centos man page for alloc_vm_area

ALLOC_VM_AREA(9)					    Memory Management in Linux						  ALLOC_VM_AREA(9)

NAME
       alloc_vm_area - allocate a range of kernel address space

SYNOPSIS
       struct vm_struct * alloc_vm_area(size_t size, pte_t ** ptes);

ARGUMENTS
       size
	   size of the area

       ptes
	   returns the PTEs for the address space

RETURNS
       NULL on failure, vm_struct on success

       This function reserves a range of kernel address space, and allocates pagetables to map that range. No actual mappings are created.

       If ptes is non-NULL, pointers to the PTEs (in init_mm) allocated for the VM area are returned.

COPYRIGHT
Kernel Hackers Manual 3.10					     June 2014							  ALLOC_VM_AREA(9)