SLUB, the default Linux kernel memory allocator, reduces fragmentation and improves allocation speed for frequently created objects like task_struct and inode by using per‑CPU caches, object slabs, and NUMA‑aware node caches, with detailed structures, allocation/free paths, tuning parameters, and real‑world case studies.
This article explains Linux's memory management architecture, covering physical memory organization, the buddy and SLUB allocators, virtual address spaces for user and kernel, page‑table translation, TLB caching, and the role of swap in virtual memory.
This article explains how Linux manages memory by organizing physical pages, using zones and nodes, allocating memory with the buddy system and SLUB, structuring user and kernel virtual address spaces, and translating virtual addresses to physical ones via page tables, TLBs, and dynamic mapping.
This article explains how the Linux kernel supplements its buddy system with the slab allocator to efficiently manage tiny memory blocks, covering slab’s design, memory layout, red‑zone protection, poisoning, per‑CPU caches, NUMA node warehouses, allocation fast‑paths, slow‑paths, and release strategies.
This article revisits Linux memory allocation, then dives deep into the slab allocator—explaining its relationship with the buddy system, its internal layout, the differences between slab, slub and slob, and how the kernel uses slab caches, per‑CPU caches, and NUMA nodes to efficiently allocate and free small memory objects.
Linux’s memory allocation mechanisms—Buddy for main memory and Slab/Slub for CPU cache—aim to maximize memory utilization, minimize fragmentation, and boost allocation efficiency, with detailed explanations of their structures, operation steps, and how to inspect them via /proc interfaces.
