[Xen-devel] [PATCHv2] docs: improve documentation for the the dom0_mem command line option

[David Vrabel <david.vrabel@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: David Vrabel <david.vrabel@xxxxxxxxxx>

Signed-off-by: David Vrabel <david.vrabel@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown |   35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 1 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown 
b/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
index beb8462..fb78afe 100644
--- a/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
+++ b/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ This document coveres the command line options which the Xen 
Hypervisor.
 
 Most parameters take the form `option=value`.  Different options on the 
command line should be space delimited.
 
-### Boolean
+### Boolean (`<boolean>`)
 
 All boolean option may be explicitly enabled using a `value` of
 > `yes`, `on`, `true`, `enable` or `1`
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ Disable x2apic support (if present)
 Enable synchronous console mode
 > `sync_console`
 
-### Integer
+### Integer (`<integer>`)
 
 An integer parameter will default to decimal and may be prefixed with a `-` 
for negative numbers.  Alternativly, a hexidecimal number may be used by 
prefixing the number with `0x`, or an octal number may be used if a leading `0` 
is present.
 
-### Size
+### Size (`<size>`)
 
 A size parameter may be any integer, with a size suffix
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ Increase the verbosity of the APIC code from the default 
value.
 ### ats
 ### availmem
 ### badpage
-> `= List of [ <integer> | <ingeter>-<integer> ]`
+> `= List of [ <integer> | <integer>-<integer> ]`
 
 Specify that certain pages, or certain ranges of pages contain bad bytes and 
should not be used.  For example, if your memory tester says that byte 
`0x12345678` is bad, you would place `badpage=0x12345` on Xen's command line.
 
@@ -219,13 +219,30 @@ Specifiy the maximum number of vcpus to give to dom0.  
This defaults to the numb
 Specify the total size for dom0.
 
 ### dom0\_mem (x86)
-> `= List of ( min:<value> | max: <value> | <value> )`
+> `= List of ( min:<size> | max:<size> | <size> )`
 
-each `<value>` is a size parameter.  If the size is positive, it represents an 
absolute value.  If the size is negative, the size specified is subtracted from 
the total available memory.
+Set the amount of memory for the initial domain (dom0). If a size is
+positive, it represents an absolute value.  If a size is negative, it
+is subtracted from the total available memory.
 
-* `min:<value>` specifies the minimum amount of memory allocated to dom0.
-* `max:<value>` specifies the maximum amount of memory allocated to dom0.
-* `<value>` specified the exact amount of memory allocated to dom0.
+* `<size>` specifies the exact amount of memory.
+* `min:<size>` specifies the minimum amount of memory.
+* `max:<size>` specifies the maximum amount of memory.
+
+If `<size>` is not specified, the default is all the available memory
+minus some reserve.  The reserve is 1/16 of the available memory or
+128 MB (whichever is smaller).
+
+The amount of memory will be at least the minimum but never more than
+the maximum (i.e., `max` overrides the `min` option).  If there isn't
+enough memory then as much as possible is allocated.
+
+`max:<size>` also sets the maximum reservation (the maximum amount of
+memory dom0 can balloon up to).  If this is omitted then the maximum
+reservation is unlimited.
+
+For example, to set dom0's initial memory allocation to 512MB but
+allow it to balloon up as far as 1GB use `dom0_mem=512M,max:1G`
 
 ### dom0\_shadow
 ### dom0\_vcpus\_pin
-- 
1.7.2.5


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