Linux C中unsigned long与指针的关系

部分参考：https://www.cnblogs.com/dongguolei/p/7990892.html

    理论上来讲 我觉得数据类型的字节数应该是由CPU决定的，但是实际上主要由编译器决定(占多少位由编译器在编译期间说了算)。
常用数据类型对应字节数，可用如sizeof（char),sizeof(char*)等得出
32位编译器：
      char ：1个字节
      char*（即指针变量）: 4个字节（32位的寻址空间是2^32, 即32个bit，也就是4个字节。同理64位编译器就是8个字节）
      short int : 2个字节
      int：  4个字节
      unsigned int : 4个字节
      float:  4个字节
      double:   8个字节
      long:   4个字节
      long long:  8个字节
      unsigned long:  4个字节

64位编译器：
      char ：1个字节
      char*(即指针变量): 8个字节
      short int : 2个字节
      int：  4个字节
      unsigned int : 4个字节
      float:  4个字节
      double:   8个字节
      long:   8个字节
      long long:  8个字节
      unsigned long:  8个字节

unsigned long一般跟CPU的可寻址范围的字节长度是相等的，所以Linux内核中有很多代码都是用unsigned long来替代指针，用unsigned long表示的地址一般不允许引用该地址所在的内存，如果要强制引用或者访问这片内存，则需要在unsigned long前面加上强制指针转换 (char *)unsigned long。

如果我们只是关心这个地址的值，而不是通过这个地址去访问内存，Linux内核一般使用unsigned long代替指针。比如vm_area_struct中的vm_start和vm_end。

/*
 * This struct defines a memory VMM memory area. There is one of these
 * per VM-area/task.  A VM area is any part of the process virtual memory
 * space that has a special rule for the page-fault handlers (ie a shared
 * library, the executable area etc).
 */
struct vm_area_struct {
	/* The first cache line has the info for VMA tree walking. */

	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;

	struct rb_node vm_rb;

	/*
	 * Largest free memory gap in bytes to the left of this VMA.
	 * Either between this VMA and vma->vm_prev, or between one of the
	 * VMAs below us in the VMA rbtree and its ->vm_prev. This helps
	 * get_unmapped_area find a free area of the right size.
	 */
	unsigned long rb_subtree_gap;

	/* Second cache line starts here. */

	struct mm_struct *vm_mm;	/* The address space we belong to. */
	pgprot_t vm_page_prot;		/* Access permissions of this VMA. */
	unsigned long vm_flags;		/* Flags, see mm.h. */

	/*
	 * For areas with an address space and backing store,
	 * linkage into the address_space->i_mmap interval tree.
	 */
	struct {
		struct rb_node rb;
		unsigned long rb_subtree_last;
	} 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) */

#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
};