METHOD TO AUTOMATICALLY INCREASE THE SEGMENT SIZE OF FILE IN A PAGE SEGMENTED VIRTUAL MEMORY DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM

摘要

A method for automatically extending the size of a segment in a page segmented virtual memory data processing system. The method increases the size of a segment in blocks of 64K virtual pages in response to the system detecting that the requested page has been protected. The conventional UNIX type System Calls create and open files in virtual memory. All pages are protected "read only" until a SHMAT type System Call is made to operate on a page at a specific address. At that point in the process, a protection exception is recognized by the system and the UNIX kernel takes control to remove the protection and update the appropriate data structures to reflect the new status of the page and the addresses in real memory where the page may be found. Segments containing mapped files are also extended by the method.