diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst | 117 |
1 files changed, 106 insertions, 11 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst index 0408c245785e..d677e0428c3f 100644 --- a/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst @@ -13,17 +13,29 @@ everything stored therein is lost. tmpfs puts everything into the kernel internal caches and grows and shrinks to accommodate the files it contains and is able to swap -unneeded pages out to swap space. It has maximum size limits which can -be adjusted on the fly via 'mount -o remount ...' - -If you compare it to ramfs (which was the template to create tmpfs) -you gain swapping and limit checking. Another similar thing is the RAM -disk (/dev/ram*), which simulates a fixed size hard disk in physical -RAM, where you have to create an ordinary filesystem on top. Ramdisks -cannot swap and you do not have the possibility to resize them. - -Since tmpfs lives completely in the page cache and on swap, all tmpfs -pages will be shown as "Shmem" in /proc/meminfo and "Shared" in +unneeded pages out to swap space, if swap was enabled for the tmpfs +mount. tmpfs also supports THP. + +tmpfs extends ramfs with a few userspace configurable options listed and +explained further below, some of which can be reconfigured dynamically on the +fly using a remount ('mount -o remount ...') of the filesystem. A tmpfs +filesystem can be resized but it cannot be resized to a size below its current +usage. tmpfs also supports POSIX ACLs, and extended attributes for the +trusted.*, security.* and user.* namespaces. ramfs does not use swap and you +cannot modify any parameter for a ramfs filesystem. The size limit of a ramfs +filesystem is how much memory you have available, and so care must be taken if +used so to not run out of memory. + +An alternative to tmpfs and ramfs is to use brd to create RAM disks +(/dev/ram*), which allows you to simulate a block device disk in physical RAM. +To write data you would just then need to create an regular filesystem on top +this ramdisk. As with ramfs, brd ramdisks cannot swap. brd ramdisks are also +configured in size at initialization and you cannot dynamically resize them. +Contrary to brd ramdisks, tmpfs has its own filesystem, it does not rely on the +block layer at all. + +Since tmpfs lives completely in the page cache and optionally on swap, +all tmpfs pages will be shown as "Shmem" in /proc/meminfo and "Shared" in free(1). Notice that these counters also include shared memory (shmem, see ipcs(1)). The most reliable way to get the count is using df(1) and du(1). @@ -85,6 +97,65 @@ mount with such options, since it allows any user with write access to use up all the memory on the machine; but enhances the scalability of that instance in a system with many CPUs making intensive use of it. +If nr_inodes is not 0, that limited space for inodes is also used up by +extended attributes: "df -i"'s IUsed and IUse% increase, IFree decreases. + +tmpfs blocks may be swapped out, when there is a shortage of memory. +tmpfs has a mount option to disable its use of swap: + +====== =========================================================== +noswap Disables swap. Remounts must respect the original settings. + By default swap is enabled. +====== =========================================================== + +tmpfs also supports Transparent Huge Pages which requires a kernel +configured with CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE and with huge supported for +your system (has_transparent_hugepage(), which is architecture specific). +The mount options for this are: + +================ ============================================================== +huge=never Do not allocate huge pages. This is the default. +huge=always Attempt to allocate huge page every time a new page is needed. +huge=within_size Only allocate huge page if it will be fully within i_size. + Also respect madvise(2) hints. +huge=advise Only allocate huge page if requested with madvise(2). +================ ============================================================== + +See also Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst, which describes the +sysfs file /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/shmem_enabled: which can +be used to deny huge pages on all tmpfs mounts in an emergency, or to +force huge pages on all tmpfs mounts for testing. + +tmpfs also supports quota with the following mount options + +======================== ================================================= +quota User and group quota accounting and enforcement + is enabled on the mount. Tmpfs is using hidden + system quota files that are initialized on mount. +usrquota User quota accounting and enforcement is enabled + on the mount. +grpquota Group quota accounting and enforcement is enabled + on the mount. +usrquota_block_hardlimit Set global user quota block hard limit. +usrquota_inode_hardlimit Set global user quota inode hard limit. +grpquota_block_hardlimit Set global group quota block hard limit. +grpquota_inode_hardlimit Set global group quota inode hard limit. +======================== ================================================= + +None of the quota related mount options can be set or changed on remount. + +Quota limit parameters accept a suffix k, m or g for kilo, mega and giga +and can't be changed on remount. Default global quota limits are taking +effect for any and all user/group/project except root the first time the +quota entry for user/group/project id is being accessed - typically the +first time an inode with a particular id ownership is being created after +the mount. In other words, instead of the limits being initialized to zero, +they are initialized with the particular value provided with these mount +options. The limits can be changed for any user/group id at any time as they +normally can be. + +Note that tmpfs quotas do not support user namespaces so no uid/gid +translation is done if quotas are enabled inside user namespaces. tmpfs has a mount option to set the NUMA memory allocation policy for all files in that instance (if CONFIG_NUMA is enabled) - which can be @@ -170,6 +241,28 @@ So 'mount -t tmpfs -o size=10G,nr_inodes=10k,mode=700 tmpfs /mytmpfs' will give you tmpfs instance on /mytmpfs which can allocate 10GB RAM/SWAP in 10240 inodes and it is only accessible by root. +tmpfs has the following mounting options for case-insensitive lookup support: + +================= ============================================================== +casefold Enable casefold support at this mount point using the given + argument as the encoding standard. Currently only UTF-8 + encodings are supported. If no argument is used, it will load + the latest UTF-8 encoding available. +strict_encoding Enable strict encoding at this mount point (disabled by + default). In this mode, the filesystem refuses to create file + and directory with names containing invalid UTF-8 characters. +================= ============================================================== + +This option doesn't render the entire filesystem case-insensitive. One needs to +still set the casefold flag per directory, by flipping the +F attribute in an +empty directory. Nevertheless, new directories will inherit the attribute. The +mountpoint itself cannot be made case-insensitive. + +Example:: + + $ mount -t tmpfs -o casefold=utf8-12.1.0,strict_encoding fs_name /mytmpfs + $ mount -t tmpfs -o casefold fs_name /mytmpfs + :Author: Christoph Rohland <cr@sap.com>, 1.12.01 @@ -179,3 +272,5 @@ RAM/SWAP in 10240 inodes and it is only accessible by root. KOSAKI Motohiro, 16 Mar 2010 :Updated: Chris Down, 13 July 2020 +:Updated: + André Almeida, 23 Aug 2024 |