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In Linux is it possible to start a process (e.g. with execve) and make it use a particular memory region as stack space?
Background:
I have a C++ program and a fast allocator that gives me "fast memory". I can use it for objects that make use of the heap and create them in fast memory. Fine. But I also have a lot of variable living on the stack. How can I make them use the fast memory as well?
Idea: Implement a "program wrapper" that allocates fast memory and then starts the actual main program, passing a pointer to the fast memory and the program uses it as stack. Is that possible?
[Update]
The pthread setup seems to work.
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Stack memory allocation takes place on contiguous blocks of memory. As this allocation occurs in the function called stack, it is commonly referred to it as a stack memory allocation. The compiler calculates how much memory to allocate for each type of variable specified in the program.
Stack: The role of stack memory includes storage of temporary data when handling function calls (normal stack PUSH and POP operations), storage for local variables, passing of parameters in function calls, saving of registers during exception sequences, etc.
A stack is a special area of computer's memory which stores temporary variables created by a function. In stack, variables are declared, stored and initialized during runtime. It is a temporary storage memory. When the computing task is complete, the memory of the variable will be automatically erased.
Because the data is added and removed in a last-in-first-out manner, stack-based memory allocation is very simple and typically much faster than heap-based memory allocation (also known as dynamic memory allocation) e.g. C's malloc .
With pthreads, you could use a secondary thread for your program logic, and set its stack address using pthread_attr_setstack():
NAME
pthread_attr_setstack, pthread_attr_getstack - set/get stack
attributes in thread attributes object
SYNOPSIS
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_attr_setstack(pthread_attr_t *attr,
void *stackaddr, size_t stacksize);
DESCRIPTION
The pthread_attr_setstack() function sets the stack address and
stack size attributes of the thread attributes object referred
to by attr to the values specified in stackaddr and stacksize,
respectively. These attributes specify the location and size
of the stack that should be used by a thread that is created
using the thread attributes object attr.
stackaddr should point to the lowest addressable byte of a buf‐
fer of stacksize bytes that was allocated by the caller. The
pages of the allocated buffer should be both readable and
writable.
What I don't follow is how you're expecting to get any performance improvements out of doing something like this (I assume the purpose of your "fast" memory is better performance).
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