In this assignment, you implement process memory isolation, virtual memory, and some system calls in a tiny operating system. This will introduce you to virtual memory and operating system design.
- Due Friday 10/22 11:59:59pm any time zone (1 day later for DCE).
You may want to read Chapter 9 of the text. The 64-bit x86 virtual memory
architecture is described in Section 9.7. The PTE_P
, PTE_W
, and PTE_U
bits are shown in Figure 9.23 and discussed in Section 9.7.1.
Get the code
Get our code with
$ git pull; git pull handout main
or, alternately
$ git pull; git pull git://github.com/cs61/cs61-f21-psets.git main
This will merge our Problem Set 3 code with your previous
work. If you have any “conflicts” from prior problem sets, resolve
them before continuing further. Run git push
to save
your work back to your personal repository.
You may also create a new cs61-psets
repository for this assignment. Don’t
forget to enter your repository URL on the grading server.
Initial state
For this assignment, there is no handy make check
functionality.
Instead, you should run your instance of WeensyOS and visually compare
it to the images you see below in the assignment.
Run make run
in your pset3
directory. You should see something like this,
which shows four related p-allocator
processes running in parallel:
This image loops forever; in an actual run, the bars will move to the right and stay there. Don’t worry if your image has different numbers of K’s or otherwise has different details.
If your bars run painfully slowly, edit the p-allocator.cc
file and reduce
the ALLOC_SLOWDOWN
constant. Stop now to read and understand
p-allocator.cc
.
Here’s what’s going on in the physical memory display.
- WeensyOS displays the current state of physical and virtual memory. Each character represents 4 KiB of memory: a single page. There are 2 MiB of physical memory in total. (How many pages is this?)
- WeensyOS runs four processes, 1 through 4. Each process runs a different
program. The four programs are compiled from the same source code
(
p-allocator.cc
), but for each program the compiler is told to use a different region of memory for its text and data segments. - Each process asks the kernel for more heap space, one page at a time, until it runs out of room. Each process’s heap begins just above its code and global data, and ends just below its stack. The processes allocate space at different rates: compared to Process 1, Process 2 allocates space twice as quickly, Process 3 goes three times faster, and Process 4 goes four times faster. (A random number generator is used, so the exact rates may vary.) The marching rows of numbers show how quickly the heap spaces for processes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are allocated.
Here are two labeled memory diagrams, showing what the characters mean and how memory is arranged.
The virtual memory display is similar.
- The virtual memory display cycles between the four processes' address spaces. However, all the address spaces are the same for now.
- Blank spaces in the virtual memory display correspond to unmapped addresses. If a process (or the kernel) tries to access such an address, the processor will page fault.
- The character shown at address X in the virtual memory display identifies the owner of the corresponding physical page.
- In the virtual memory display, a character is reverse video if an application process is allowed to access the corresponding address. Initially, any process can modify all of physical memory, including the kernel. Memory is not properly isolated.
Goal
You will implement complete and correct memory isolation for WeensyOS processes. Then you'll implement full virtual memory, which will improve utilization. You'll implement fork—creating new processes at runtime—and exit—destroying processes at runtime.
We need to provide a lot of support code for this assignment, but the code you
write will all go in kernel.cc
.
Notes
Running WeensyOS
If QEMU’s default display causes accessibility problems, you will want to run
make run-console
.
There are several ways to debug WeensyOS. We recommend:
-
Add
log_printf
statements to your code (the output oflog_printf
is written to the filelog.txt
). -
Use assertions to catch problems early (for instance, call
check_page_table
to test a page table for obvious issues, or add your own). -
Sometimes a mistake will cause the OS to crash hard and reboot. Use
make D=1 run 2>debuglog.txt
to get additional, painfully-verbose debugging output. Search throughdebuglog.txt
forcheck_exception
lines to see where the exceptions occur.A powerful, yet simple, technique for debugging extreme crashes is to narrow down where they occur using infinite loops. Add an infinite loop (
while (true) {}
) to your kernel. If the resulting kernel crashes, then the infinite loop is after the crash point; if it infinite loops, then the infinite loop is before the crash point. -
Printouts such as assertions and fault reports include the virtual address of the faulting instruction, but they do not always include symbol information. Use files
obj/kernel.asm
(for the kernel) andobj/p-PROCESSNAME.asm
(for processes) to map instruction addresses to instructions.
Memory system layout
WeensyOS memory system layout is described by several constants.
KERNEL_START_ADDR |
Start of kernel code. |
KERNEL_STACK_TOP |
Top of kernel stack. The kernel stack is one page long. |
CONSOLE_ADDR |
CGA console memory. |
PROC_START_ADDR |
Start of application code. Applications should not be able to access memory below PROC_START_ADDR , except for the single page at console . |
MEMSIZE_PHYSICAL |
Size of physical memory in bytes. WeensyOS does not support physical addresses ≥ MEMSIZE_PHYSICAL . Equals 0x200000 (2MB). |
MEMSIZE_VIRTUAL |
Size of virtual memory. WeensyOS does not support virtual addresses ≥ MEMSIZE_VIRTUAL . Equals 0x300000 (3MB). |
PAGESIZE |
Size of a memory page. Equals 4096 (or, equivalently, 1 << 12 ). |
PAGEOFFMASK |
Mask for the offset portion of an address. Equals 4095 (PAGESIZE - 1 ). If (a & PAGEOFFMASK) == 0 , then a is page-aligned. |
Kernel and process address spaces
WeensyOS begins with the kernel and all processes sharing a single
address space. This is defined by the kernel_pagetable
page table.
kernel_pagetable
is initialized to the identity mapping: virtual
address X maps to physical address X.
As you work through the pset, you will shift processes to use independent address spaces, where each process can access only a subset of physical memory.
The kernel, though, still needs the ability to access all of physical memory.
Therefore, all kernel functions run using the kernel_pagetable
page table.
Thus, in kernel functions, each virtual address maps to the physical address
with the same number. The exception_entry
and syscall_entry
assembly codes
explicitly install kernel_pagetable
when they begin, and exception_return
and the syscall
return path install the process’s page table as they exit.
Each process page table must contain kernel mappings for the kernel stack
and for the exception_entry
and syscall_entry
code paths.
Step 1: Kernel isolation
WeensyOS processes could stomp all over the kernel’s memory if they wanted.
Better stop that. Change kernel_start
, the kernel initialization function, so that
kernel memory is inaccessible to applications—except for the memory holding
the CGA console (the single page at CONSOLE_ADDR == 0xB8000
).
When you are done, WeensyOS should look like this. In the virtual map, kernel memory is no longer reverse-video, since the user can’t access it. Note the lonely CGA console memory block.
Use vmiter
to create memory mappings. Start from the vmiter
loop in
the kernel_start
function.
About virtual memory iterators (
vmiter
)
In addition, make sure that your sys_page_alloc
system call preserves kernel
isolation: Applications shouldn’t be able to use sys_page_alloc
to screw up
the kernel. This requires changes to the SYSCALL_PAGE_ALLOC
case in
syscall
. Read the description of sys_page_alloc
in u-lib.hh
to get a
feeling for the possible errors.
Step 2: Isolated address spaces
Implement process isolation by giving each process its own independent page table. Your OS should look like this:
Each process only has permission to access its own pages, which you can tell because only its own pages are shown in reverse video.
How to implement per-process page tables in process_setup
:
-
Allocate a new, initially-empty page table for the process by calling
kalloc_pagetable
. -
Copy the mappings from
kernel_pagetable
into this new page table usingvmiter::map
. This ensures that the required kernel mappings are present in the new page table. You can do this using a loop with twovmiter
s, or you can set the mappings yourself (they are identity mappings).Note:
vmiter::map
will allocate page table pages as needed. -
Then you will need to make sure that any page that belongs to the process is mapped as user-accessible. These are the pages the process needs to access, including its code, data, stack, and heap segments. There are several places you’ll need to change.
Note the diagram now has four pages for each process in the kernel area,
starting at 0x1000. These are the four-level page tables for each process.
(The colored background indicates that these pages contain kernel-private
page table data, even though the pages “belong” to the process.) The first
page was allocated explicitly in process_setup
; the other pages were
allocated by vmiter::map
as the page table was initialized.
One common solution, shown above, leaves addresses above PROC_START_ADDR
totally unmapped by default, but other designs work too. As long as
a virtual address mapping has no PTE_U
bit, its process isolation properties
are unchanged. For instance, this solution, in which all mappings are present
but accessible only to the kernel, also implements process isolation
correctly:
If you create an incorrect page table, WeensyOS might crazily reboot. Don’t panic; see the debugging hints above.
About program images and segments (
program_image pgm
,seg
)
Step 3: Virtual page allocation
So far, WeensyOS processes use physical page allocation for process memory: Process code, data, stack, and heap pages with virtual address X always use the physical pages with physical address X. This is inflexible and limits utilization.
Change your operating system to allocate all process data, including
its code, globals, stack, and heap, using kalloc
instead of direct access
to the pages
array.
Here’s how our OS looks after this step.
Virtual page allocation will complicate the code that initializes process code
in process_setup
. You’ll need to figure out why (hint: which page table is
in force in process_setup
?) and find a way around it (hint: vmiter
or
set_pagetable
).
Step 4: Overlapping address spaces
Now the processes are isolated, which is awesome, but they’re still not taking full advantage of virtual memory. Isolated address spaces can use the same virtual addresses for different physical memory. There’s no need to keep the four process address spaces disjoint.
In this step, change each process’s stack to grow down starting at address
0x300000 == MEMSIZE_VIRTUAL
. Now the processes have enough heap room to use
up all of physical memory!
If there’s no physical memory available, sys_page_alloc
should return an
error code to the calling process, such as -1. Do not kill the calling
process! Lack of memory is a potentially recoverable problem.
Step 5: Fork
The fork
system call starts a new process as a copy of an existing
process. The process that calls fork
is called the parent process, and the
newly created copy is called the child process. The system call appears to
return twice: it returns 0 to the child, and returns the child’s process ID to
the parent.
Run WeensyOS with make run
or make run-console
. At any time, press
the ‘f
’ key. This will soft-reboot WeensyOS and ask it to run a single
p-fork
process, rather than the gang of allocator
s. You should see
something like this:
This is because you haven’t implemented fork
yet.
Implement fork
.
-
When a process calls
fork
, look for a free process slot in theptable[]
array for the child. Don’t use slot 0. If no slot exists, return-1
to the caller. -
If a free slot is found, copy the parent’s page table for the child. For addresses below
PROC_START_ADDR
(0x100000), the parent and child page tables will have identical mappings (same physical addresses, same permissions). But for addresses at or abovePROC_START_ADDR
, the child’s page table must map different pages that contain copies of any user-accessible, writable memory. This ensures process isolation: two processes should not share any writable memory except the console.So
fork
must examine every virtual address in the parent page table. Whenever the parent process has an application-writable, non-console page at virtual addressV
, thenfork
must allocate a new physical pageP
; copy the data from the parent’s page intoP
, usingmemcpy
; and finally map pageP
at addressV
in the child page table, using the permissions from the parent page table. -
The child process’s registers are initialized as a copy of the parent process’s registers, except for
reg_rax
.
When you’re done, you should see something like this after pressing
‘f
’.
An image like this means you forgot to copy the data for some pages, so the processes are actually sharing stack and/or data pages:
Step 6: Freeing memory
So far none of your test programs have ever freed memory or exited. Memory allocation’s pretty easy until you add free! So let’s add free by allowing applications to exit.
In this exercise you’ll implement the sys_exit
system call, which exits the
current process. This exercise is a capstone since freeing memory will tend to
expose weaknesses and problems in your other code.
To test your work, use make run
and then type ‘e
’. This reboots WeensyOS
to run the p-forkexit
program. (Initially it’ll crash because sys_exit()
isn’t implemented yet.) p-forkexit
processes all alternate among forking new
children, allocating memory, and exiting. The result is that once your code is
correct, p-forkexit
makes crazy patterns forever, like this:
2021 note. Your picture will not have
S
characters until Step 7.
A fully correct OS can run p-forkexit
indefinitely. An OS with a memory leak
will display a persistent blank spot in the physical memory map—the leaked
page—and if run long enough, blank spots will take over the screen. This OS has
a pretty bad leak; within 10 seconds it has run out of memory:
This OS’s leak is slower, but if you look at the bottom row of the physical memory map, you should see a persistently unused pages just above and to the left of the “V” in “VIRTUAL”. Persistently unused pages are a hallmark of leaks.
Reducing ALLOC_SLOWDOWN
in p-forkexit
may encourage errors to manifest,
but you may need to be patient.
Here’s your task.
-
Complete
kfree
so thatkfree
frees memory. Make sure thatkalloc
can re-use freed memory. -
sys_exit
should mark a process as free and free all of its memory. This includes the process’s code, data, heap, and stack pages, as well as the pages used for its page directory and page table pages. The memory should become available again for future allocations.Use
vmiter
andptiter
to enumerate the relevant pages. But be careful not to free the console. -
You will also need to change
fork
and perhaps other places. Think about all the places that allocate or share memory: what information must they maintain? Inp-forkexit
, unlike in previous parts of the pset,sys_fork
andsys_page_alloc
can run when there isn’t quite enough memory to create a new process or allocate or map a page. Your code should handle this cleanly, without leaking memory in any situation.-
If there isn’t enough free memory to successfully complete
sys_page_alloc
, the system call should return-1
to the caller. -
If there isn’t enough free memory to successfully complete
sys_fork
, the system call should clean up (i.e., free any memory that was allocated for the new process before memory ran out), mark the possibly-partially-initialized child process as free, and then return-1
to the parent. -
If any allocation or mapping in
sys_page_alloc
orsys_fork
fails, then the whole function must fail cleanly, leaving the state of allocated memory unchanged. When this happens, your code must clean up any previous “successful” allocations before returning-1
or there will be a memory leak. Be careful. Note that allocation failures should not exit the calling process!
-
There should be no memory leaks!
About physical memory iterators (
ptiter
)
Step 7: Shared read-only memory
It’s wasteful for fork()
to copy all of a process’s memory. For
example, most processes, including p-fork
, never change their code. So
what if we shared the memory containing the code? That’d be fine for
process isolation, as long as neither process could write the code.
Change process_setup
to map read-only program segments using read-only
memory. Use the seg.writable()
function to detect whether a program segment
can use read-only memory. Then, in fork
, share read-only pages between
processes rather than copying them; and, in exit
, ensure that shared pages
are correctly accounted for when a process exits.
When you’re done, running p-fork
should look like this:
Each process’s virtual address space begins with an “S”,
indicating that the corresponding physical page is S
hared by multiple
processes.
Extra credit
If you are finished and can't wait to do more of this type of work, try:
-
Copy-on-write page allocation!
-
Write more system calls and test programs! Some ideas:
-
sys_page_alloc
is like a restrictedmmap
system call: the user always defines where the page lives (soaddr == nullptr
is not supported), the system call allocates exactly one page (sosz == PAGESIZE
always), and the map is copied when a process forks (so the flags are likeMAP_ANON | MAP_PRIVATE
and the protection isPROT_READ | PROT_WRITE | PROT_EXEC
). Eliminate some of these restrictions by passing more arguments to the kernel and extending theSYSCALL_PAGE_ALLOC
implementation. -
Implement
sys_page_free
/munmap
. -
Implement a system call that puts the calling process to sleep until a given amount of time has elapsed, as measured by
ticks
(which counts timer interrupts). -
Implement a
kill
system call that lets one process kill others!
You will need to write a new test program to test this functionality.
-
Turnin
You will turn in your code by pushing your git repository to github.com/cs61/YOUR-PSET_REPO.git and updating the grading server.