*BSD News Article 1774


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From: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: 4.3bsd Usrptmap
Message-ID: <24291@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 1 Jul 92 15:27:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: dog.24291
References: <l4et57INN34i@ack.cs.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
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NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.112.15

In article <l4et57INN34i@ack.cs.utexas.edu> yau@cs.utexas.edu (King-Yeung Yau) writes:
>Hi, In 4.3BSD Unix, there is a data structure called Usrptmap, which
>is in addition to the user page tables. I don't quite understand the
>purpose of this data structure. Why isn't it sufficient to allocate
>only User page tables in kernel virtual address space using a resource
>map?

Usrptmap[] is the page table that maps the user page tables.  This
first-level page table must be in physically contiguous memory (per
the VAX architecture).  The easiest way to do that was to make it
static duration.  The kernel memory allocators do not arrange for
contiguous physical pages.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 510 486 5427)
Berkeley, CA		Domain:	torek@ee.lbl.gov