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authorLi Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com>2009-01-15 13:50:59 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-01-15 16:39:37 -0800
commit45ce80fb6b6f9594d1396d44dd7e7c02d596fef8 (patch)
tree2409270f7073c08329ac01c82df0509a264af48c /Documentation/cpusets.txt
parent23964d2d02984d44aeb2d84d7ffb3359e728df43 (diff)
cgroups: consolidate cgroup documents
Move Documentation/cpusets.txt and Documentation/controllers/* to Documentation/cgroups/ Signed-off-by: Li Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com> Acked-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com> Acked-by: Balbir Singh <balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Acked-by: Paul Menage <menage@google.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
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- CPUSETS
- -------
-
-Copyright (C) 2004 BULL SA.
-Written by Simon.Derr@bull.net
-
-Portions Copyright (c) 2004-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
-Modified by Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com>
-Modified by Christoph Lameter <clameter@sgi.com>
-Modified by Paul Menage <menage@google.com>
-Modified by Hidetoshi Seto <seto.hidetoshi@jp.fujitsu.com>
-
-CONTENTS:
-=========
-
-1. Cpusets
- 1.1 What are cpusets ?
- 1.2 Why are cpusets needed ?
- 1.3 How are cpusets implemented ?
- 1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
- 1.5 What is memory_pressure ?
- 1.6 What is memory spread ?
- 1.7 What is sched_load_balance ?
- 1.8 What is sched_relax_domain_level ?
- 1.9 How do I use cpusets ?
-2. Usage Examples and Syntax
- 2.1 Basic Usage
- 2.2 Adding/removing cpus
- 2.3 Setting flags
- 2.4 Attaching processes
-3. Questions
-4. Contact
-
-1. Cpusets
-==========
-
-1.1 What are cpusets ?
-----------------------
-
-Cpusets provide a mechanism for assigning a set of CPUs and Memory
-Nodes to a set of tasks. In this document "Memory Node" refers to
-an on-line node that contains memory.
-
-Cpusets constrain the CPU and Memory placement of tasks to only
-the resources within a tasks current cpuset. They form a nested
-hierarchy visible in a virtual file system. These are the essential
-hooks, beyond what is already present, required to manage dynamic
-job placement on large systems.
-
-Cpusets use the generic cgroup subsystem described in
-Documentation/cgroups/cgroups.txt.
-
-Requests by a task, using the sched_setaffinity(2) system call to
-include CPUs in its CPU affinity mask, and using the mbind(2) and
-set_mempolicy(2) system calls to include Memory Nodes in its memory
-policy, are both filtered through that tasks cpuset, filtering out any
-CPUs or Memory Nodes not in that cpuset. The scheduler will not
-schedule a task on a CPU that is not allowed in its cpus_allowed
-vector, and the kernel page allocator will not allocate a page on a
-node that is not allowed in the requesting tasks mems_allowed vector.
-
-User level code may create and destroy cpusets by name in the cgroup
-virtual file system, manage the attributes and permissions of these
-cpusets and which CPUs and Memory Nodes are assigned to each cpuset,
-specify and query to which cpuset a task is assigned, and list the
-task pids assigned to a cpuset.
-
-
-1.2 Why are cpusets needed ?
-----------------------------
-
-The management of large computer systems, with many processors (CPUs),
-complex memory cache hierarchies and multiple Memory Nodes having
-non-uniform access times (NUMA) presents additional challenges for
-the efficient scheduling and memory placement of processes.
-
-Frequently more modest sized systems can be operated with adequate
-efficiency just by letting the operating system automatically share
-the available CPU and Memory resources amongst the requesting tasks.
-
-But larger systems, which benefit more from careful processor and
-memory placement to reduce memory access times and contention,
-and which typically represent a larger investment for the customer,
-can benefit from explicitly placing jobs on properly sized subsets of
-the system.
-
-This can be especially valuable on:
-
- * Web Servers running multiple instances of the same web application,
- * Servers running different applications (for instance, a web server
- and a database), or
- * NUMA systems running large HPC applications with demanding
- performance characteristics.
-
-These subsets, or "soft partitions" must be able to be dynamically
-adjusted, as the job mix changes, without impacting other concurrently
-executing jobs. The location of the running jobs pages may also be moved
-when the memory locations are changed.
-
-The kernel cpuset patch provides the minimum essential kernel
-mechanisms required to efficiently implement such subsets. It
-leverages existing CPU and Memory Placement facilities in the Linux
-kernel to avoid any additional impact on the critical scheduler or
-memory allocator code.
-
-
-1.3 How are cpusets implemented ?
----------------------------------
-
-Cpusets provide a Linux kernel mechanism to constrain which CPUs and
-Memory Nodes are used by a process or set of processes.
-
-The Linux kernel already has a pair of mechanisms to specify on which
-CPUs a task may be scheduled (sched_setaffinity) and on which Memory
-Nodes it may obtain memory (mbind, set_mempolicy).
-
-Cpusets extends these two mechanisms as follows:
-
- - Cpusets are sets of allowed CPUs and Memory Nodes, known to the
- kernel.
- - Each task in the system is attached to a cpuset, via a pointer
- in the task structure to a reference counted cgroup structure.
- - Calls to sched_setaffinity are filtered to just those CPUs
- allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- - Calls to mbind and set_mempolicy are filtered to just
- those Memory Nodes allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- - The root cpuset contains all the systems CPUs and Memory
- Nodes.
- - For any cpuset, one can define child cpusets containing a subset
- of the parents CPU and Memory Node resources.
- - The hierarchy of cpusets can be mounted at /dev/cpuset, for
- browsing and manipulation from user space.
- - A cpuset may be marked exclusive, which ensures that no other
- cpuset (except direct ancestors and descendents) may contain
- any overlapping CPUs or Memory Nodes.
- - You can list all the tasks (by pid) attached to any cpuset.
-
-The implementation of cpusets requires a few, simple hooks
-into the rest of the kernel, none in performance critical paths:
-
- - in init/main.c, to initialize the root cpuset at system boot.
- - in fork and exit, to attach and detach a task from its cpuset.
- - in sched_setaffinity, to mask the requested CPUs by what's
- allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- - in sched.c migrate_all_tasks(), to keep migrating tasks within
- the CPUs allowed by their cpuset, if possible.
- - in the mbind and set_mempolicy system calls, to mask the requested
- Memory Nodes by what's allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- - in page_alloc.c, to restrict memory to allowed nodes.
- - in vmscan.c, to restrict page recovery to the current cpuset.
-
-You should mount the "cgroup" filesystem type in order to enable
-browsing and modifying the cpusets presently known to the kernel. No
-new system calls are added for cpusets - all support for querying and
-modifying cpusets is via this cpuset file system.
-
-The /proc/<pid>/status file for each task has four added lines,
-displaying the tasks cpus_allowed (on which CPUs it may be scheduled)
-and mems_allowed (on which Memory Nodes it may obtain memory),
-in the two formats seen in the following example:
-
- Cpus_allowed: ffffffff,ffffffff,ffffffff,ffffffff
- Cpus_allowed_list: 0-127
- Mems_allowed: ffffffff,ffffffff
- Mems_allowed_list: 0-63
-
-Each cpuset is represented by a directory in the cgroup file system
-containing (on top of the standard cgroup files) the following
-files describing that cpuset:
-
- - cpus: list of CPUs in that cpuset
- - mems: list of Memory Nodes in that cpuset
- - memory_migrate flag: if set, move pages to cpusets nodes
- - cpu_exclusive flag: is cpu placement exclusive?
- - mem_exclusive flag: is memory placement exclusive?
- - mem_hardwall flag: is memory allocation hardwalled
- - memory_pressure: measure of how much paging pressure in cpuset
-
-In addition, the root cpuset only has the following file:
- - memory_pressure_enabled flag: compute memory_pressure?
-
-New cpusets are created using the mkdir system call or shell
-command. The properties of a cpuset, such as its flags, allowed
-CPUs and Memory Nodes, and attached tasks, are modified by writing
-to the appropriate file in that cpusets directory, as listed above.
-
-The named hierarchical structure of nested cpusets allows partitioning
-a large system into nested, dynamically changeable, "soft-partitions".
-
-The attachment of each task, automatically inherited at fork by any
-children of that task, to a cpuset allows organizing the work load
-on a system into related sets of tasks such that each set is constrained
-to using the CPUs and Memory Nodes of a particular cpuset. A task
-may be re-attached to any other cpuset, if allowed by the permissions
-on the necessary cpuset file system directories.
-
-Such management of a system "in the large" integrates smoothly with
-the detailed placement done on individual tasks and memory regions
-using the sched_setaffinity, mbind and set_mempolicy system calls.
-
-The following rules apply to each cpuset:
-
- - Its CPUs and Memory Nodes must be a subset of its parents.
- - It can't be marked exclusive unless its parent is.
- - If its cpu or memory is exclusive, they may not overlap any sibling.
-
-These rules, and the natural hierarchy of cpusets, enable efficient
-enforcement of the exclusive guarantee, without having to scan all
-cpusets every time any of them change to ensure nothing overlaps a
-exclusive cpuset. Also, the use of a Linux virtual file system (vfs)
-to represent the cpuset hierarchy provides for a familiar permission
-and name space for cpusets, with a minimum of additional kernel code.
-
-The cpus and mems files in the root (top_cpuset) cpuset are
-read-only. The cpus file automatically tracks the value of
-cpu_online_map using a CPU hotplug notifier, and the mems file
-automatically tracks the value of node_states[N_HIGH_MEMORY]--i.e.,
-nodes with memory--using the cpuset_track_online_nodes() hook.
-
-
-1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
---------------------------------
-
-If a cpuset is cpu or mem exclusive, no other cpuset, other than
-a direct ancestor or descendent, may share any of the same CPUs or
-Memory Nodes.
-
-A cpuset that is mem_exclusive *or* mem_hardwall is "hardwalled",
-i.e. it restricts kernel allocations for page, buffer and other data
-commonly shared by the kernel across multiple users. All cpusets,
-whether hardwalled or not, restrict allocations of memory for user
-space. This enables configuring a system so that several independent
-jobs can share common kernel data, such as file system pages, while
-isolating each job's user allocation in its own cpuset. To do this,
-construct a large mem_exclusive cpuset to hold all the jobs, and
-construct child, non-mem_exclusive cpusets for each individual job.
-Only a small amount of typical kernel memory, such as requests from
-interrupt handlers, is allowed to be taken outside even a
-mem_exclusive cpuset.
-
-
-1.5 What is memory_pressure ?
------------------------------
-The memory_pressure of a cpuset provides a simple per-cpuset metric
-of the rate that the tasks in a cpuset are attempting to free up in
-use memory on the nodes of the cpuset to satisfy additional memory
-requests.
-
-This enables batch managers monitoring jobs running in dedicated
-cpusets to efficiently detect what level of memory pressure that job
-is causing.
-
-This is useful both on tightly managed systems running a wide mix of
-submitted jobs, which may choose to terminate or re-prioritize jobs that
-are trying to use more memory than allowed on the nodes assigned them,
-and with tightly coupled, long running, massively parallel scientific
-computing jobs that will dramatically fail to meet required performance
-goals if they start to use more memory than allowed to them.
-
-This mechanism provides a very economical way for the batch manager
-to monitor a cpuset for signs of memory pressure. It's up to the
-batch manager or other user code to decide what to do about it and
-take action.
-
-==> Unless this feature is enabled by writing "1" to the special file
- /dev/cpuset/memory_pressure_enabled, the hook in the rebalance
- code of __alloc_pages() for this metric reduces to simply noticing
- that the cpuset_memory_pressure_enabled flag is zero. So only
- systems that enable this feature will compute the metric.
-
-Why a per-cpuset, running average:
-
- Because this meter is per-cpuset, rather than per-task or mm,
- the system load imposed by a batch scheduler monitoring this
- metric is sharply reduced on large systems, because a scan of
- the tasklist can be avoided on each set of queries.
-
- Because this meter is a running average, instead of an accumulating
- counter, a batch scheduler can detect memory pressure with a
- single read, instead of having to read and accumulate results
- for a period of time.
-
- Because this meter is per-cpuset rather than per-task or mm,
- the batch scheduler can obtain the key information, memory
- pressure in a cpuset, with a single read, rather than having to
- query and accumulate results over all the (dynamically changing)
- set of tasks in the cpuset.
-
-A per-cpuset simple digital filter (requires a spinlock and 3 words
-of data per-cpuset) is kept, and updated by any task attached to that
-cpuset, if it enters the synchronous (direct) page reclaim code.
-
-A per-cpuset file provides an integer number representing the recent
-(half-life of 10 seconds) rate of direct page reclaims caused by
-the tasks in the cpuset, in units of reclaims attempted per second,
-times 1000.
-
-
-1.6 What is memory spread ?
----------------------------
-There are two boolean flag files per cpuset that control where the
-kernel allocates pages for the file system buffers and related in
-kernel data structures. They are called 'memory_spread_page' and
-'memory_spread_slab'.
-
-If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_page' is set, then
-the kernel will spread the file system buffers (page cache) evenly
-over all the nodes that the faulting task is allowed to use, instead
-of preferring to put those pages on the node where the task is running.
-
-If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_slab' is set,
-then the kernel will spread some file system related slab caches,
-such as for inodes and dentries evenly over all the nodes that the
-faulting task is allowed to use, instead of preferring to put those
-pages on the node where the task is running.
-
-The setting of these flags does not affect anonymous data segment or
-stack segment pages of a task.
-
-By default, both kinds of memory spreading are off, and memory
-pages are allocated on the node local to where the task is running,
-except perhaps as modified by the tasks NUMA mempolicy or cpuset
-configuration, so long as sufficient free memory pages are available.
-
-When new cpusets are created, they inherit the memory spread settings
-of their parent.
-
-Setting memory spreading causes allocations for the affected page
-or slab caches to ignore the tasks NUMA mempolicy and be spread
-instead. Tasks using mbind() or set_mempolicy() calls to set NUMA
-mempolicies will not notice any change in these calls as a result of
-their containing tasks memory spread settings. If memory spreading
-is turned off, then the currently specified NUMA mempolicy once again
-applies to memory page allocations.
-
-Both 'memory_spread_page' and 'memory_spread_slab' are boolean flag
-files. By default they contain "0", meaning that the feature is off
-for that cpuset. If a "1" is written to that file, then that turns
-the named feature on.
-
-The implementation is simple.
-
-Setting the flag 'memory_spread_page' turns on a per-process flag
-PF_SPREAD_PAGE for each task that is in that cpuset or subsequently
-joins that cpuset. The page allocation calls for the page cache
-is modified to perform an inline check for this PF_SPREAD_PAGE task
-flag, and if set, a call to a new routine cpuset_mem_spread_node()
-returns the node to prefer for the allocation.
-
-Similarly, setting 'memory_spread_slab' turns on the flag
-PF_SPREAD_SLAB, and appropriately marked slab caches will allocate
-pages from the node returned by cpuset_mem_spread_node().
-
-The cpuset_mem_spread_node() routine is also simple. It uses the
-value of a per-task rotor cpuset_mem_spread_rotor to select the next
-node in the current tasks mems_allowed to prefer for the allocation.
-
-This memory placement policy is also known (in other contexts) as
-round-robin or interleave.
-
-This policy can provide substantial improvements for jobs that need
-to place thread local data on the corresponding node, but that need
-to access large file system data sets that need to be spread across
-the several nodes in the jobs cpuset in order to fit. Without this
-policy, especially for jobs that might have one thread reading in the
-data set, the memory allocation across the nodes in the jobs cpuset
-can become very uneven.
-
-1.7 What is sched_load_balance ?
---------------------------------
-
-The kernel scheduler (kernel/sched.c) automatically load balances
-tasks. If one CPU is underutilized, kernel code running on that
-CPU will look for tasks on other more overloaded CPUs and move those
-tasks to itself, within the constraints of such placement mechanisms
-as cpusets and sched_setaffinity.
-
-The algorithmic cost of load balancing and its impact on key shared
-kernel data structures such as the task list increases more than
-linearly with the number of CPUs being balanced. So the scheduler
-has support to partition the systems CPUs into a number of sched
-domains such that it only load balances within each sched domain.
-Each sched domain covers some subset of the CPUs in the system;
-no two sched domains overlap; some CPUs might not be in any sched
-domain and hence won't be load balanced.
-
-Put simply, it costs less to balance between two smaller sched domains
-than one big one, but doing so means that overloads in one of the
-two domains won't be load balanced to the other one.
-
-By default, there is one sched domain covering all CPUs, except those
-marked isolated using the kernel boot time "isolcpus=" argument.
-
-This default load balancing across all CPUs is not well suited for
-the following two situations:
- 1) On large systems, load balancing across many CPUs is expensive.
- If the system is managed using cpusets to place independent jobs
- on separate sets of CPUs, full load balancing is unnecessary.
- 2) Systems supporting realtime on some CPUs need to minimize
- system overhead on those CPUs, including avoiding task load
- balancing if that is not needed.
-
-When the per-cpuset flag "sched_load_balance" is enabled (the default
-setting), it requests that all the CPUs in that cpusets allowed 'cpus'
-be contained in a single sched domain, ensuring that load balancing
-can move a task (not otherwised pinned, as by sched_setaffinity)
-from any CPU in that cpuset to any other.
-
-When the per-cpuset flag "sched_load_balance" is disabled, then the
-scheduler will avoid load balancing across the CPUs in that cpuset,
---except-- in so far as is necessary because some overlapping cpuset
-has "sched_load_balance" enabled.
-
-So, for example, if the top cpuset has the flag "sched_load_balance"
-enabled, then the scheduler will have one sched domain covering all
-CPUs, and the setting of the "sched_load_balance" flag in any other
-cpusets won't matter, as we're already fully load balancing.
-
-Therefore in the above two situations, the top cpuset flag
-"sched_load_balance" should be disabled, and only some of the smaller,
-child cpusets have this flag enabled.
-
-When doing this, you don't usually want to leave any unpinned tasks in
-the top cpuset that might use non-trivial amounts of CPU, as such tasks
-may be artificially constrained to some subset of CPUs, depending on
-the particulars of this flag setting in descendent cpusets. Even if
-such a task could use spare CPU cycles in some other CPUs, the kernel
-scheduler might not consider the possibility of load balancing that
-task to that underused CPU.
-
-Of course, tasks pinned to a particular CPU can be left in a cpuset
-that disables "sched_load_balance" as those tasks aren't going anywhere
-else anyway.
-
-There is an impedance mismatch here, between cpusets and sched domains.
-Cpusets are hierarchical and nest. Sched domains are flat; they don't
-overlap and each CPU is in at most one sched domain.
-
-It is necessary for sched domains to be flat because load balancing
-across partially overlapping sets of CPUs would risk unstable dynamics
-that would be beyond our understanding. So if each of two partially
-overlapping cpusets enables the flag 'sched_load_balance', then we
-form a single sched domain that is a superset of both. We won't move
-a task to a CPU outside it cpuset, but the scheduler load balancing
-code might waste some compute cycles considering that possibility.
-
-This mismatch is why there is not a simple one-to-one relation
-between which cpusets have the flag "sched_load_balance" enabled,
-and the sched domain configuration. If a cpuset enables the flag, it
-will get balancing across all its CPUs, but if it disables the flag,
-it will only be assured of no load balancing if no other overlapping
-cpuset enables the flag.
-
-If two cpusets have partially overlapping 'cpus' allowed, and only
-one of them has this flag enabled, then the other may find its
-tasks only partially load balanced, just on the overlapping CPUs.
-This is just the general case of the top_cpuset example given a few
-paragraphs above. In the general case, as in the top cpuset case,
-don't leave tasks that might use non-trivial amounts of CPU in
-such partially load balanced cpusets, as they may be artificially
-constrained to some subset of the CPUs allowed to them, for lack of
-load balancing to the other CPUs.
-
-1.7.1 sched_load_balance implementation details.
-------------------------------------------------
-
-The per-cpuset flag 'sched_load_balance' defaults to enabled (contrary
-to most cpuset flags.) When enabled for a cpuset, the kernel will
-ensure that it can load balance across all the CPUs in that cpuset
-(makes sure that all the CPUs in the cpus_allowed of that cpuset are
-in the same sched domain.)
-
-If two overlapping cpusets both have 'sched_load_balance' enabled,
-then they will be (must be) both in the same sched domain.
-
-If, as is the default, the top cpuset has 'sched_load_balance' enabled,
-then by the above that means there is a single sched domain covering
-the whole system, regardless of any other cpuset settings.
-
-The kernel commits to user space that it will avoid load balancing
-where it can. It will pick as fine a granularity partition of sched
-domains as it can while still providing load balancing for any set
-of CPUs allowed to a cpuset having 'sched_load_balance' enabled.
-
-The internal kernel cpuset to scheduler interface passes from the
-cpuset code to the scheduler code a partition of the load balanced
-CPUs in the system. This partition is a set of subsets (represented
-as an array of cpumask_t) of CPUs, pairwise disjoint, that cover all
-the CPUs that must be load balanced.
-
-Whenever the 'sched_load_balance' flag changes, or CPUs come or go
-from a cpuset with this flag enabled, or a cpuset with this flag
-enabled is removed, the cpuset code builds a new such partition and
-passes it to the scheduler sched domain setup code, to have the sched
-domains rebuilt as necessary.
-
-This partition exactly defines what sched domains the scheduler should
-setup - one sched domain for each element (cpumask_t) in the partition.
-
-The scheduler remembers the currently active sched domain partitions.
-When the scheduler routine partition_sched_domains() is invoked from
-the cpuset code to update these sched domains, it compares the new
-partition requested with the current, and updates its sched domains,
-removing the old and adding the new, for each change.
-
-
-1.8 What is sched_relax_domain_level ?
---------------------------------------
-
-In sched domain, the scheduler migrates tasks in 2 ways; periodic load
-balance on tick, and at time of some schedule events.
-
-When a task is woken up, scheduler try to move the task on idle CPU.
-For example, if a task A running on CPU X activates another task B
-on the same CPU X, and if CPU Y is X's sibling and performing idle,
-then scheduler migrate task B to CPU Y so that task B can start on
-CPU Y without waiting task A on CPU X.
-
-And if a CPU run out of tasks in its runqueue, the CPU try to pull
-extra tasks from other busy CPUs to help them before it is going to
-be idle.
-
-Of course it takes some searching cost to find movable tasks and/or
-idle CPUs, the scheduler might not search all CPUs in the domain
-everytime. In fact, in some architectures, the searching ranges on
-events are limited in the same socket or node where the CPU locates,
-while the load balance on tick searchs all.
-
-For example, assume CPU Z is relatively far from CPU X. Even if CPU Z
-is idle while CPU X and the siblings are busy, scheduler can't migrate
-woken task B from X to Z since it is out of its searching range.
-As the result, task B on CPU X need to wait task A or wait load balance
-on the next tick. For some applications in special situation, waiting
-1 tick may be too long.
-
-The 'sched_relax_domain_level' file allows you to request changing
-this searching range as you like. This file takes int value which
-indicates size of searching range in levels ideally as follows,
-otherwise initial value -1 that indicates the cpuset has no request.
-
- -1 : no request. use system default or follow request of others.
- 0 : no search.
- 1 : search siblings (hyperthreads in a core).
- 2 : search cores in a package.
- 3 : search cpus in a node [= system wide on non-NUMA system]
- ( 4 : search nodes in a chunk of node [on NUMA system] )
- ( 5 : search system wide [on NUMA system] )
-
-The system default is architecture dependent. The system default
-can be changed using the relax_domain_level= boot parameter.
-
-This file is per-cpuset and affect the sched domain where the cpuset
-belongs to. Therefore if the flag 'sched_load_balance' of a cpuset
-is disabled, then 'sched_relax_domain_level' have no effect since
-there is no sched domain belonging the cpuset.
-
-If multiple cpusets are overlapping and hence they form a single sched
-domain, the largest value among those is used. Be careful, if one
-requests 0 and others are -1 then 0 is used.
-
-Note that modifying this file will have both good and bad effects,
-and whether it is acceptable or not will be depend on your situation.
-Don't modify this file if you are not sure.
-
-If your situation is:
- - The migration costs between each cpu can be assumed considerably
- small(for you) due to your special application's behavior or
- special hardware support for CPU cache etc.
- - The searching cost doesn't have impact(for you) or you can make
- the searching cost enough small by managing cpuset to compact etc.
- - The latency is required even it sacrifices cache hit rate etc.
-then increasing 'sched_relax_domain_level' would benefit you.
-
-
-1.9 How do I use cpusets ?
---------------------------
-
-In order to minimize the impact of cpusets on critical kernel
-code, such as the scheduler, and due to the fact that the kernel
-does not support one task updating the memory placement of another
-task directly, the impact on a task of changing its cpuset CPU
-or Memory Node placement, or of changing to which cpuset a task
-is attached, is subtle.
-
-If a cpuset has its Memory Nodes modified, then for each task attached
-to that cpuset, the next time that the kernel attempts to allocate
-a page of memory for that task, the kernel will notice the change
-in the tasks cpuset, and update its per-task memory placement to
-remain within the new cpusets memory placement. If the task was using
-mempolicy MPOL_BIND, and the nodes to which it was bound overlap with
-its new cpuset, then the task will continue to use whatever subset
-of MPOL_BIND nodes are still allowed in the new cpuset. If the task
-was using MPOL_BIND and now none of its MPOL_BIND nodes are allowed
-in the new cpuset, then the task will be essentially treated as if it
-was MPOL_BIND bound to the new cpuset (even though its numa placement,
-as queried by get_mempolicy(), doesn't change). If a task is moved
-from one cpuset to another, then the kernel will adjust the tasks
-memory placement, as above, the next time that the kernel attempts
-to allocate a page of memory for that task.
-
-If a cpuset has its 'cpus' modified, then each task in that cpuset
-will have its allowed CPU placement changed immediately. Similarly,
-if a tasks pid is written to a cpusets 'tasks' file, in either its
-current cpuset or another cpuset, then its allowed CPU placement is
-changed immediately. If such a task had been bound to some subset
-of its cpuset using the sched_setaffinity() call, the task will be
-allowed to run on any CPU allowed in its new cpuset, negating the
-affect of the prior sched_setaffinity() call.
-
-In summary, the memory placement of a task whose cpuset is changed is
-updated by the kernel, on the next allocation of a page for that task,
-but the processor placement is not updated, until that tasks pid is
-rewritten to the 'tasks' file of its cpuset. This is done to avoid
-impacting the scheduler code in the kernel with a check for changes
-in a tasks processor placement.
-
-Normally, once a page is allocated (given a physical page
-of main memory) then that page stays on whatever node it
-was allocated, so long as it remains allocated, even if the
-cpusets memory placement policy 'mems' subsequently changes.
-If the cpuset flag file 'memory_migrate' is set true, then when
-tasks are attached to that cpuset, any pages that task had
-allocated to it on nodes in its previous cpuset are migrated
-to the tasks new cpuset. The relative placement of the page within
-the cpuset is preserved during these migration operations if possible.
-For example if the page was on the second valid node of the prior cpuset
-then the page will be placed on the second valid node of the new cpuset.
-
-Also if 'memory_migrate' is set true, then if that cpusets
-'mems' file is modified, pages allocated to tasks in that
-cpuset, that were on nodes in the previous setting of 'mems',
-will be moved to nodes in the new setting of 'mems.'
-Pages that were not in the tasks prior cpuset, or in the cpusets
-prior 'mems' setting, will not be moved.
-
-There is an exception to the above. If hotplug functionality is used
-to remove all the CPUs that are currently assigned to a cpuset,
-then all the tasks in that cpuset will be moved to the nearest ancestor
-with non-empty cpus. But the moving of some (or all) tasks might fail if
-cpuset is bound with another cgroup subsystem which has some restrictions
-on task attaching. In this failing case, those tasks will stay
-in the original cpuset, and the kernel will automatically update
-their cpus_allowed to allow all online CPUs. When memory hotplug
-functionality for removing Memory Nodes is available, a similar exception
-is expected to apply there as well. In general, the kernel prefers to
-violate cpuset placement, over starving a task that has had all
-its allowed CPUs or Memory Nodes taken offline.
-
-There is a second exception to the above. GFP_ATOMIC requests are
-kernel internal allocations that must be satisfied, immediately.
-The kernel may drop some request, in rare cases even panic, if a
-GFP_ATOMIC alloc fails. If the request cannot be satisfied within
-the current tasks cpuset, then we relax the cpuset, and look for
-memory anywhere we can find it. It's better to violate the cpuset
-than stress the kernel.
-
-To start a new job that is to be contained within a cpuset, the steps are:
-
- 1) mkdir /dev/cpuset
- 2) mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
- 3) Create the new cpuset by doing mkdir's and write's (or echo's) in
- the /dev/cpuset virtual file system.
- 4) Start a task that will be the "founding father" of the new job.
- 5) Attach that task to the new cpuset by writing its pid to the
- /dev/cpuset tasks file for that cpuset.
- 6) fork, exec or clone the job tasks from this founding father task.
-
-For example, the following sequence of commands will setup a cpuset
-named "Charlie", containing just CPUs 2 and 3, and Memory Node 1,
-and then start a subshell 'sh' in that cpuset:
-
- mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
- cd /dev/cpuset
- mkdir Charlie
- cd Charlie
- /bin/echo 2-3 > cpus
- /bin/echo 1 > mems
- /bin/echo $$ > tasks
- sh
- # The subshell 'sh' is now running in cpuset Charlie
- # The next line should display '/Charlie'
- cat /proc/self/cpuset
-
-In the future, a C library interface to cpusets will likely be
-available. For now, the only way to query or modify cpusets is
-via the cpuset file system, using the various cd, mkdir, echo, cat,
-rmdir commands from the shell, or their equivalent from C.
-
-The sched_setaffinity calls can also be done at the shell prompt using
-SGI's runon or Robert Love's taskset. The mbind and set_mempolicy
-calls can be done at the shell prompt using the numactl command
-(part of Andi Kleen's numa package).
-
-2. Usage Examples and Syntax
-============================
-
-2.1 Basic Usage
----------------
-
-Creating, modifying, using the cpusets can be done through the cpuset
-virtual filesystem.
-
-To mount it, type:
-# mount -t cgroup -o cpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
-
-Then under /dev/cpuset you can find a tree that corresponds to the
-tree of the cpusets in the system. For instance, /dev/cpuset
-is the cpuset that holds the whole system.
-
-If you want to create a new cpuset under /dev/cpuset:
-# cd /dev/cpuset
-# mkdir my_cpuset
-
-Now you want to do something with this cpuset.
-# cd my_cpuset
-
-In this directory you can find several files:
-# ls
-cpu_exclusive memory_migrate mems tasks
-cpus memory_pressure notify_on_release
-mem_exclusive memory_spread_page sched_load_balance
-mem_hardwall memory_spread_slab sched_relax_domain_level
-
-Reading them will give you information about the state of this cpuset:
-the CPUs and Memory Nodes it can use, the processes that are using
-it, its properties. By writing to these files you can manipulate
-the cpuset.
-
-Set some flags:
-# /bin/echo 1 > cpu_exclusive
-
-Add some cpus:
-# /bin/echo 0-7 > cpus
-
-Add some mems:
-# /bin/echo 0-7 > mems
-
-Now attach your shell to this cpuset:
-# /bin/echo $$ > tasks
-
-You can also create cpusets inside your cpuset by using mkdir in this
-directory.
-# mkdir my_sub_cs
-
-To remove a cpuset, just use rmdir:
-# rmdir my_sub_cs
-This will fail if the cpuset is in use (has cpusets inside, or has
-processes attached).
-
-Note that for legacy reasons, the "cpuset" filesystem exists as a
-wrapper around the cgroup filesystem.
-
-The command
-
-mount -t cpuset X /dev/cpuset
-
-is equivalent to
-
-mount -t cgroup -ocpuset X /dev/cpuset
-echo "/sbin/cpuset_release_agent" > /dev/cpuset/release_agent
-
-2.2 Adding/removing cpus
-------------------------
-
-This is the syntax to use when writing in the cpus or mems files
-in cpuset directories:
-
-# /bin/echo 1-4 > cpus -> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
-# /bin/echo 1,2,3,4 > cpus -> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
-
-2.3 Setting flags
------------------
-
-The syntax is very simple:
-
-# /bin/echo 1 > cpu_exclusive -> set flag 'cpu_exclusive'
-# /bin/echo 0 > cpu_exclusive -> unset flag 'cpu_exclusive'
-
-2.4 Attaching processes
------------------------
-
-# /bin/echo PID > tasks
-
-Note that it is PID, not PIDs. You can only attach ONE task at a time.
-If you have several tasks to attach, you have to do it one after another:
-
-# /bin/echo PID1 > tasks
-# /bin/echo PID2 > tasks
- ...
-# /bin/echo PIDn > tasks
-
-
-3. Questions
-============
-
-Q: what's up with this '/bin/echo' ?
-A: bash's builtin 'echo' command does not check calls to write() against
- errors. If you use it in the cpuset file system, you won't be
- able to tell whether a command succeeded or failed.
-
-Q: When I attach processes, only the first of the line gets really attached !
-A: We can only return one error code per call to write(). So you should also
- put only ONE pid.
-
-4. Contact
-==========
-
-Web: http://www.bullopensource.org/cpuset