A method of managing memory mapped input/output (I/O) for a run-time
environment is disclosed, in which opaque references are used for
accessing information blocks included in files used in a dynamic run-time
environment. The information block is stored in a shared memory space of
pages that are each aligned on respective boundaries having addresses
that are each some multiple of two raised to an integer power. The opaque
reference used for the dynamic run-time environment includes at least an
index, or page number reference into a page map of references to the
pages of the shared memory space, and an offset value indicating an
offset into the referenced page for the beginning of the storage of the
information block. Control bits of the opaque reference indicate
information such as the mapping mode, e.g., read-only, read-write, or
private. Pages which are modified by a process may be written back to a
backing store of the file based on control bits which indicate that a
page has been modified.