Lecture 12: Memory

What's in memory?

The address space of a process contains all the data that needs to be present for the process to execute:

address contents description
high kernel code to service traps, the processor needs to jump to the trap handler routine. This means the code must be present in memory at all times.
heap dynamically allocated memory (allocated using malloc or new). Typically placed at the top of the address space so that it can grow down into empty space
empty space for the heap to grow into
mapped files for the operating system to place special addresses, such as memory-mapped device addresses in a microkernel, or memory shared between processes
empty space for the stack to grow into
stack stores local variables; grows when a function is called
data stores global variables
low text the executable code

Linking

The process by which symbolic labels (such as function names or global variables) in assembly code become actual addresses in a program is called linking. Linking can happen at many places in the compilation process:

These libraries can be shared between applications by deferring linking until the programs are loaded.

On unix, the ldd command will print the list of shared libraries that will be linked with an executable when it is loaded.

$ ldd `which true`
    linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007ffc1e191000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd776925000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd776cea000)


$ ldd firefox
    linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007ffd5666e000)
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f45e1446000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f45e1242000)
    libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f45e0f3e000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f45e0c38000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f45e0873000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f45e1880000)
    libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f45e065d000)