Copy-on-write segment sharing in a virtual memory, virtual machine data processing system

Abstract: Copy-on-write segment sharing is accommodated in a virtual memory virtual machine data processing system in which a Virtual Resource Manager establishes virtual machines which execute at least one UNIX type operating system which includes SHMAT type System Calls to permit a file to be concurrently shared by more than one user. An improved System Call is provided to create a copy-on-write type file that can be shared. A mapped file type segment is established and provides two special fields in the map node data structure that function to control the concurrent use of the copy-on-write segment by multiple users.

Description: This invention relates in general to controlling access to data stored in a virtual memory of a multiuser information handling system which is being run under a UNIX (a trademark of A.T. & T.) type operating system and, in particular, to copy-on-write segment sharing in a virtual memory virtual machine data processing system which permits a user to gain access to a file stored in a virtual memory segment in order to update it, even though another user has previously requested access to the same virtual memory segment of the file and is in the process of currently updating that segment. European Patent Application No. EP-A-229 691 : published 22/7/87 (Docket AT9-85-018), having the same priority date as this application, relates to a method for use in a multiuser paged segmented virtual memory data processing system in which a mapped file data structure is selectively created to permit all I/O operations to the secondary storage devices to be executed by simple load and store instructions under the control of the page fault handler. The prior art discloses various multiuser virtual memory information handling systems. In general, a virtual memory system implies a system having a main memory that is relatively fast, but somewhat limited in capacity, because of its cost, and a backing store device which is relatively slow, but is rather large, since the cost of storage per bit is relatively inexpensive. Implicit also in a virtual memory system is a paging system which functions to control the transfer of data between the main memory and the backing store. In practice, the main memory is generally a semiconductor memory array, while the backing store is generally one or more disk drives or files, some of which may even allow the media to be replaced by an operator. The main memory has its own arrangement for defining real address storage locations, as does the disk storage subsystem. The system, therefore, employs a virtual address when requesting data from storage. The Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) has the responsibility to check that the data at the virtual address is in main memory and if not, to transfer the data to main memory from the backing store. The specific manner in which the Virtual Memory Manager accomplishes the transfer varies significantly among the prior art systems, primarily because of the inherent characteristics of the specific hardware, including the conventions adopted for defining real addresses of the storage devices and also because of the differences in the operating systems under which the hardware is being run. The motivation for creating a virtual memory type system is based primarily on the realisation that the cost of providing real memory for the system of a size that would support either one complex program, or a number of smaller programs which could be run concurrently by one or more users, is prohibitive. Further, since generally there is no real reason for having the entire program resident in main memory, it would be more cost effective to store the program data on less expensive disk file backing stores and "page" portions of the data and program into main memory, as required. The paging process, when conducted by the Virtual Memory Manager, does not significantly impact the overall system performance, since the main processor can switch to another task or process which has previously been paged into main memory. The prior art virtual memory systems employ various operating systems since an operating system is generally designed to take advantage of the architecture of the processing unit and a particular application or environment. Some operating systems, such as PC DOS, for the family of IBM Personal Computers (PCs) and compatibles, is designed primarily for a single user environment. On the other hand, the UNIX operating system is designed primarily for a multiuser environment. The use of the UNIX operation system has, for a number of technical and non-technical reasons, been somewhat restricted to particular systems. As a result, the number of application programs that are run under a UNIX operating system have, until recently, been also rather limited. Multiuser UNIX systems employing virtual memory have even been more limited. The manner in which UNIX implements System Calls, particularly to storage, is in many respects quite advantageous to system performance. In UNIX, the System Call is the interface between UNIX and an application program. A System Call by the application program requests the "kernel" portion of the UNIX operating system to perform one particular task or service on behalf of the operating system. The "kernel" portion of UNIX includes approximately 60 System Calls which are not changed between different hardware systems, and are the standard interface to UNIX. Other programs in UNIX adapt the kernel to the particular hardware environment. UNIX has a unique file system for managing data stored on the systems' external storage devices, e.g., disk files. While UNIX allows a file to be accessed by many different concurrent users, if the file is to be updated, additional System Calls are required in order to ensure that the updating occurs in a serial fashion. These additional System Calls function to lock portions of the file temporarily, reserving that area for the exclusive use of the calling program that is to do the updating. This requires that the "kernel" become involved in the locking and unlocking of tasks and, hence, has an adverse effect on overall system performance. The prior art non-virtual UNIX systems do, nevertheless, permit the concurrent use of the same file by different users. The ability to share a portion of the same file among various users is advantageous for interprogram or interprocess communication, in that once the portion of the file is updated by one program, the data is immediately available to all the other programs or processes that are sharing that segment. The term "process," in UNIX terminology, means simply a program that it is currently executing. The memory management function of a typical UNIX operating system is a part of the UNIX kernel and generally is unique for each different Central Processing Unit. Some processing units require the total program to be in memory before any portion of the program can be run. Other CPUs can begin execution of a program while only a small portion is in active memory. The first memory management technique is referred to as "swapping," in that different processes or programs are run for a given period of time and then the entire program is "swapped" out for another program. The second technique is the Virtual Memory technique, which implies that provision must be made for the memory management function to handle page faults, so that defined portions or pages of the program can be brought into main memory as needed and returned to the back-up store when the pages are no longer required. If the Virtual Memory Management function is left with the kernel of the UNIX operating system, the page fault mechanism will consume a considerable portion of the CPU operating time. As a result, prior art virtual memory systems generally prefer to establish a Virtual Memory Management function as a separate level of programming on a device whose primary function is memory management. The page fault mechanism is then a part of the memory manager, and the CPU is free from time-consuming tasks of controlling the paging operation. In the European Patent Application referred to (Docket '018), a virtual memory data processing system is disclosed in which virtual machines are established by a Virtual Resource Manager which provides each virtual machine with a large virtual memory. In the system, to avoid the potential conflicts that arise in some virtual memory systems between the operating system's request for I/O disk storage operations and I/O disk storage operations controlled by the page fault handler, the responsibility for performing all I/O disk storage operations is assigned solely to the page fault handling mechanism. In addition, the normal UNIX interface to the application program by System Calls is supplemented by a mapped page technique. This latter technique permitted the application program to employ simple load and store type instructions to address memory, rather than tie up the system processor in executing UNIX System Calls to the disk storage. Any file stored in a defined segment of virtual memory could be mapped at the request of the application program which, in effect, established a table of virtual addresses and assigned disk block addresses for each page of data that is in the defined segment of virtual memory assigned to that file. The table or map is stored in a separate "segment" of the virtual memory. The "kernel" of the UNIX operating system is enhanced to provide a new System Call designated "SHMAT-MAP." The conventional UNIX operating system includes a variety of "SHMAT" System Calls, each with a slightly different function, such as "read only", "read/write" and "copy-on-write". The SHMAT-MAP command is also provided with the corresponding functions. Since the system described in the cross-referenced application is designed to operate with applications previously written for a conventional UNIX operating system, all UNIX System Calls have to be supported. The support is transparent to the user, in that any conventional UNIX System Call from an application program to the UNIX kernel is effectively intercepted by the Memory Manager, which then assigns the tasks to the page fault mechanism. Thus, in that system, the SHMAT-MAP command further specified whether the file is to be mapped, read/write (R/W), read only (RO), or copy-on-write (CW). The copy-on-write function in UNIX allows a file in system memory to be changed. When the CW file is paged out of real memory, it does not replace the permanent file. A separate System Call is required for the copy-on-write file, which is usually in a disk cache, to replace the permanent copy of the file in the secondary storage device. Two users who concurrently map a file read/write or read only share the same mapped segment. However, each user who requests to map the same file, copy-on-write, at the same time, create their own private copy-on-write segment. The term segment implies a section of the virtual address space. Each user is permitted to have only one CW segment for a given file at one time. The system of the cross-referenced application, therefore, is fully compatible with the prior art UNIX approach for shared files. This aspect of the common design, however, perpetuates the problem which exists with UNIX files, in that the sharing of a mapped file CW segment by multiple users is prohibited. The capability of multiple users sharing the same mapped file copy-on-write segment is highly desirable, and a method of achieving that function in systems of the type described in the crossreferenced application is the subject of the present invention. The present invention provides a method for sharing mapped file copy-on-write segments between a plurality of users in a multi-user virtual memory data processing system adapted to run a UNIX type operating system having SHMAT type System Calls for accessing information stored at specific addresses of secondary storage devices of the system, the system including a memory manager for controlling I/O operations to the secondary storage devices; the method comprising: creating a copy-on-write mapped segment for concurrent use by said plurality of users in response to a unique SHMAT system call; and establishing a data structure within the operating system having information including the copy-on-write segment ID and a reference count field to permit another user to obtain access to the copy-on-write segment by issuing a UNIX Open file type system call, specifying a copy-on-write mode. The present invention also provides a multi-user virtual memory data processing system including a UNIX type operating system having SHMAT type system calls for accessing information stored at specific addresses of secondary storage devices of the system and a memory manager which controls I/O operations to the secondary storage devices, the memory manager being adapted to create a copy-on-write mapped segment for concurrent use by a plurality of users in response to a unique SHMAT system call; and to establish a data structure within the operating system having information including the copy-on-write segment ID and a reference count field to permit another user to obtain access to the copy-on-write segment by issuing a UNIX Open file type system call, specifying a copy-on-write mode. As described hereinafter with reference to an embodiment of the present invention, an additional System Call flag is created for the "SHMAT" type System Calls. When this flag is specified by the user in combination with the System Call for a copy-on-write segment, a common copy-on-write segment is created for the mapped file. The first user to request the shared copy-on-write segment for the file causes creation of a common mapped file copy-on-write segment. The segment ID for this segment is then saved in a data structure such as the inode data structure for the UNIX file, so that any future request for the shared copy-on-write segment for the mapped file causes the common copy-on-write segment to be used. Also saved in the inode structure is a reference counter, used to indicate how many users currently have access to the shared segment (CW). Each request for the shared copy-on-write segment for the file causes the counter to be incremented and each closing of the file descriptor by a user accessing the file reference by the file descriptor via the copy-on-write segment causes the counter to be decremented. Every time the counter is decremented, a check is made to see if the counter has become zero, and if so, the shared copy-on-write segment is destroyed so that a future request for a shared copy-on-write segment for the file causes a new shared copy-on-write segment to be created (and a new segment ID placed in the inode structure for the file). All existing mapped file features continue to be supported, as described in the cross-referenced application. Whenever a file is mapped, there exists a read/write segment for the mapped file so that read or write System Calls reference the file by the mapped file read/write segment. The support of private copy-on-write segments is maintained so that a user can still continue to request a private copy-on-write version of the file. The present invention will be described further by way of example with reference to an embodiment thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of a virtual memory system in which the method of the present invention may be advantageously employed; Fig. 2 illustrates the interrelationship of the Virtual Resource Manager shown in Fig. 1 to the data processing system and a virtual machine; Fig. 3 illustrates the virtual storage model for the system shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 illustrates conceptually, the address translation function of the system shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 5 illustrates the interrelationships of some of the data structures employed in the system of Fig. 1; Fig. 6 illustrates the interrelationship of a number of data structures to the Virtual Resource Manager, the virtual memory, and real memory; Fig. 7 is a flow chart, illustrating the operation of mapping a file; and Fig. 8 is a flow chart, illustrating the steps involved in completing the data structures shown in Fig. 6 by a map page range service. As shown in Fig. 1., the system comprises a hardware section 10 and a software or programming section 11. Hardware section 10, as shown, comprises a processor function 12, a memory management function 13, a system memory function or RAM 14, system bus 15, an Input/Output Channel Controller (IOCC) 16, and an Input/Output bus 21. The hardware section further includes a group of I/O devices attached to the I/O bus 21 through the IOCC 16, including a disk storage function 17, a display function 18, a coprocessor function 19, and block 20, representing other I/O devices such as a keyboard or a mouse. The program section of the system includes the application program 22 that is to be run on the system, a group of application development programs 23, or tools to assist in developing new applications, an operating system kernel 24, which, for example, may be an extension of the UNIX system V kernel, and a Virtual Resource Manager program 25, which functions to permit a number of virtual machines to be created, each of which is running a different operating system, but sharing the system resources. The system may operate, therefore, in a multi-tasking, multi-user environment which is one of the main reasons for requiring a large virtual memory type storage system. Fig. 2 illustrates the relationship of the Virtual Resource Manager 25 to the other components of the system. As shown in Fig. 2, a virtual machine includes one or more application programs such as 22a - 22c and at least one operating system 30. A virtual machine interface 31 is established between the virtual machine and the VRM 25. A hardware interface 32 is also established between the VRM 25 and the hardware section 10. The VRM 25 supports virtual memory. It can be assumed, for purposes of explanation, that the memory capabilities of the hardware shown in Fig. 1 includes a 24 bit address space for system memory 14, which equates to a capacity of 16 megabytes for memory 14, and a 40 bit address space for virtual memory, which equates to 1 terabyte of memory. A paged segmentation technique is implemented for the Memory Management Unit 13, so that the total virtual address space is divided into 4,096 memory segments, with each memory segment occupying 256 megabytes. Fig. 3 illustrates the virtual storage model. The processor 12 provides a 32 bit effective address which is specified, for example, by the application program. The high order 4 bits of the 32 bit address functions to select 1 of 16 segment registers which are located in the Memory Management Unit (MMU) 13. Each segment register contains a 12 bit segment ID section, along with other special control-type bits. The 12 bit segment ID is concatenated with the remaining 28 bits of the initial effective address to provide the 40 bit virtual address for the system. The 40 bit virtual address is subsequently translated to a 24 bit real address, which is used to address the system memory 14. The MMU 13 utilises a Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB) to contain translations of the most recently used virtual addresses. Hardware is used to automatically update TLB entries from main storage page tables as new virtual addresses are presented to the TLBs for translation. Fig. 4 illustrates conceptually, the TLB reload function. The 40 bit virtual addresses are loaded into the TLB by looking them up in an Inverted Page Table (IPT), as shown in Fig. 4. The table is "inverted" because it contains one entry for each real memory page, rather than one per virtual page. Thus, a fixed portion of real memory is required for the IPT, regardless of the number of processes or virtual segments supported. To translate an address, a hashing function is applied to the virtual page number (high order part of the 40 bit virtual address, less the page offset) to obtain an index to the Hash Anchor Table (HAT). Each HAT entry points to a chain of IPT entries with the same hash value. A linear search of the hash chain yields the IPT entry and, thus, the real page number which corresponds to the original 40 bit virtual address. If no such entry is found, then the virtual page has not been mapped into the system, and a page fault interrupt is taken. The function of the Page Fault Handler (PFH) is to assign real memory to the referenced virtual page and to perform the necessary I/O to transfer the requested data into the real memory. The system is, thus, a demand paging type system. When real memory becomes full, the PFH is also responsible for selecting which page of data is paged out. The selection is done by a suitable algorithm such as a clock page replacement algorithm, where pages are replaced based on when the page was last used or referenced. Pages are transferred out to disk storage. The details of the other data structures employed by the system shown in Fig. 1 and 2 are set forth in the cross-referenced application. Similarly, the data structures which are unique to the map file service function of that application are also employed in the method of the present invention. Reference should be made to Fig. 6, specifically to the map node data structures 70 and 71. These two structures are described in detail in the cross-referenced application. The copy-on-write segment field 74 and the copy-on-write map count field 75 are the two specific fields of the map node data structure employed in the method of the present invention to permit concurrent use of a copy-on-write segment. Field 74 of map node 70 is designated the CW segment ID or the copy-on-write segment ID which identifies the unique segment ID that is used exclusively for the copy-on-write segment and field 75 which is the copy-on-write map count field which functions to keep track of the number of users who are sharing this copy-on-write segment. The data structure 80 is a specific section of the segment table used to store the segment ID segments that are being shared by more than one user. As far as the handling of copy-on-write calls are concerned, the inode data structure is first checked. If the file is currently mapped, the process is terminated at block 102, since protocol does not permit a file to be both mapped copy-on-write and read/write. If the file is not currently mapped, the inode data structure is tested to determine if the segment exists. If the segment exists, the map node data structure is tested to determine if it exists as a copy-on-write segment, and, if so, the reference count field 75 in map node 70 is incremented by 1 and the segment ID is obtained from the map node. The segment register is loaded with the obtained ID and and a test performed to see if the file is currently mapped. If the segment is mapped copy-on-write, the process ends. If the segment does not exist, it is created by issuing a call to the create segment service of the system. Once the create copy-on-write segment is completed, the count in the map node field 75 is incremented and the process flow continues, as previously described. When the process issues a UNIX read system or load instruction, or a UNIX write System Call or a store instruction, the operation performs a basic memory reference process. The Inverted Page Table is tested to determine if a page is in system memory. If not, a page frame in main memory is allocated. This requires an I/O operation, which halts the process until the page frame is allocated. If the page is in memory, a test is performed to see if a read (or load) operation is involved. If so, a request is placed in the I/O queue. If a write or store operation is involved, the page and the system are both prepared to receive the copy-on-write page in a paging space allocation on the disk file for copy-on-write pages. These operations require I/O to the disk file and, therefore, they are queued. Fig. 8 is a flow chart, illustrating the steps involved by page range service in completing the map node data structure 70 and the mapped file data structure 71, shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7a is a flow chart, illustrating the major steps involved in the system when an application process "n" performs various UNIX type System Calls. In block 100 the first system call is to open a file. Block 101 performs the open file operation. The file may be opened as a read/write file, read only file, or a write only file. Block 102 functions to read the inode into main memory from a directory reference 103 that is kept by the UNIX file management system. Assuming that the file has been opened, the next system call is a SHMAT (2) read only call to block 104. Block 105 determines if the file is currently mapped by reference to the segment table. If the segment is not currently mapped, a test is made in block 106 to see if the segment has been created. If the segment has not been created, block 107 creates the segment. Block 108 functions to increment the referenced count in the segment count field. Block 109 functions to get the segment ID, while block 110 loads the segment register. If the segment is currently mapped, as determined by block 111, the addressing operation for the read system call is complete. If the file is not currently mapped, a map page range service call is initiated to map the range of pages that are active in the system, as indicated by the file's External Page Table. Block 112 functions to create the map node 70 and the mapped file page structure 71, shown in Fig. 6. The actual read operation, represented by block 120 checks to see if the file is mapped, as shown in block 121. If the file is not mapped, block 122 does a standard read operation. A similar operation is done for a write operation by block 123. For either a read or write operation when the file is mapped, block 124 converts the file offset and length parameters of the UNIX System Call parameters to a segment and offset parameter. Block 125 gets the segment register ID from the shared segment table for the I/O operation if the system call is for a copy-on-write operation or a read/write operation. Block 126 tests to see if a write operation is involved and, if so, to allocate a new block on the disk file in block 127. If a write operation is not involved, block 127 is bypassed and block 128 does a copy between the disk and main memory. A block 129 then re-dispatches the process. Fig. 7b illustrates Process A performing a SHMAT read/write system call, as indicated by block 130. Block 131 tests to see if the file is currently mapped for a read/write operation. If not, block 132 tests to see if the segment exists. If the segment does not exist, block 133 creates a memory segment for the mapped file, while block 134 and 135 get and load the segment register with the segment ID for the mapped file. Block 136 tests to see if the file is mapped and, if so, the function is complete. If the file is not currently mapped read/write, the map page range service block 137 performs a page mapping to create the data structures 70 and 71 of Fig. 6. The major steps performed by the map page range service block 112 or 137 are illustrated in Fig. 8. After a segment has been created the file must be mapped into the segment. This is a dynamic operation, since the primary storage allocation is virtual, and the segment assignment is transient. As illustrated in Fig. 8 the inode structure 181 is read for the block address of each page to be allocated for the file. Each group of contiguously allocated blocks is summed, and the count recorded in the field adjacent to the starting block number 2 entry in the map page range structure. Discontiguous blocks are reflected in discrete entries in the map page range structure . When the entire file inode structure has been scanned, the map page range SVC is issued and the external page table slot entries for the appropriate segment are updated with the block addresses for each page of the file. While the invention has been shown and described with reference to a particular embodiment, it should be appreciated by those persons skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Claims: A method for sharing mapped file copy-on-write segments between a plurality of users in a multi-user virtual memory data processing system adapted to run a UNIX type operating system having SHMAT type System Calls for accessing information stored at specific addresses of secondary storage devices of the system, the system including a memory manager for controlling I/O operations to the secondary storage devices; the method comprising: creating a copy-on-write mapped segment for concurrent use by said plurality of users in response to a unique SHMAT system call; and establishing a data structure within the operating system having information including the copy-on-write segment ID and a reference count field to permit another user to obtain access to the copy-on-write segment by issuing a UNIX Open file type system call, specifying a copy-on-write mode. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said unique SHMAT system call is uniquely defined by its association with a special system call flag field, specified by the user, which is detectable by the system. A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 further including incrementing the count in the data structure count field in response to each system call requesting access to the copy-on-write segment. A method as claimed in claim 3, further including decrementing the count in the count field in response to a user requesting the copy-on-write segment be closed. A method as claimed in claim 4 further including checking the reference count field each time the count is decremented, and destroying the copy-on-write segment when the count is decremented to zero. A method as claimed in claim 2 in which the unique SHMAT system call is distinguishable from a SHMAT system call to create a private copy-on-write segment. A multi-user virtual memory data processing system including a UNIX type operating system having SHMAT type system calls for accessing information stored at specific addresses of secondary storage devices of the system and a memory manager which controls I/O operations to the secondary storage devices, the memory manager being adapted to create a copy-on-write mapped segment for concurrent use by a plurality of said users in response to a unique SHMAT system call; and to establish a data structure within the operating system having information including the copy-on-write segment ID and a reference count field to permit another user to obtain access to the copy-on-write segment by issuing a UNIX Open file type system call, specifying a copy-on-write mode.

Inventors: DUVALL KEITH ELLIOTT, HOOTEN ANTHONY DANA, LOUCKS LARRY KEITH, DUVALL, KEITH ELLIOTT, HOOTEN, ANTHONY DANA, LOUCKS, LARRY KEITH
Applicants: IBM, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G06F12
IPC codes: G06F12, G06F9