linux内存映射/内存区域/地址空间的概念

内存区域的结构函数：vm_area_struct,通常称为VMA，是指虚拟内存，在include/linux/mm_types.h定义

书上常说的内存区块，指的就是内存映射后的虚拟地址区块，内存映射如下面所述，是指从物理内存映射到虚拟内存

struct vm_area_struct {
	struct mm_struct * vm_mm;	/* The address space we belong to. */
	unsigned long vm_start;		/* Our start address within vm_mm. */
	unsigned long vm_end;		/* The first byte after our end address
					   within vm_mm. */

	/* linked list of VM areas per task, sorted by address */
	struct vm_area_struct *vm_next, *vm_prev;

	pgprot_t vm_page_prot;		/* Access permissions of this VMA. */
	unsigned long vm_flags;		/* Flags, see mm.h. */

	struct rb_node vm_rb;

	/*
	 * For areas with an address space and backing store,
	 * linkage into the address_space->i_mmap prio tree, or
	 * linkage to the list of like vmas hanging off its node, or
	 * linkage of vma in the address_space->i_mmap_nonlinear list.
	 */
	union {
		struct {
			struct list_head list;
			void *parent;	/* aligns with prio_tree_node parent */
			struct vm_area_struct *head;
		} vm_set;

		struct raw_prio_tree_node prio_tree_node;
	} shared;

	/*
	 * A file's MAP_PRIVATE vma can be in both i_mmap tree and anon_vma
	 * list, after a COW of one of the file pages.	A MAP_SHARED vma
	 * can only be in the i_mmap tree.  An anonymous MAP_PRIVATE, stack
	 * or brk vma (with NULL file) can only be in an anon_vma list.
	 */
	struct list_head anon_vma_chain; /* Serialized by mmap_sem &
					  * page_table_lock */
	struct anon_vma *anon_vma;	/* Serialized by page_table_lock */

	/* Function pointers to deal with this struct. */
	const struct vm_operations_struct *vm_ops;

	/* Information about our backing store: */
	unsigned long vm_pgoff;		/* Offset (within vm_file) in PAGE_SIZE
					   units, *not* PAGE_CACHE_SIZE */
	struct file * vm_file;		/* File we map to (can be NULL). */
	void * vm_private_data;		/* was vm_pte (shared mem) */
	unsigned long vm_truncate_count;/* truncate_count or restart_addr */

#ifndef CONFIG_MMU
	struct vm_region *vm_region;	/* NOMMU mapping region */
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
	struct mempolicy *vm_policy;	/* NUMA policy for the VMA */
#endif
};

内存描述符结构函数：mm_struct。在include/linux/mm_types.h

 struct mm_struct {
	struct vm_area_struct * mmap;		/* list of VMAs */
	struct rb_root mm_rb;
	struct vm_area_struct * mmap_cache;	/* last find_vma result */
#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
	unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area) (struct file *filp,
				unsigned long addr, unsigned long len,
				unsigned long pgoff, unsigned long flags);
	void (*unmap_area) (struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr);
#endif
	unsigned long mmap_base;		/* base of mmap area */
	unsigned long task_size;		/* size of task vm space */
	unsigned long cached_hole_size; 	/* if non-zero, the largest hole below free_area_cache */
	unsigned long free_area_cache;		/* first hole of size cached_hole_size or larger */
	pgd_t * pgd;
	atomic_t mm_users;			/* How many users with user space? */
	atomic_t mm_count;			/* How many references to "struct mm_struct" (users count as 1) */
	int map_count;				/* number of VMAs */
	struct rw_semaphore mmap_sem;
	spinlock_t page_table_lock;		/* Protects page tables and some counters */

	struct list_head mmlist;		/* List of maybe swapped mm's.	These are globally strung
						 * together off init_mm.mmlist, and are protected
						 * by mmlist_lock
						 */


	unsigned long hiwater_rss;	/* High-watermark of RSS usage */
	unsigned long hiwater_vm;	/* High-water virtual memory usage */

	unsigned long total_vm, locked_vm, shared_vm, exec_vm;
	unsigned long stack_vm, reserved_vm, def_flags, nr_ptes;
	unsigned long start_code, end_code, start_data, end_data;
	unsigned long start_brk, brk, start_stack;
	unsigned long arg_start, arg_end, env_start, env_end;

	unsigned long saved_auxv[AT_VECTOR_SIZE]; /* for /proc/PID/auxv */

	/*
	 * Special counters, in some configurations protected by the
	 * page_table_lock, in other configurations by being atomic.
	 */
	struct mm_rss_stat rss_stat;

	struct linux_binfmt *binfmt;

	cpumask_t cpu_vm_mask;

	/* Architecture-specific MM context */
	mm_context_t context;

	/* Swap token stuff */
	/*
	 * Last value of global fault stamp as seen by this process.
	 * In other words, this value gives an indication of how long
	 * it has been since this task got the token.
	 * Look at mm/thrash.c
	 */
	unsigned int faultstamp;
	unsigned int token_priority;
	unsigned int last_interval;

	unsigned long flags; /* Must use atomic bitops to access the bits */

	struct core_state *core_state; /* coredumping support */
#ifdef CONFIG_AIO
	spinlock_t		ioctx_lock;
	struct hlist_head	ioctx_list;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_MM_OWNER
	/*
	 * "owner" points to a task that is regarded as the canonical
	 * user/owner of this mm. All of the following must be true in
	 * order for it to be changed:
	 *
	 * current == mm->owner
	 * current->mm != mm
	 * new_owner->mm == mm
	 * new_owner->alloc_lock is held
	 */
	struct task_struct *owner;
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_PROC_FS
	/* store ref to file /proc/<pid>/exe symlink points to */
	struct file *exe_file;
	unsigned long num_exe_file_vmas;
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_MMU_NOTIFIER
	struct mmu_notifier_mm *mmu_notifier_mm;
#endif
};

以下参考http://blog.youkuaiyun.com/hongchangfirst/article/details/7076207

该结构体可以通过进程描述符来得到，比如current是当前进程的描述符，则current->mm是指向内存的指针。mm是指向struct mm_struct的指针。
若还想对Linux的进程描述符有一定了解，可以参考task_struct。

内存映射是要把硬件映射到虚拟内存，例如一个硬件设备，把它映射到虚拟内存/dev下面，然后访问。一开始我的疑问是它是虚拟内存映射到物理内存，还是反过来？这样看来，应该是物理内存映射到虚拟内存。