We've discussed a number of times of how some heap names are bad, but not really what makes a good heap name.

Let's document what we expect the heap names to look like.

Reviewed-by: Andrew Davis afd@ti.com Reviewed-by: Bagas Sanjaya bagasdotme@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Maxime Ripard mripard@kernel.org --- Changes in v4: - Dropped *all* the cacheable mentions - Link to v3: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250717-dma-buf-heap-names-doc-v3-1-d2dbb4b95ef6@...

Changes in v3: - Grammar, spelling fixes - Remove the cacheable / uncacheable name suggestion - Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250616-dma-buf-heap-names-doc-v2-1-8ae43174cdbf@...

Changes in v2: - Added justifications for each requirement / suggestions - Added a mention and example of buffer attributes - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250520-dma-buf-heap-names-doc-v1-1-ab31f74809ee@... --- Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-heaps.rst | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-heaps.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-heaps.rst index 535f49047ce6450796bf4380c989e109355efc05..1ced2720f929432661182f1a3a88aa1ff80bd6af 100644 --- a/Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-heaps.rst +++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/dma-buf-heaps.rst @@ -21,5 +21,40 @@ following heaps: usually created either through the kernel commandline through the `cma` parameter, a memory region Device-Tree node with the `linux,cma-default` property set, or through the `CMA_SIZE_MBYTES` or `CMA_SIZE_PERCENTAGE` Kconfig options. Depending on the platform, it might be called ``reserved``, ``linux,cma``, or ``default-pool``. + +Naming Convention +================= + +``dma-buf`` heaps name should meet a number of constraints: + +- The name must be stable, and must not change from one version to the other. + Userspace identifies heaps by their name, so if the names ever change, we + would be likely to introduce regressions. + +- The name must describe the memory region the heap will allocate from, and + must uniquely identify it in a given platform. Since userspace applications + use the heap name as the discriminant, it must be able to tell which heap it + wants to use reliably if there's multiple heaps. + +- The name must not mention implementation details, such as the allocator. The + heap driver will change over time, and implementation details when it was + introduced might not be relevant in the future. + +- The name should describe properties of the buffers that would be allocated. + Doing so will make heap identification easier for userspace. Such properties + are: + + - ``contiguous`` for physically contiguous buffers; + + - ``protected`` for encrypted buffers not accessible the OS; + +- The name may describe intended usage. Doing so will make heap identification + easier for userspace applications and users. + +For example, assuming a platform with a reserved memory region located +at the RAM address 0x42000000, intended to allocate video framebuffers, +physically contiguous, and backed by the CMA kernel allocator, good +names would be ``memory@42000000-contiguous`` or ``video@42000000``, but +``cma-video`` wouldn't.

--- base-commit: 038d61fd642278bab63ee8ef722c50d10ab01e8f change-id: 20250520-dma-buf-heap-names-doc-31261aa0cfe6

Best regards,