Demand-paged

[mikeshn]

I read article about Linux. Can someone explain to me what
"The kernel supports demand-paged, loaded executables" demand-paged means.

Thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

Give us a link so we can look at context. I dont know the answer though

 

[Nothinman]

The Linux kernel memory maps executables and shared libraries (via the same method as mmap()'d files), and it only loads parts into memory as they're needed for execution. This also makes freeing memory easier because the VM can just free the pages used by the binary, because they'll be reread into memory if they're needed again, no need to swap them out.

 

[mikeshn]

http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/node3.html#SECTION00300000000000000000

 

[Nothinman]

It's defined right after it's mentioned: The kernel supports demand-paged, loaded executables. Only those segments of a program which are actually in use are read into memory from disk