Files
buddy/buddy.h
T

90 lines
3.2 KiB
C

#ifndef BUDDY_ALLOC_H
#define BUDDY_ALLOC_H
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
/* === INTRODUCTION ===
* This is the implementation of a general purpose allocator that uses
* the "buddy system". It uses a pool of memory specified by the user
* and allows allocations up to a specified threshold.
*
* === THE BUDDY SYSTEM ===
* The buddy system is an allocator that puts memory regions available
* for allocation in buckets based on their size. Each bucket contains
* regions of a different power of 2. When the user request the allocation
* of a region of a given length, the allocator looks for an unused
* region from the appropriate bucket (the one containing the smallest
* regions that aren't smaller of the requested size) and returns it.
* If the bucket is empty, the allocator gets one from the list of larger
* blocks and splits it. One half is returned to the user and the other
* is put in the bucket. These two blocks that were split from one larger
* block are called "buddies". When deallocating a block, the allocator
* checks if its "buddy" is currently used. If it's not, it merges the
* buddies and puts the larger block in the bucket. If the buddy is used,
* only the region provided by the user is put in the bucket. This mechanism
* is recursive, so if two buddies of size N can be merged, the allocator
* now looks for the buddy of size 2N and so on until either a buddy is
* in use or it got to the largest block possible. The same goes for the
* allocation code.
*/
/*
* This is the minimum and maximum block size. The allocator uses doubly
* linked free lists to keep track of unused blocks, so a block must be
* at least the size of two pointers. We assume a pointer is 8 bytes long,
* so the minimum value must be greater or equal to 4 (log2(2*8) = 4).
*
* For the maximum value there is really no downside in making it big,
* except for the fact that the pool provided by the user should at
* least be that big.
*/
#define BUDDY_ALLOC_MAX_BLOCK_LOG2 12
#define BUDDY_ALLOC_MIN_BLOCK_LOG2 4
_Static_assert(BUDDY_ALLOC_MIN_BLOCK_LOG2 <= BUDDY_ALLOC_MAX_BLOCK_LOG2);
_Static_assert(BUDDY_ALLOC_MIN_BLOCK_LOG2 > 3);
/*
* Handle to the allocator
*/
struct buddy;
/*
* Initialize the allocator. If not enough memory was provided,
* NULL is returned. NULL is considered to be a valid allocator
* handle, representing the empty allocator.
*/
struct buddy *buddy_startup(char *base, size_t size);
/*
* Allocate a memory region of size [len]. If allocation
* fails, NULL is returned.
*/
void *buddy_malloc(struct buddy *alloc, size_t len);
/*
* Deallocate a memory region allocated using [buddy_malloc].
* The [len] argument must be the same value passed when
* allocating.
*/
void buddy_free(struct buddy *alloc, size_t len, void *ptr);
/*
* Returns true if and only if ptr points inside of the memory
* generally available for allocation (even if currently marked
* as allocated).
*/
bool buddy_owned(struct buddy *alloc, void *ptr);
/*
* Returns true if and only if the block at address ptr of size
* len is owned by the allocator and marked as allocated.
*/
bool buddy_allocated(struct buddy *alloc, void *ptr, size_t len);
void *buddy_get_base(struct buddy *alloc);
#endif