[2022] CMU15-213/15-513 Introduction to Computer Systems - Malloc Lab: Writing a Dynamic Storage Allocator
15-213 / 15-513, Summer 2022
Malloc Lab: Writing a Dynamic Storage Allocator Assigned: June 17, 2022
1 Introduction
In this lab you will write a dynamic memory allocator which will consist of the malloc, free, realloc, and calloc functions. Your goal is to implement an allocator that is correct, efficient, and fast.
We strongly encourage you to start early. The total time you spend designing and debugging can easily eclipse the time you spend coding.
Bugs can be especially pernicious and difficult to track down in an allocator, and you will probably spend a significant amount of time debugging your code. Buggy code will not get any credit.
This lab has been heavily revised from previous versions. Do not rely on advice or information you may find on the Web or from people who have done this lab before. It will most likely be misleading or outright
Be sure to read all of the documentation carefully and especially study the baseline implementation wrong.
we have provided.
2 Logistics
This is an individual project. You should do this lab on one of the Shark machines.
To get your lab materials, click “Download Handout” on Autolab, enter your Andrew ID, and follow the
instructions. Then, clone your repository on a Shark machine by running:
$ git clone https://github.com/cmu15213-m22/malloclab-m22-513-<YOUR USERNAME>.git
or, if you use SSH keys,
$ git clone git@github.com:cmu15213-m22/malloclab-m22-513-<YOUR USERNAME>.git
The only file you will turn in is mm.c. All the code for your allocator must be in this file. The rest of the provided code allows you to evaluate your allocator. Using the command make will generate four driver programs: mdriver, mdriver-dbg, mdriver-emulate, and mdriver-uninit, as described in section 6. Your final autograded score is computed by driver.pl, as described in section 7.1.
To test your code for the checkpoint submission, run mdriver and/or driver.pl with the -C flag. To test your code for the final submission, run mdriver and/or driver.pl with no flags.
These commands will report accurate utilization numbers for your allocator. They will only report approximate throughput numbers. The Autolab servers will generate different throughput numbers, and the servers’ numbers will determine your actual score. This is discussed in more detail in Section 7.
3 Required Functions
Your allocator must implement the following functions. They are declared for you in mm.h and you will find starter definitions in mm.c. Note that you cannot alter mm.h in this lab.
bool mm_init(void);
void *malloc(size_t size);
void free(void *ptr);
void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size); void *calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size); bool mm_checkheap(int);
We provide you two versions of memory allocators:
mm.c: A fully-functional implicit-list allocator. We recommend that you use this code as your starting point. Note that the provided code does not implement block coalescing. The absence of this feature will cause external fragmentation to be very high, so you should implement coalescing. We strongly recommend considering all cases you need to implement before writing code for coalesce_block; the lecture slides should help you identify and reason about these cases.
mm-naive.c: A functional implementation that runs quickly but gets very poor utilization, because it never reuses any blocks of memory.
Your allocator must run correctly on a 64-bit machine. It must support a full 64-bit address space, even though current implementations of x86-64 machines support only a 48-bit address space.
Your submitted mm.c must implement the following functions:
bool mm_init(void): Performs any necessary initializations, such as allocating the initial heap area. The
return value should be false if there was a problem in performing the initialization, true otherwise. You must reinitialize all of your data structures each time this function is called, because the
drivers call your mm_init function every time they begin a new trace to reset to an empty heap.
void *malloc(size_t size): Returns a pointer to an allocated block payload of at least size bytes. The entire allocated block should lie within the heap region and should not overlap with any other allocated block.
Your malloc implementation must always return 16-byte aligned pointers, even if size is smaller than 16.
void free(void *ptr) : If ptr is NULL, does nothing. Otherwise, ptr must point to the beginning of a block payload returned by a previous call to malloc, calloc, or realloc and not already freed. This block is deallocated. Returns nothing.
void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size): Changes the size of a previously allocated block.
If size is nonzero and ptr is not NULL, allocates a new block with at least size bytes of payload, copies as much data from ptr into the new block as will fit (that is, copies the smaller of size, or the payload size of ptr, bytes), frees ptr, and returns the new block.
If size is nonzero but ptr is NULL, does the same thing as malloc(size). If size is zero, does the same thing as free(ptr) and then returns NULL.
Your realloc implementation will have only minimal impact on measured throughput or utilization. A correct, simple implementation will suffice.
void *calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size): Allocates memory for an array of nmemb elements of size bytes each, initializes the memory to all bytes zero, and returns a pointer to the allocated memory.
Your calloc implementation will have only minimal impact on measured throughput or utilization. A correct, simple implementation will suffice.
bool mm_checkheap(int line): Scans the entire heap and checks it for errors. This function is called the heap consistency checker, or simply heap checker.
A quality heap checker is essential for debugging your malloc implementation. Many malloc bugs are too subtle to debug using conventional gdb techniques. A heap consistency checker can help you isolate the specific operation that causes your heap to become inconsistent.
Because of the importance of the consistency checker, it will be graded, by hand; section 7.2 describes the requirements for your implementation in greater detail. We may also require you to write your heap checker before coming to office hours.
The mm_checkheap function takes a single integer argument that you can use any way you want. One technique is to use this argument to pass in the line number where it was called, using the __LINE__ macro:
mm_checkheap(__LINE__);
This allows you to print the line number where mm_checkheap was called, if you detect a problem with the heap.
The driver will sometimes call mm_checkheap; when it does this it will always pass an argument of 0.
The semantics of malloc, realloc, calloc, and free match the semantics of the functions with the same names in the C library. You can type man malloc in the shell for more documentation.
4 Support Routines
To satisfy allocation requests, dynamic memory allocators must themselves request memory from the operating system, using “primitive” system operations that are less flexible than malloc and free. In this lab, you will use a simulated version of one such primitive. It is implemented for you in memlib.c and declared in memlib.h.
void *mem_sbrk(intptr_t incr): Expands the heap by incr bytes, and returns a generic pointer to the first byte of the newly allocated heap area. If the heap cannot be made any larger, returns (void *)
-1. (Caution: this is different from returning NULL.)
Each time your mm_init function is called, the heap has just been reset to zero bytes long.
mem_sbrk cannot make the heap smaller; it will fail (returning (void *) -1) if size is negative.
(Data type intptr_t is defined to be a signed integer large enough to hold a pointer. On our machines it is the same size as size_t, but signed.)
This function is based on the Unix system call sbrk, but we have simplified it by removing the ability to make the heap smaller.
You can also use these helper functions, declared in memlib.h:
void *mem_heap_lo(void): Returns a generic pointer to the first valid byte in the heap.
void *mem_heap_hi(void): Returns a generic pointer to the last valid byte in the heap.
Caution: The definition of “last valid byte” may not be intuitive! If your heap is 8 bytes large, then the
last valid byte will be 7 bytes from the start—not an aligned address. size_t mem_heapsize(void): Returns the current size of the heap in bytes.
You can also use the following standard C library functions, but only these: memcpy, memset, printf, fprintf, and sprintf.
Your mm.c code may only call the externally-defined functions that are listed in this section. Otherwise, it must be completely self-contained.
Programming Rules
- Any allocator that attempts to detect which trace is running will receive a penalty of 20 points. On the other hand, you should feel free to write an adaptive allocator—one that dynamically tunes itself according to the general characteristics of the different traces.
- You may not change any of the interfaces in mm.h, or any of the other C source files and headers besides mm.c. (Autolab only processes your mm.c; it will not see changes you make to any other file.) However, we strongly encourage you to use static helper functions in mm.c to break up your code into small, easy-to-understand segments.
- You may not change the Makefile (again, Autolab will not see any changes you make there) and your code must compile with no warnings using the warnings flags we selected.
- You are not allowed to declare large global data structures such as large arrays, trees, or lists in mm.c. You are allowed to declare small global arrays, structs, and scalar variables, and you may have as much constant data (defined with the const qualifier) as you like. Specifically, you may declare no more than 128 bytes of writable global variables, total. This is checked automatically, as described in Section 7.1.4.
The reason for this restriction is that global variables are not accounted for when calculating your memory utilization. If you need a large data structure for some reason, you should allocate space for it within the heap, where it will count toward external fragmentation.
- Dynamic memory allocators cannot avoid doing operations that the C standard labels as “undefined behavior.” They need to treat the heap as a single huge array of bytes and reinterpret those bytes as different data types at different times. It is rarely appropriate to write code in this style, but in this lab it is necessary.
We ask you to minimize the amount of undefined behavior in your code. For example, instead of directly casting between pointer types, you should explicitly alias memory through the use of unions. Additionally, you should confine the pointer arithmetic to a few short helper functions, as we have tried to do in the handout code.
- In the provided baseline code, we use a zero-length array to declare a payload element in the block struct. This is a non-standard compiler extension, which, in general, we discourage the use of, but in this lab we feel it is better than any available alternative.
A zero-length array is not the same as a C99 “flexible array member;” it can be used in places where a flexible array member cannot. For example, a zero-length array can be a member of a union. Using zero-length arrays this way is our recommended strategy for declaring a block struct that might contain payload data, or might contain something else (such as free list pointers).
- The practice of using macros instead of function definitions is now obsolete. Modern compilers can perform inline substitution of small functions, eliminating the overhead of function calls. Use of inline functions provides better type checking and debugging support.
In this lab, you may only use #define to define constants (macros with no parameters) and debugging macros that are enabled or disabled at compile time. Debugging macros must have names that begin with the prefix “dbg_” and they must have no effect when the macro-constant DEBUG is not defined.
Here are some examples of allowed and disallowed macro definitions:
#define DEBUG 1 OK #define CHUNKSIZE (1<<12) OK #define WSIZE sizeof(uint64_t) OK #define dbg_printf(...) printf(__VA_ARGS__) OK #define GET(p) (*(unsigned int *)(p)) Not OK #define PACK(size, alloc) ((size)|(alloc)) Not OK
Defines a constant Defines a constant Defines a constant Debugging support Has parameters Has parameters
When you run make, it will run a program that checks for disallowed macro definitions in your code. This checker is overly strict—it cannot determine when a macro definition is embedded in a comment or in some part of the code that has been disabled by conditional-compilation directives. Nonetheless, your code must pass this checker without any warning messages.
• The code shown in the textbook (Section 9.9.12, and available from the CS:APP website) is a useful source of inspiration for the lab, but it does not meet the required coding standards. It does not handle 64-bit allocations, it makes extensive use of macros instead of functions, and it relies heavily on low- level pointer arithmetic. Similarly, the code shown in K&R does not satisfy the coding requirements. You should use the provided mm.c as your starting point.
• It is okay to look at any high-level descriptions of algorithms found in the textbook or elsewhere, but it is not acceptable to copy or look at any code of malloc implementations found online or in other sources, except for the allocators described in the textbook, in K&R, or as part of the provided code.
• It is okay to adapt code for useful generic data structures and algorithms (e.g. linked lists, hash tables, search trees, and priority queues) from any external source (e.g. K&R, Wikipedia, The Art of Computer Programming) as long as it was not already part of a memory allocator. You must include (as a comment) an attribution of the origins of any borrowed code.
• Your allocator must always return pointers that are aligned to 16-byte boundaries, even if the allocation is smaller than 16 bytes. The driver will check this requirement.
6 Driver Programs
Four driver programs are generated when you run make.
mdriver is used by Autolab to test your allocator’s correctness, utilization, and throughput on a standard set
of benchmark traces.
mdriver-emulate is used by Autolab to test your allocator with a heap spanning the entire 64-bit address space. In addition to the standard benchmark traces, it will run a set of giant traces that make very large allocation requests.
As the name implies, this test is an emulation: it does not actually allocate exabytes of memory. However, it verifies that your allocator could handle allocations that large, if the hardware permitted them. Failing the checks performed by mdriver-emulate leads to grade penalties, as described in section 7.1.4.
mdriver-dbg is for you to use when debugging your allocator. It is the same program as mdriver, with three notable differences:
- It is compiled with DEBUG defined, which enables the dbg_ macros at the top of mm.c. Without this defined, functions like dbg_printf and dbg_assert will not have any effect.
- It is compiled with optimization level -O0, which allows GDB to display more meaningful debugging information.
- It uses the AddressSanitizer instrumentation tool2 to detect several classes of errors that are easy to make when writing an allocator.
mdriver-uninit is also for you to use when debugging. It uses the MemorySanitizer instrumentation tool3 to detect uses of uninitialized memory.
mdriver-dbg, mdriver-emulate, and mdriver-uninit are much slower than mdriver, so they only report correctness and the utilization score for each trace. All four programs should report the same utilization scores for each trace that they all run (only mdriver-emulate runs the giant traces).
6.1 Trace files
The driver programs are controlled by a set of trace files that are included in the traces subdirectory. Each trace file contains a sequence of commands that instruct the driver to call your malloc, realloc, and free routines in some sequence. Autolab will use the same trace files to grade your work.
When the driver programs are run, they will process each trace file multiple times: once to make sure your implementation is correct, once to determine the space utilization, and between 3 and 20 more times to determine the throughput.
Some of the traces are short traces that are included mainly for detecting errors and debugging. Your utilization and performance scores on these traces do not count toward your grade. The traces that do count are marked with a ‘*’ in the output of mdriver.
6.2 Command-line arguments
The drivers accept the following command-line arguments.
-C: Apply the scoring standards for the checkpoint, rather than for the final submission.
-f tracefile: Only run the trace tracefile. Correctness, utilization, and performance are all tested.
-c tracefile: Only run the trace tracefile, and only test it for correctness. This still runs the trace twice, to verify that mm_init correctly resets your heap.
-v level: Set the verbosity level to the specified value. The level can be 0, 1, or 2; the default level is 1. Raising the verbosity level causes additional diagnostic information to be printed as each trace file is processed. This can help you determine which trace file is causing your allocator to fail.
-d level: Controls the amount of validity checking performed by the driver. This is separate from the DEBUG compile-time define.
At debug level 0, very little checking is done, which is useful when testing performance only.
At debug level 1, the driver checks allocation payloads to ensure that they are not overwritten by unrelated calls into your code. This is the default.
At debug level 2, the driver will also call your implementation of mm_checkheap after each operation. This mode is slow, but it can help identify the exact point at which an error occurs.
Additional arguments can be listed by running mdriver -h.
