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.TH "__KMALLOC" 9 "August 2005" "Kernel Hackers Manual" "LINUX"
.SH NAME
__kmalloc \- allocate memory
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.ad l
.hy 0
.HP 21
void\ *\ \fB__kmalloc\ \fR\ (size_t\ \fIsize\fR, unsigned\ int\ __nocast\ \fIflags\fR);
.ad
.hy

.SH "ARGUMENTS"

.TP
\fIsize\fR
how many bytes of memory are required\&.

.TP
\fIflags\fR
the type of memory to allocate\&.

.SH "DESCRIPTION"

.PP
kmalloc is the normal method of allocating memory in the kernel\&.

.PP
The \fIflags\fR argument may be one of:

.PP
 \fBGFP_USER\fR \- Allocate memory on behalf of user\&. May sleep\&.

.PP
 \fBGFP_KERNEL\fR \- Allocate normal kernel ram\&. May sleep\&.

.PP
 \fBGFP_ATOMIC\fR \- Allocation will not sleep\&. Use inside interrupt handlers\&.

.PP
Additionally, the \fBGFP_DMA\fR flag may be set to indicate the memory must be suitable for DMA\&. This can mean different things on different platforms\&. For example, on i386, it means that the memory must come from the first 16MB\&.