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59c06be3 1.\" Copyright (C) 2014 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
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2.\" and Copyright (C) 2014 Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
3.\" and Copyright (C) 2014 Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@gmail.com>
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4.\" Various pieces from the old sched_setscheduler(2) page
5.\" Copyright (C) Tom Bjorkholm, Markus Kuhn & David A. Wheeler 1996-1999
6.\" and Copyright (C) 2007 Carsten Emde <Carsten.Emde@osadl.org>
7.\" and Copyright (C) 2008 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
8.\"
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10.\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
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21.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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25.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
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29.\"
30.\" Worth looking at: http://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php
31.\"
b8efb414 32.TH SCHED 7 2016-10-08 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
59c06be3 33.SH NAME
cfd62fa2 34sched \- overview of CPU scheduling
59c06be3 35.SH DESCRIPTION
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36Since Linux 2.6.23, the default scheduler is CFS,
37the "Completely Fair Scheduler".
38The CFS scheduler replaced the earlier "O(1)" scheduler.
39.\"
b16695a3 40.SS API summary
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41Linux provides the following system calls for controlling
42the CPU scheduling behavior, policy, and priority of processes
43(or, more precisely, threads).
b16695a3 44.TP
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45.BR nice (2)
46Set a new nice value for the calling thread,
47and return the new nice value.
48.TP
49.BR getpriority (2)
50Return the nice value of a thread, a process group,
51or the set of threads owned by a specified user.
52.TP
53.BR setpriority (2)
54Set the nice value of a thread, a process group,
55or the set of threads owned by a specified user.
56.TP
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57.BR sched_setscheduler (2)
58Set the scheduling policy and parameters of a specified thread.
59.TP
60.BR sched_getscheduler (2)
61Return the scheduling policy of a specified thread.
62.TP
63.BR sched_setparam (2)
64Set the scheduling parameters of a specified thread.
65.TP
66.BR sched_getparam (2)
67Fetch the scheduling parameters of a specified thread.
68.TP
69.BR sched_get_priority_max (2)
275e3c16 70Return the maximum priority available in a specified scheduling policy.
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71.TP
72.BR sched_get_priority_min (2)
275e3c16 73Return the minimum priority available in a specified scheduling policy.
b16695a3 74.TP
5813ff92 75.BR sched_rr_get_interval (2)
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76Fetch the quantum used for threads that are scheduled under
77the "round-robin" scheduling policy.
78.TP
79.BR sched_yield (2)
80Cause the caller to relinquish the CPU,
81so that some other thread be executed.
82.TP
83.BR sched_setaffinity (2)
84(Linux-specific)
85Set the CPU affinity of a specified thread.
86.TP
87.BR sched_getaffinity (2)
88(Linux-specific)
91f5e870 89Get the CPU affinity of a specified thread.
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90.TP
91.BR sched_setattr (2)
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92Set the scheduling policy and parameters of a specified thread.
93This (Linux-specific) system call provides a superset of the functionality of
94.BR sched_setscheduler (2)
95and
96.BR sched_setparam (2).
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97.TP
98.BR sched_getattr (2)
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99Fetch the scheduling policy and parameters of a specified thread.
100This (Linux-specific) system call provides a superset of the functionality of
101.BR sched_getscheduler (2)
102and
103.BR sched_getparam (2).
b16695a3 104.\"
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105.SS Scheduling policies
106The scheduler is the kernel component that decides which runnable thread
107will be executed by the CPU next.
108Each thread has an associated scheduling policy and a \fIstatic\fP
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109scheduling priority,
110.IR sched_priority .
961df2a8 111The scheduler makes its decisions based on knowledge of the scheduling
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112policy and static priority of all threads on the system.
113
114For threads scheduled under one of the normal scheduling policies
115(\fBSCHED_OTHER\fP, \fBSCHED_IDLE\fP, \fBSCHED_BATCH\fP),
116\fIsched_priority\fP is not used in scheduling
117decisions (it must be specified as 0).
118
119Processes scheduled under one of the real-time policies
120(\fBSCHED_FIFO\fP, \fBSCHED_RR\fP) have a
121\fIsched_priority\fP value in the range 1 (low) to 99 (high).
122(As the numbers imply, real-time threads always have higher priority
123than normal threads.)
cc401eea 124Note well: POSIX.1 requires an implementation to support only a
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125minimum 32 distinct priority levels for the real-time policies,
126and some systems supply just this minimum.
127Portable programs should use
128.BR sched_get_priority_min (2)
129and
130.BR sched_get_priority_max (2)
131to find the range of priorities supported for a particular policy.
132
133Conceptually, the scheduler maintains a list of runnable
134threads for each possible \fIsched_priority\fP value.
135In order to determine which thread runs next, the scheduler looks for
136the nonempty list with the highest static priority and selects the
137thread at the head of this list.
138
139A thread's scheduling policy determines
140where it will be inserted into the list of threads
141with equal static priority and how it will move inside this list.
142
143All scheduling is preemptive: if a thread with a higher static
144priority becomes ready to run, the currently running thread
145will be preempted and
146returned to the wait list for its static priority level.
147The scheduling policy determines the
148ordering only within the list of runnable threads with equal static
149priority.
150.SS SCHED_FIFO: First in-first out scheduling
151\fBSCHED_FIFO\fP can be used only with static priorities higher than
1520, which means that when a \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP threads becomes runnable,
153it will always immediately preempt any currently running
154\fBSCHED_OTHER\fP, \fBSCHED_BATCH\fP, or \fBSCHED_IDLE\fP thread.
155\fBSCHED_FIFO\fP is a simple scheduling
156algorithm without time slicing.
157For threads scheduled under the
158\fBSCHED_FIFO\fP policy, the following rules apply:
159.IP * 3
160A \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP thread that has been preempted by another thread of
161higher priority will stay at the head of the list for its priority and
162will resume execution as soon as all threads of higher priority are
163blocked again.
164.IP *
165When a \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP thread becomes runnable, it
166will be inserted at the end of the list for its priority.
167.IP *
168A call to
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169.BR sched_setscheduler (2),
170.BR sched_setparam (2),
59c06be3 171or
4c2eb0c2 172.BR sched_setattr (2)
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173will put the
174\fBSCHED_FIFO\fP (or \fBSCHED_RR\fP) thread identified by
175\fIpid\fP at the start of the list if it was runnable.
176As a consequence, it may preempt the currently running thread if
177it has the same priority.
cc401eea 178(POSIX.1 specifies that the thread should go to the end
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179of the list.)
180.\" In 2.2.x and 2.4.x, the thread is placed at the front of the queue
181.\" In 2.0.x, the Right Thing happened: the thread went to the back -- MTK
182.IP *
183A thread calling
184.BR sched_yield (2)
185will be put at the end of the list.
186.PP
187No other events will move a thread
188scheduled under the \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP policy in the wait list of
189runnable threads with equal static priority.
190
191A \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP
192thread runs until either it is blocked by an I/O request, it is
193preempted by a higher priority thread, or it calls
194.BR sched_yield (2).
195.SS SCHED_RR: Round-robin scheduling
196\fBSCHED_RR\fP is a simple enhancement of \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP.
197Everything
198described above for \fBSCHED_FIFO\fP also applies to \fBSCHED_RR\fP,
199except that each thread is allowed to run only for a maximum time
200quantum.
201If a \fBSCHED_RR\fP thread has been running for a time
202period equal to or longer than the time quantum, it will be put at the
203end of the list for its priority.
204A \fBSCHED_RR\fP thread that has
205been preempted by a higher priority thread and subsequently resumes
206execution as a running thread will complete the unexpired portion of
207its round-robin time quantum.
208The length of the time quantum can be
209retrieved using
210.BR sched_rr_get_interval (2).
211.\" On Linux 2.4, the length of the RR interval is influenced
212.\" by the process nice value -- MTK
213.\"
7a0d1838 214.SS SCHED_DEADLINE: Sporadic task model deadline scheduling
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215Since version 3.14, Linux provides a deadline scheduling policy
216.RB ( SCHED_DEADLINE ).
217This policy is currently implemented using
218GEDF (Global Earliest Deadline First)
219in conjunction with CBS (Constant Bandwidth Server).
220To set and fetch this policy and associated attributes,
221one must use the Linux-specific
222.BR sched_setattr (2)
223and
224.BR sched_getattr (2)
225system calls.
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226
227A sporadic task is one that has a sequence of jobs, where each
91c98da6 228job is activated at most once per period.
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229Each job also has a
230.IR "relative deadline" ,
91c98da6 231before which it should finish execution, and a
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232.IR "computation time" ,
233which is the CPU time necessary for executing the job.
234The moment when a task wakes up
235because a new job has to be executed is called the
236.IR "arrival time"
237(also referred to as the request time or release time).
238The
239.IR "start time"
240is the time at which a task starts its execution.
241The
0da5e58a 242.I "absolute deadline"
9cc1fa25 243is thus obtained by adding the relative deadline to the arrival time.
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244
245The following diagram clarifies these terms:
246
91c98da6 247.in +4n
7a0d1838 248.nf
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249arrival/wakeup absolute deadline
250 | start time |
251 | | |
252 v v v
253-----x--------xooooooooooooooooo--------x--------x---
0756f58f 254 |<- comp. time ->|
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255 |<------- relative deadline ------>|
256 |<-------------- period ------------------->|
7a0d1838 257.fi
91c98da6 258.in
7a0d1838 259
9cc1fa25 260When setting a
91c98da6 261.B SCHED_DEADLINE
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262policy for a thread using
263.BR sched_setattr (2),
264one can specify three parameters:
265.IR Runtime ,
266.IR Deadline ,
267and
268.IR Period .
269These parameters do not necessarily correspond to the aforementioned terms:
270usual practice is to set Runtime to something bigger than the average
271computation time (or worst-case execution time for hard real-time tasks),
272Deadline to the relative deadline, and Period to the period of the task.
273Thus, for
274.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
275scheduling, we have:
7a0d1838 276
91c98da6 277.in +4n
7a0d1838 278.nf
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279arrival/wakeup absolute deadline
280 | start time |
281 | | |
282 v v v
283-----x--------xooooooooooooooooo--------x--------x---
284 |<-- Runtime ------->|
285 |<----------- Deadline ----------->|
286 |<-------------- Period ------------------->|
7a0d1838 287.fi
91c98da6 288.in
7a0d1838 289
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290The three deadline-scheduling parameters correspond to the
291.IR sched_runtime ,
292.IR sched_deadline ,
293and
294.IR sched_period
295fields of the
296.I sched_attr
297structure; see
298.BR sched_setattr (2).
a68beb35 299These fields express values in nanoseconds.
9cc1fa25 300.\" FIXME It looks as though specifying sched_period as 0 means
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301.\" "make sched_period the same as sched_deadline".
302.\" This needs to be documented.
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303If
304.IR sched_period
305is specified as 0, then it is made the same as
306.IR sched_deadline .
307
308The kernel requires that:
309
310 sched_runtime <= sched_deadline <= sched_period
311
312.\" See __checkparam_dl in kernel/sched/core.c
313In addition, under the current implementation,
314all of the parameter values must be at least 1024
315(i.e., just over one microsecond,
7bd7f43e 316which is the resolution of the implementation), and less than 2^63.
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317If any of these checks fails,
318.BR sched_setattr (2)
319fails with the error
320.BR EINVAL .
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321
322The CBS guarantees non-interference between tasks, by throttling
9cc1fa25 323threads that attempt to over-run their specified Runtime.
7a0d1838 324
9cc1fa25 325To ensure deadline scheduling guarantees,
0da5e58a 326the kernel must prevent situations where the set of
91c98da6 327.B SCHED_DEADLINE
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328threads is not feasible (schedulable) within the given constraints.
329The kernel thus performs an admittance test when setting or changing
91c98da6 330.B SCHED_DEADLINE
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331policy and attributes.
332This admission test calculates whether the change is feasible;
8e8cd193 333if it is not,
91c98da6 334.BR sched_setattr (2)
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335fails with the error
336.BR EBUSY .
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337
338For example, it is required (but not necessarily sufficient) for
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339the total utilization to be less than or equal to the total number of
340CPUs available, where, since each thread can maximally run for
341Runtime per Period, that thread's utilization is its
342Runtime divided by its Period.
7a0d1838 343
88e28f78 344In order to fulfill the guarantees that are made when
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345a thread is admitted to the
346.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
347policy,
91c98da6 348.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
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349threads are the highest priority (user controllable) threads in the
350system; if any
91c98da6 351.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
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352thread is runnable,
353it will preempt any thread scheduled under one of the other policies.
7a0d1838 354
9cc1fa25 355A call to
91c98da6 356.BR fork (2)
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357by a thread scheduled under the
358.B SCHED_DEADLINE
359policy will fail with the error
360.BR EAGAIN ,
361unless the thread has its reset-on-fork flag set (see below).
7a0d1838 362
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363A
364.B SCHED_DEADLINE
9cc1fa25 365thread that calls
91c98da6 366.BR sched_yield (2)
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367will yield the current job and wait for a new period to begin.
368.\"
369.\" FIXME Calling sched_getparam() on a SCHED_DEADLINE thread
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370.\" fails with EINVAL, but sched_getscheduler() succeeds.
371.\" Is that intended? (Why?)
91c98da6 372.\"
59c06be3 373.SS SCHED_OTHER: Default Linux time-sharing scheduling
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374\fBSCHED_OTHER\fP can be used at only static priority 0
375(i.e., threads under real-time policies always have priority over
376.B SCHED_OTHER
377processes).
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378\fBSCHED_OTHER\fP is the standard Linux time-sharing scheduler that is
379intended for all threads that do not require the special
380real-time mechanisms.
f677bcfb 381
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382The thread to run is chosen from the static
383priority 0 list based on a \fIdynamic\fP priority that is determined only
384inside this list.
2be50a32 385The dynamic priority is based on the nice value (see below)
927d0dfa 386and is increased for each time quantum the thread is ready to run,
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387but denied to run by the scheduler.
388This ensures fair progress among all \fBSCHED_OTHER\fP threads.
389.\"
45fcd0e2 390.SS The nice value
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391The nice value is a per-process attribute
392that can be used to influence the CPU scheduler to
393favor or disfavor a process in scheduling decisions.
394It affects the scheduling of
395.BR SCHED_OTHER
396and
397.BR SCHED_BATCH
398(see below)
399processes.
400According to POSIX.1, the threads in a process should share a nice value.
401However, on Linux, the nice value is a per-thread attribute:
402different threads in the same process may have different nice values.
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403The nice value can be modified using
404.BR nice (2),
405.BR setpriority (2),
406or
407.BR sched_setattr (2).
d145138e 408
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409The range of the nice value
410varies across UNIX systems.
411On modern Linux, the range is \-20 (high priority) to +19 (low priority).
412On some other systems, the range is \-20..20.
413Very early Linux kernels (Before Linux 2.0) had the range \-infinity..15.
414.\" Linux before 1.3.36 had \-infinity..15.
415.\" Since kernel 1.3.43, Linux has the range \-20..19.
416
417The degree to which the nice value affects the relative scheduling of
418.BR SCHED_OTHER
419processes likewise varies across UNIX systems and
420across Linux kernel versions.
421
422With the advent of the CFS scheduler in kernel 2.6.23,
423Linux adopted an algorithm that causes
424relative differences in nice values to have a much stronger effect.
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425In the current implementation, each unit of difference in the
426nice values of two processes results in a factor of 1.25
427in the degree to which the scheduler favors the higher priority process.
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428This causes very low nice values (+19) to truly provide little CPU
429to a process whenever there is any other
430higher priority load on the system,
431and makes high nice values (\-20) deliver most of the CPU to applications
432that require it (e.g., some audio applications).
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433
434On Linux, the
435.BR RLIMIT_NICE
436resource limit can be used to define a limit to which
437an unprivileged process's nice value can be raised; see
438.BR setrlimit (2)
439for details.
45fcd0e2 440.\"
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441.SS SCHED_BATCH: Scheduling batch processes
442(Since Linux 2.6.16.)
443\fBSCHED_BATCH\fP can be used only at static priority 0.
444This policy is similar to \fBSCHED_OTHER\fP in that it schedules
445the thread according to its dynamic priority
446(based on the nice value).
447The difference is that this policy
448will cause the scheduler to always assume
449that the thread is CPU-intensive.
450Consequently, the scheduler will apply a small scheduling
a1fa36af 451penalty with respect to wakeup behavior,
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452so that this thread is mildly disfavored in scheduling decisions.
453
454.\" The following paragraph is drawn largely from the text that
455.\" accompanied Ingo Molnar's patch for the implementation of
456.\" SCHED_BATCH.
457.\" commit b0a9499c3dd50d333e2aedb7e894873c58da3785
458This policy is useful for workloads that are noninteractive,
459but do not want to lower their nice value,
460and for workloads that want a deterministic scheduling policy without
461interactivity causing extra preemptions (between the workload's tasks).
462.\"
463.SS SCHED_IDLE: Scheduling very low priority jobs
464(Since Linux 2.6.23.)
465\fBSCHED_IDLE\fP can be used only at static priority 0;
466the process nice value has no influence for this policy.
467
468This policy is intended for running jobs at extremely low
469priority (lower even than a +19 nice value with the
470.B SCHED_OTHER
471or
472.B SCHED_BATCH
473policies).
474.\"
475.SS Resetting scheduling policy for child processes
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476Each thread has a reset-on-fork scheduling flag.
477When this flag is set, children created by
478.BR fork (2)
479do not inherit privileged scheduling policies.
480The reset-on-fork flag can be set by either:
481.IP * 3
482ORing the
59c06be3 483.B SCHED_RESET_ON_FORK
005eaa8f 484flag into the
59c06be3 485.I policy
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486argument when calling
487.BR sched_setscheduler (2)
488(since Linux 2.6.32);
489or
490.IP *
491specifying the
492.B SCHED_FLAG_RESET_ON_FORK
493flag in
494.IR attr.sched_flags
59c06be3 495when calling
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496.BR sched_setattr (2).
497.PP
498Note that the constants used with these two APIs have different names.
499The state of the reset-on-fork flag can analogously be retrieved using
500.BR sched_getscheduler (2)
501and
502.BR sched_getattr (2).
503
504The reset-on-fork feature is intended for media-playback applications,
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505and can be used to prevent applications evading the
506.BR RLIMIT_RTTIME
507resource limit (see
508.BR getrlimit (2))
509by creating multiple child processes.
510
005eaa8f 511More precisely, if the reset-on-fork flag is set,
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512the following rules apply for subsequently created children:
513.IP * 3
514If the calling thread has a scheduling policy of
515.B SCHED_FIFO
516or
517.BR SCHED_RR ,
518the policy is reset to
519.BR SCHED_OTHER
520in child processes.
521.IP *
522If the calling process has a negative nice value,
523the nice value is reset to zero in child processes.
524.PP
005eaa8f 525After the reset-on-fork flag has been enabled,
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526it can be reset only if the thread has the
527.BR CAP_SYS_NICE
528capability.
529This flag is disabled in child processes created by
530.BR fork (2).
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531.\"
532.SS Privileges and resource limits
533In Linux kernels before 2.6.12, only privileged
534.RB ( CAP_SYS_NICE )
535threads can set a nonzero static priority (i.e., set a real-time
536scheduling policy).
537The only change that an unprivileged thread can make is to set the
538.B SCHED_OTHER
759e1210 539policy, and this can be done only if the effective user ID of the caller
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540matches the real or effective user ID of the target thread
541(i.e., the thread specified by
542.IR pid )
543whose policy is being changed.
544
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545A thread must be privileged
546.RB ( CAP_SYS_NICE )
0da5e58a 547in order to set or modify a
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548.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
549policy.
550
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551Since Linux 2.6.12, the
552.B RLIMIT_RTPRIO
553resource limit defines a ceiling on an unprivileged thread's
554static priority for the
555.B SCHED_RR
556and
557.B SCHED_FIFO
558policies.
559The rules for changing scheduling policy and priority are as follows:
560.IP * 3
561If an unprivileged thread has a nonzero
562.B RLIMIT_RTPRIO
563soft limit, then it can change its scheduling policy and priority,
564subject to the restriction that the priority cannot be set to a
565value higher than the maximum of its current priority and its
566.B RLIMIT_RTPRIO
567soft limit.
568.IP *
569If the
570.B RLIMIT_RTPRIO
571soft limit is 0, then the only permitted changes are to lower the priority,
572or to switch to a non-real-time policy.
573.IP *
574Subject to the same rules,
575another unprivileged thread can also make these changes,
576as long as the effective user ID of the thread making the change
577matches the real or effective user ID of the target thread.
578.IP *
579Special rules apply for the
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580.BR SCHED_IDLE
581policy.
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582In Linux kernels before 2.6.39,
583an unprivileged thread operating under this policy cannot
584change its policy, regardless of the value of its
585.BR RLIMIT_RTPRIO
586resource limit.
587In Linux kernels since 2.6.39,
588.\" commit c02aa73b1d18e43cfd79c2f193b225e84ca497c8
589an unprivileged thread can switch to either the
590.BR SCHED_BATCH
591or the
85b6211a 592.BR SCHED_OTHER
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593policy so long as its nice value falls within the range permitted by its
594.BR RLIMIT_NICE
595resource limit (see
596.BR getrlimit (2)).
597.PP
598Privileged
599.RB ( CAP_SYS_NICE )
600threads ignore the
601.B RLIMIT_RTPRIO
602limit; as with older kernels,
603they can make arbitrary changes to scheduling policy and priority.
604See
605.BR getrlimit (2)
606for further information on
607.BR RLIMIT_RTPRIO .
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608.SS Limiting the CPU usage of real-time and deadline processes
609A nonblocking infinite loop in a thread scheduled under the
610.BR SCHED_FIFO ,
611.BR SCHED_RR ,
612or
613.BR SCHED_DEADLINE
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614policy can potentially block all other threads from accessing
615the CPU forever.
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616Prior to Linux 2.6.25, the only way of preventing a runaway real-time
617process from freezing the system was to run (at the console)
618a shell scheduled under a higher static priority than the tested application.
619This allows an emergency kill of tested
620real-time applications that do not block or terminate as expected.
621
622Since Linux 2.6.25, there are other techniques for dealing with runaway
623real-time and deadline processes.
624One of these is to use the
625.BR RLIMIT_RTTIME
626resource limit to set a ceiling on the CPU time that
627a real-time process may consume.
628See
629.BR getrlimit (2)
630for details.
631
632Since version 2.6.25, Linux also provides two
633.I /proc
634files that can be used to reserve a certain amount of CPU time
635to be used by non-real-time processes.
0b1ce085 636Reserving CPU time in this fashion allows some CPU time to be
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637allocated to (say) a root shell that can be used to kill a runaway process.
638Both of these files specify time values in microseconds:
639.TP
640.IR /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us
641This file specifies a scheduling period that is equivalent to
642100% CPU bandwidth.
643The value in this file can range from 1 to
644.BR INT_MAX ,
645giving an operating range of 1 microsecond to around 35 minutes.
646The default value in this file is 1,000,000 (1 second).
647.TP
648.IR /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us
649The value in this file specifies how much of the "period" time
650can be used by all real-time and deadline scheduled processes
651on the system.
652The value in this file can range from \-1 to
653.BR INT_MAX \-1.
654Specifying \-1 makes the runtime the same as the period;
655that is, no CPU time is set aside for non-real-time processes
656(which was the Linux behavior before kernel 2.6.25).
657The default value in this file is 950,000 (0.95 seconds),
658meaning that 5% of the CPU time is reserved for processes that
659don't run under a real-time or deadline scheduling policy.
660.PP
59c06be3 661.SS Response time
1154a064 662A blocked high priority thread waiting for I/O has a certain
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663response time before it is scheduled again.
664The device driver writer
665can greatly reduce this response time by using a "slow interrupt"
666interrupt handler.
667.\" as described in
668.\" .BR request_irq (9).
669.SS Miscellaneous
670Child processes inherit the scheduling policy and parameters across a
671.BR fork (2).
672The scheduling policy and parameters are preserved across
673.BR execve (2).
674
675Memory locking is usually needed for real-time processes to avoid
676paging delays; this can be done with
677.BR mlock (2)
678or
679.BR mlockall (2).
59c06be3 680.SH NOTES
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681The
682.BR cgroups (7)
683CPU controller can be used to limit the CPU consumption of
684groups of processes.
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685.PP
686Originally, Standard Linux was intended as a general-purpose operating
687system being able to handle background processes, interactive
688applications, and less demanding real-time applications (applications that
689need to usually meet timing deadlines).
690Although the Linux kernel 2.6
691allowed for kernel preemption and the newly introduced O(1) scheduler
692ensures that the time needed to schedule is fixed and deterministic
693irrespective of the number of active tasks, true real-time computing
694was not possible up to kernel version 2.6.17.
695.SS Real-time features in the mainline Linux kernel
696.\" FIXME . Probably this text will need some minor tweaking
84dd1325 697.\" ask Carsten Emde about this.
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698From kernel version 2.6.18 onward, however, Linux is gradually
699becoming equipped with real-time capabilities,
700most of which are derived from the former
701.I realtime-preempt
94875d76 702patch set.
59c06be3 703Until the patches have been completely merged into the
84dd1325 704mainline kernel,
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705they must be installed to achieve the best real-time performance.
706These patches are named:
707.in +4n
708.nf
709
710patch-\fIkernelversion\fP-rt\fIpatchversion\fP
711.fi
712.in
713.PP
714and can be downloaded from
715.UR http://www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/kernel\:/projects\:/rt/
716.UE .
717
718Without the patches and prior to their full inclusion into the mainline
719kernel, the kernel configuration offers only the three preemption classes
720.BR CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE ,
721.BR CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY ,
722and
723.B CONFIG_PREEMPT_DESKTOP
724which respectively provide no, some, and considerable
725reduction of the worst-case scheduling latency.
726
727With the patches applied or after their full inclusion into the mainline
728kernel, the additional configuration item
729.B CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
730becomes available.
731If this is selected, Linux is transformed into a regular
732real-time operating system.
759e1210 733The FIFO and RR scheduling policies are then used to run a thread
59c06be3 734with true real-time priority and a minimum worst-case scheduling latency.
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735.SH SEE ALSO
736.ad l
737.nh
738.BR chrt (1),
f19db853 739.BR taskset (1),
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740.BR getpriority (2),
741.BR mlock (2),
742.BR mlockall (2),
743.BR munlock (2),
744.BR munlockall (2),
745.BR nice (2),
746.BR sched_get_priority_max (2),
747.BR sched_get_priority_min (2),
748.BR sched_getaffinity (2),
749.BR sched_getparam (2),
584c8ee0 750.BR sched_getscheduler (2),
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751.BR sched_rr_get_interval (2),
752.BR sched_setaffinity (2),
753.BR sched_setparam (2),
584c8ee0 754.BR sched_setscheduler (2),
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755.BR sched_yield (2),
756.BR setpriority (2),
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757.BR pthread_getaffinity_np (3),
758.BR pthread_setaffinity_np (3),
759.BR sched_getcpu (3),
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760.BR capabilities (7),
761.BR cpuset (7)
762.ad
763.PP
764.I Programming for the real world \- POSIX.4
765by Bill O. Gallmeister, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., ISBN 1-56592-074-0.
766.PP
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767The Linux kernel source files
768.IR Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt ,
769.IR Documentation/scheduler/sched-rt-group.txt ,
458689ed 770.IR Documentation/scheduler/sched-design-CFS.txt ,
b963d0e3 771and
d630434e 772.IR Documentation/scheduler/sched-nice-design.txt