MLOCKALL(2) | System Calls Manual | MLOCKALL(2)

# NAME

`mlockall`, `munlockall` — lock (unlock) the address space of a process

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <sys/mman.h>`

int
`mlockall`(int flags);

int
`munlockall`(void);

# DESCRIPTION

The `mlockall`() system call locks into memory the physical pages associated with the address space of a process until the address space is unlocked, the process exits, or execs another program image.

The following flags affect the behavior of `mlockall`():

`MCL_CURRENT`
  Lock all pages currently mapped into the process's address space.
`MCL_FUTURE`
  Lock all pages mapped into the process's address space in the future, at the time the mapping is established. Note that this may cause future mappings to fail if those mappings cause resource limits to be exceeded.

Since physical memory is a potentially scarce resource, processes are limited in how much they can lock down. A single process can lock the minimum of a system-wide “wired pages” limit and the per-process `RLIMIT_MEMLOCK` resource limit.

The `munlockall`() call unlocks any locked memory regions in the process address space. Any regions mapped after an `munlockall`() call will not be locked.

# RETURN VALUES

The `mlockall`() and `munlockall`() functions return the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

# ERRORS

`mlockall`() will fail if:

[`EINVAL`]
  The flags argument is zero or includes unimplemented flags.
[`ENOMEM`]
  Locking all of the pages currently mapped would exceed either the system or per-process limit for locked memory.
[`EAGAIN`]
  Some or all of the memory mapped into the process's address space could not be locked when the call was made.
[`EPERM`]
  The calling process does not have the appropriate privileges to perform the requested operation.

# SEE ALSO

mlock(2), mmap(2), munmap(2), setrlimit(2)

# STANDARDS

The `mlockall`() and `munlockall`() functions conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”).

# HISTORY

The `mlockall`() and `munlockall`() functions first appeared in OpenBSD 2.9.

# BUGS

The per-process resource limit is a limit on the amount of virtual memory locked, while the system-wide limit is for the number of locked physical pages. Hence a process with two distinct locked mappings of the same physical page counts as 2 pages against the per-process limit and only as a single page in the system limit.

January 11, 2019 | Debian