pmadvise(1)							   User Commands						       pmadvise(1)

NAME

       pmadvise - applies advice about memory to a process

SYNOPSIS

       pmadvise -o option[,option] [-F] [-l] [-v] pid...

DESCRIPTION

       pmadvise applies advice about how memory is used in the specified process using madvise(3C).

       pmadvise  allows  users	to  apply advice to a specific sub-range at a specific instant in time. pmadvise differs from madv.so.1(1) in that
       madv.so.1(1) applies the advice throughout execution of the target program to all segments of a specified type.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -F    Force by grabbing the target process even if another process has control.

	     You should exercise caution when using the -F option. See proc(1).

       -l    Show unresolved dynamic linker map names.

       -o    Specify advice to apply in the following form:

	       private=advice
	       shared=advice
	       heap=advice
	       stack=advice
	       address[:length]=advice

	     where the advice can be one of the following:

	       normal
	       random
	       sequential
	       willneed
	       dontneed
	       free
	       access_lwp
	       access_many
	       access_default

	     An address and length can be given to specify a subrange to apply the advice.The address should be hexadecimal and the length  should
	     be in bytes by default.

	     If  length  is not specified and the starting address refers to the start of a segment, the advice is applied to that segment. length
	     can be qualified by K, M, G, T, P, or E to specify kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or exabytes respectively as  the  unit
	     of measure.

       -v    Print  verbose output. Display output as pmap(1) does, showing what advice is being applied where. This can be useful when the advice
	     is being applied to a named region (for example, private, shared, and so forth) to get feedback on exactly where the advice is  being
	     applied.

       pmadvise tries to process all legal options. If an illegal address range is specified, an error message is printed and the offending option
       is skipped. pmadvise quits without processing any options and prints a usage message when there is a syntax error.

       If conflicting advice is given on a region, the order of precedence is from most specific advice to least, that is, most general. In  other
       words, advice specified for a particuliar address range takes precedence over advice for heap and stack which in turn takes precedence over
       advice for private and shared memory.

       Moreover, the advice in each of the following groups are mutually exclusive from the other advice within the same group:

	 MADV_NORMAL, MADV_RANDOM, MADV_SEQUENTIAL
	 MADV_WILLNEED, MADV_DONTNEED, MADV_FREE
	 MADV_ACCESS_DEFAULT, MADV_ACCESS_LWP, MADV_ACCESS_MANY

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       pid    Process ID.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Applying Advice to a Segment at Specified Address

       The following example applies advice to a segment at a specified address:

	 % pmap $$
	 100666: tcsh
	 00010000     312K r-x--  /usr/bin/tcsh
	 0006C000      48K rwx--  /usr/bin/tcsh
	 00078000     536K rwx--    [ heap ]
	 FF100000     856K r-x--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF1E6000      32K rwx--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF1EE000	8K rwx--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF230000     168K r-x--  /lib/libcurses.so.1
	 FF26A000      32K rwx--  /lib/libcurses.so.1
	 FF272000	8K rwx--  /lib/libcurses.so.1
	 FF280000     576K r-x--  /lib/libnsl.so.1
	 FF310000      40K rwx--  /lib/libnsl.so.1
	 FF31A000      24K rwx--  /lib/libnsl.so.1
	 FF364000	8K rwxs-    [ anon ]
	 FF370000      48K r-x--  /lib/libsocket.so.1
	 FF38C000	8K rwx--  /lib/libsocket.so.1
	 FF3A0000	8K r-x--  /platform/sun4u-us3/lib/libc_psr.so.1
	 FF3B0000     176K r-x--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FF3EC000	8K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FF3EE000	8K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FFBE6000     104K rw---    [ stack ]
	 %
	 % pmadvise -o 78000=access_lwp $$

	 %

       Example 2 Using the -v Option

       The following example displays verbose output from pmadvise:

	 % pmadvise -o heap=access_lwp,stack=access_default -v $$
	 1720:	 -sh
	 00010000      88K r-x--  /sbin/sh
	 00036000	8K rwx--  /sbin/sh
	 00038000      16K rwx--    [ heap ]	       <= access_lwp
	 FF250000      24K r-x--  /lib/libgen.so.1
	 FF266000	8K rwx--  /lib/libgen.so.1
	 FF272000	8K rwxs-    [ anon ]
	 FF280000     840K r-x--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF362000      32K rwx--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF36A000      16K rwx--  /lib/libc.so.1
	 FF380000	8K r-x--  /platform/sun4u-us3/lib/libc_psr.so.1
	 FF390000      64K rwx--    [ anon ]
	 FF3B0000     168K r-x--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FF3EA000	8K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FF3EC000	8K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
	 FFBFE000	8K rw---    [ stack ]	       <= access_default

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0	   Successful completion.

       non-zero    An error occurred.

FILES

       /proc/*		  Process files

       /usr/prob/lib/*	  proc tools support files

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWesu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |See below.		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

       The command syntax is Evolving. The output formats are Unstable.

SEE ALSO

       madv.so.1(1), pmap(1), proc(1), madvise(3C), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.11							    25 Sep 2008 						       pmadvise(1)