYS$EXPREG (pagcnt ,[retadr] ,[acmode] ,[region])

Specifying the Number of Pages

Use the pagcnt argument to specify the number of pages to add to the end of the region. The range of addresses where the new pages are added is returned in retadr.

Specifying the Access Mode

Use the acmode argument to specify the access to be assigned to the newly created pages.

Specifying the Region

Use the region argument to specify whether to add the pages to the end of the P0 or P1 region. This argument is optional.

To deallocate pages allocated with SYS$EXPREG, use SYS$DELTVA.

The following example illustrates how to add 4 pages to the program region of a process by writing a call to the SYS$EXPREG system service:

#include <stdio.h> #include <ssdef.h> main() { unsigned int status, retadr[1],pagcnt=4, region=0; /* Add 4 pages to P0 space */ status = SYS$EXPREG( pagcnt, &retadr, 0, region); if (( status & 1) != 1) LIB$SIGNAL( status ); else printf("Starting address: %d Ending address: %d\n", retadr.lower,retadr.upper); }

The value 0 is passed in the region argument to specify that the pages are to be added to the program region. To add the same number of pages to the control region, you would specify REGION=#1.

Note that the region argument to SYS$EXPREG is optional; if it is not specified, the pages are added to or deleted from the program region by default.

The SYS$EXPREG service can add pages only to the end of a particular region. When you need to add pages to the middle of these regions, you can use the Create Virtual Address Space (SYS$CRETVA) system service. Likewise, when you need to delete pages created by either SYS$EXPREG or SYS$CRETVA, you can use the Delete Virtual Address Space (SYS$DELTVA) system service. For example, if you have used the SYS$EXPREG service twice to add pages to the program region and want to delete the first range of pages but not the second, you could use the SYS$DELTVA system service, as shown in the following example:

#include <stdio.h> #include <ssdef.h> struct { unsigned int lower, upper; }retadr1, retadr2, retadr3; main() { unsigned int status, pagcnt=4, region=0; /* Add 4 pages to P0 space */ status = SYS$EXPREG( pagcnt, &retadr1, 0, region); if (( status & 1) != 1) LIB$SIGNAL( status ); else printf("Starting address: %d ending address: %d\n", retadr1.lower,retadr1.upper); /* Add 3 more pages to P0 space */ pagcnt = 3; status = SYS$EXPREG( pagcnt, &retadr2, 0, region); if (( status & 1) != 1) LIB$SIGNAL( status ); else printf("Starting address: %d ending address: %d\n", retadr2.lower,retadr2.upper); /* Delete original allocation */ status = SYS$DELTVA( &retadr1, &retadr3, 0 ); if (( status & 1) != 1) LIB$SIGNAL( status ); else printf("Starting address: %d ending address: %d\n", retadr1.lower,retadr1.upper); }

In this example, the first call to SYS$EXPREG adds 4 pages to the program region; the virtual addresses of the created pages are returned in the 2-longword array at retadr1. The second call adds 3 pages and returns the addresses at retadr2. The call to SYS$DELTVA deletes the first 4 pages that were added.

When the SYS$EXPREG system service adds pages to a region, it adds them in the normal direction of growth for the region. The return address array, if requested, indicates the order in which the pages were added. For example:

• If the program region is expanded, the starting virtual address is smaller than the ending virtual address.
• If the control region is expanded, the starting virtual address is larger than the ending virtual address.

The addresses returned indicate the first byte in the first page that was added or deleted and the last byte in the last page that was added or deleted.

When input address arrays are specified for the Create and Delete Virtual Address Space (SYS$CRETVA and SYS$DELTVA, respectively) system services, these services add or delete pages beginning with the address specified in the first longword and ending with the address specified in the second longword.

The order in which the pages are added or deleted does not have to be in the normal direction of growth for the region. Moreover, because these services add or delete only whole pages, they ignore the low-order 9 bits of the specified virtual address (the low-order 9 bits contain the byte offset within the page). The virtual addresses returned indicate the byte offsets.

Table 13-1 shows some sample virtual addresses in hexadecimal that may be specified as input to SYS$CRETVA or SYS$DELTVA and shows the return address arrays if all pages are successfully added or deleted.

Table 13-1 Sample Virtual Address Arrays on VAX Systems

Input Array			Output Array
Start	End	Region	Start	End	Number of Pages
1010	1670	P0	1000	17FF	4
1450	1451	P0	1400	15FF	1
1200	1000	P0	1000	13FF	2
1450	1450	P0	1400	15FF	1
7FFEC010	7FFEC010	P1	7FFEC1FF	7FFEC000	1
7FFEC010	7FFEBCA0	P1	7FFEC1FF	7FFEBC00	3

Note that if the input virtual addresses are the same, as in the fourth and fifth items in Table 13-1, a single page is added or deleted. The return address array indicates that the page was added or deleted in the normal direction of growth for the region.

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