Mapping memory into process address space

[Björn Döbel]

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On 28.08.2014 06:33, Noah Zentzis wrote:
> On 08/21/2014 02:14 PM, Adam Lackorzynski wrote:
>> Yes, you'd need to create a new region mapper for the new task,
>> one that knows about the virtual address space layout of that
>> one. Should be possible by using a new instance of Region_map as
>> done in the l4re_kernel.You'll also need to create an IPC-gate to
>> be used as the pager for the new task and which is routed to the
>> Region_map instance for that task. You also need to handle other
>> events that come through the pager channel, see
>> Dispatcher::dispatch in l4re_kernel/server/src/dispatcher.cc for
>> the switch block.
> 
> I'm not sure how to create a new Rm instance - I'm trying this:
> 
> L4::Cap<L4Re::Rm> region = newcap<L4Re::Rm>(); // allocate
> capability factory->create(region, L4Re::Protocol::Rm); 
> check_cap(region, "Failed to allocate region map");

Adam already pointed you to l4re_kernel, which is the binary that is
initially loaded into each application's address space:

* l4re_kernel first sets up a new region map (this is the data structure
  representing the address space) in l4re_kernel/server/src/main.cc
* It then calls the loader's load() method, which is implemented in
  l4re_kernel/server/src/loader.cc.
* Loader::start() sets up a new thread within this address space and
  sets itself as the pager of this thread. In the function there are two
  ways of doing so:
    1. Either you have a capability to the thread that shall be the
       pager. Then you can enter this cap as the newly created thread's
       pager.
    2. Alternatively you can create a new IPC gate using
       factory_create_gate(). Then you bind the pager thread to this
       gate and give the newly created thread the gate capability as its
       pager.
* With this set up, the new thread will start executing application
  code. If it raises a page fault, the kernel redirects this fault to
  the pager thread, which we set in the previous setp. These messages
  will arive in l4re_kernel/server/src/dispatcher.cc. The dispatcher
  identifies them by looking at the IPC message's label field, which
  will be L4_PROTO_PAGE_FAULT for page faults and L4Re::Protocol::Rm
  for region management requests.


> But the factory fails to create a new region map. This is, as far
> as I can tell, exactly what libloader is doing, so I'm not sure
> what's wrong. Also, can I use the current task's pager for testing
> instead of implementing the interface, or will it fail if I don't
> handle paging myself?

The default  memory management model in L4Re is that each
application's address space is managed by one pager thread, the region
manager. This model requires the RM to be part of the same address
space and hence your local pager will not be able to handle page
faults for a remote task.

Hth,
Bjoern

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