From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Nov 15 13:22: 7 2001
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From: Chris Ptacek <cptacek@sitaranetworks.com>
To: "'freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
Subject: kernel malloc questions...
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 16:21:51 -0500
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Hey all, I have a couple questions about kernel mallocs.

I am trying to malloc a large amount of memory for a KLD during load and the
malloc keeps failing.  I am trying to malloc 64-128MB for a memory pool for
a project I am working on.  My system has 196MB of memory and the KLD is
loaded at startup so I am relativly sure that I have enough memory to
satisfy the request.

I guess the questions are:

Is there a limit to the amount of memory the kernel (including modules) can
malloc?
If there is how do I change this amount?

I am currently using M_NOWAIT, would using M_WAITOK be better?  Would this
end up hanging my system in this case?

Would I be better off mallocing many smaller buffers into a memory pool (64
1MB buffers)?

I don't have access to the mailing lists at the moment and would appreciate
it if you could CC me with any replies.

  Thanks,
    Chris
    cptacek@sitaranetworks.com

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