It is said that mmap() maps files to the memory, and it costs to the virtual address space memory of the calling process. Does it really copy data to the memory, or
mmap()
Copying does not imply that the original is destroyed.
It maps the contents of the disk into memory, so of course at some point the bits must be copied, yes.
And since this means it needs address space, that occupies part of the process' virtual address space.