1SCHED(7)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                  SCHED(7)
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NAME

6       sched - overview of CPU scheduling
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DESCRIPTION

9       Since  Linux 2.6.23, the default scheduler is CFS, the "Completely Fair
10       Scheduler".  The CFS scheduler replaced the earlier "O(1)" scheduler.
11
12   API summary
13       Linux provides the following  system  calls  for  controlling  the  CPU
14       scheduling  behavior,  policy, and priority of processes (or, more pre‐
15       cisely, threads).
16
17       nice(2)
18              Set a new nice value for the calling thread, and return the  new
19              nice value.
20
21       getpriority(2)
22              Return  the  nice value of a thread, a process group, or the set
23              of threads owned by a specified user.
24
25       setpriority(2)
26              Set the nice value of a thread, a process group, or the  set  of
27              threads owned by a specified user.
28
29       sched_setscheduler(2)
30              Set the scheduling policy and parameters of a specified thread.
31
32       sched_getscheduler(2)
33              Return the scheduling policy of a specified thread.
34
35       sched_setparam(2)
36              Set the scheduling parameters of a specified thread.
37
38       sched_getparam(2)
39              Fetch the scheduling parameters of a specified thread.
40
41       sched_get_priority_max(2)
42              Return  the maximum priority available in a specified scheduling
43              policy.
44
45       sched_get_priority_min(2)
46              Return the minimum priority available in a specified  scheduling
47              policy.
48
49       sched_rr_get_interval(2)
50              Fetch  the quantum used for threads that are scheduled under the
51              "round-robin" scheduling policy.
52
53       sched_yield(2)
54              Cause the caller to relinquish  the  CPU,  so  that  some  other
55              thread be executed.
56
57       sched_setaffinity(2)
58              (Linux-specific) Set the CPU affinity of a specified thread.
59
60       sched_getaffinity(2)
61              (Linux-specific) Get the CPU affinity of a specified thread.
62
63       sched_setattr(2)
64              Set  the scheduling policy and parameters of a specified thread.
65              This (Linux-specific) system call provides  a  superset  of  the
66              functionality of sched_setscheduler(2) and sched_setparam(2).
67
68       sched_getattr(2)
69              Fetch  the  scheduling  policy  and  parameters  of  a specified
70              thread.  This (Linux-specific) system call provides  a  superset
71              of  the  functionality  of  sched_getscheduler(2) and sched_get‐
72              param(2).
73
74   Scheduling policies
75       The scheduler is the  kernel  component  that  decides  which  runnable
76       thread will be executed by the CPU next.  Each thread has an associated
77       scheduling policy and a  static  scheduling  priority,  sched_priority.
78       The  scheduler makes its decisions based on knowledge of the scheduling
79       policy and static priority of all threads on the system.
80
81       For threads scheduled under  one  of  the  normal  scheduling  policies
82       (SCHED_OTHER,  SCHED_IDLE,  SCHED_BATCH), sched_priority is not used in
83       scheduling decisions (it must be specified as 0).
84
85       Processes scheduled under one of the  real-time  policies  (SCHED_FIFO,
86       SCHED_RR)  have  a  sched_priority  value  in  the  range 1 (low) to 99
87       (high).  (As the numbers imply, real-time threads  always  have  higher
88       priority  than  normal threads.)  Note well: POSIX.1 requires an imple‐
89       mentation to support only a minimum 32 distinct priority levels for the
90       real-time  policies, and some systems supply just this minimum.  Porta‐
91       ble programs should use sched_get_priority_min(2) and  sched_get_prior‐
92       ity_max(2)  to  find the range of priorities supported for a particular
93       policy.
94
95       Conceptually, the scheduler maintains a list of  runnable  threads  for
96       each possible sched_priority value.  In order to determine which thread
97       runs next, the scheduler looks for the nonempty list with  the  highest
98       static priority and selects the thread at the head of this list.
99
100       A  thread's scheduling policy determines where it will be inserted into
101       the list of threads with equal static priority and  how  it  will  move
102       inside this list.
103
104       All scheduling is preemptive: if a thread with a higher static priority
105       becomes ready to run, the currently running thread  will  be  preempted
106       and  returned  to  the  wait  list  for its static priority level.  The
107       scheduling policy determines the  ordering  only  within  the  list  of
108       runnable threads with equal static priority.
109
110   SCHED_FIFO: First in-first out scheduling
111       SCHED_FIFO can be used only with static priorities higher than 0, which
112       means that when a SCHED_FIFO threads becomes runnable, it  will  always
113       immediately  preempt any currently running SCHED_OTHER, SCHED_BATCH, or
114       SCHED_IDLE thread.  SCHED_FIFO is a simple scheduling algorithm without
115       time  slicing.   For threads scheduled under the SCHED_FIFO policy, the
116       following rules apply:
117
118       1) A running SCHED_FIFO thread  that  has  been  preempted  by  another
119          thread  of higher priority will stay at the head of the list for its
120          priority and will resume execution as soon as all threads of  higher
121          priority are blocked again.
122
123       2) When  a  blocked  SCHED_FIFO  thread  becomes  runnable,  it will be
124          inserted at the end of the list for its priority.
125
126       3) If   a    call    to    sched_setscheduler(2),    sched_setparam(2),
127          sched_setattr(2),   pthread_setschedparam(3),  or  pthread_setsched‐
128          prio(3) changes the priority of the running or  runnable  SCHED_FIFO
129          thread  identified by pid the effect on the thread's position in the
130          list depends on the direction of the change to threads priority:
131
132          ·  If the thread's priority is raised, it is placed at  the  end  of
133             the  list for its new priority.  As a consequence, it may preempt
134             a currently running thread with the same priority.
135
136          ·  If the thread's priority is unchanged, its position  in  the  run
137             list is unchanged.
138
139          ·  If the thread's priority is lowered, it is placed at the front of
140             the list for its new priority.
141
142          According to POSIX.1-2008, changes to a thread's priority  (or  pol‐
143          icy)  using  any mechanism other than pthread_setschedprio(3) should
144          result in the thread being placed at the end of  the  list  for  its
145          priority.
146
147       4) A thread calling sched_yield(2) will be put at the end of the list.
148
149       No  other events will move a thread scheduled under the SCHED_FIFO pol‐
150       icy in the wait list of runnable threads with equal static priority.
151
152       A SCHED_FIFO thread runs until either it is blocked by an I/O  request,
153       it   is   preempted   by   a   higher  priority  thread,  or  it  calls
154       sched_yield(2).
155
156   SCHED_RR: Round-robin scheduling
157       SCHED_RR is a simple enhancement of SCHED_FIFO.   Everything  described
158       above  for SCHED_FIFO also applies to SCHED_RR, except that each thread
159       is allowed to run only for a  maximum  time  quantum.   If  a  SCHED_RR
160       thread  has  been running for a time period equal to or longer than the
161       time quantum, it will be put at the end of the list for  its  priority.
162       A  SCHED_RR  thread that has been preempted by a higher priority thread
163       and subsequently resumes execution as a running  thread  will  complete
164       the  unexpired  portion of its round-robin time quantum.  The length of
165       the time quantum can be retrieved using sched_rr_get_interval(2).
166
167   SCHED_DEADLINE: Sporadic task model deadline scheduling
168       Since  version  3.14,  Linux  provides  a  deadline  scheduling  policy
169       (SCHED_DEADLINE).   This  policy  is  currently  implemented using GEDF
170       (Global Earliest Deadline First)  in  conjunction  with  CBS  (Constant
171       Bandwidth  Server).   To  set  and  fetch  this  policy  and associated
172       attributes,  one  must  use  the  Linux-specific  sched_setattr(2)  and
173       sched_getattr(2) system calls.
174
175       A  sporadic  task is one that has a sequence of jobs, where each job is
176       activated at most once per period.  Each job also has a relative  dead‐
177       line,  before which it should finish execution, and a computation time,
178       which is the CPU time necessary for executing the job.  The moment when
179       a  task  wakes  up  because  a new job has to be executed is called the
180       arrival time (also referred to as the request time  or  release  time).
181       The  start  time is the time at which a task starts its execution.  The
182       absolute deadline is thus obtained by adding the relative  deadline  to
183       the arrival time.
184
185       The following diagram clarifies these terms:
186
187           arrival/wakeup                    absolute deadline
188                |    start time                    |
189                |        |                         |
190                v        v                         v
191           -----x--------xooooooooooooooooo--------x--------x---
192                         |<- comp. time ->|
193                |<------- relative deadline ------>|
194                |<-------------- period ------------------->|
195
196       When   setting   a   SCHED_DEADLINE   policy   for   a   thread   using
197       sched_setattr(2), one can specify three parameters: Runtime,  Deadline,
198       and  Period.   These  parameters  do  not necessarily correspond to the
199       aforementioned terms: usual practice is to  set  Runtime  to  something
200       bigger  than the average computation time (or worst-case execution time
201       for hard real-time tasks),  Deadline  to  the  relative  deadline,  and
202       Period to the period of the task.  Thus, for SCHED_DEADLINE scheduling,
203       we have:
204
205           arrival/wakeup                    absolute deadline
206                |    start time                    |
207                |        |                         |
208                v        v                         v
209           -----x--------xooooooooooooooooo--------x--------x---
210                         |<-- Runtime ------->|
211                |<----------- Deadline ----------->|
212                |<-------------- Period ------------------->|
213
214       The three deadline-scheduling parameters correspond to  the  sched_run‐
215       time,  sched_deadline, and sched_period fields of the sched_attr struc‐
216       ture; see sched_setattr(2).  These fields express  values  in  nanosec‐
217       onds.   If  sched_period is specified as 0, then it is made the same as
218       sched_deadline.
219
220       The kernel requires that:
221
222           sched_runtime <= sched_deadline <= sched_period
223
224       In addition, under the current implementation,  all  of  the  parameter
225       values must be at least 1024 (i.e., just over one microsecond, which is
226       the resolution of the implementation), and less than 2^63.  If  any  of
227       these checks fails, sched_setattr(2) fails with the error EINVAL.
228
229       The  CBS  guarantees  non-interference  between  tasks,  by  throttling
230       threads that attempt to over-run their specified Runtime.
231
232       To ensure deadline scheduling guarantees, the kernel must prevent situ‐
233       ations where the set of SCHED_DEADLINE threads is not feasible (schedu‐
234       lable) within the given  constraints.   The  kernel  thus  performs  an
235       admittance  test  when  setting  or  changing SCHED_DEADLINE policy and
236       attributes.  This admission test calculates whether the change is  fea‐
237       sible; if it is not, sched_setattr(2) fails with the error EBUSY.
238
239       For  example,  it  is required (but not necessarily sufficient) for the
240       total utilization to be less than or equal to the total number of  CPUs
241       available,  where,  since each thread can maximally run for Runtime per
242       Period, that thread's utilization is its Runtime divided by its Period.
243
244       In order to fulfill the guarantees that  are  made  when  a  thread  is
245       admitted  to  the SCHED_DEADLINE policy, SCHED_DEADLINE threads are the
246       highest priority (user controllable) threads  in  the  system;  if  any
247       SCHED_DEADLINE thread is runnable, it will preempt any thread scheduled
248       under one of the other policies.
249
250       A call to fork(2) by a thread scheduled under the SCHED_DEADLINE policy
251       fails  with  the  error EAGAIN, unless the thread has its reset-on-fork
252       flag set (see below).
253
254       A SCHED_DEADLINE thread that calls sched_yield(2) will yield  the  cur‐
255       rent job and wait for a new period to begin.
256
257   SCHED_OTHER: Default Linux time-sharing scheduling
258       SCHED_OTHER  can be used at only static priority 0 (i.e., threads under
259       real-time policies always have priority  over  SCHED_OTHER  processes).
260       SCHED_OTHER  is  the  standard  Linux  time-sharing  scheduler  that is
261       intended for all threads that do  not  require  the  special  real-time
262       mechanisms.
263
264       The  thread to run is chosen from the static priority 0 list based on a
265       dynamic priority that is determined only inside this list.  The dynamic
266       priority  is  based  on the nice value (see below) and is increased for
267       each time quantum the thread is ready to run, but denied to run by  the
268       scheduler.  This ensures fair progress among all SCHED_OTHER threads.
269
270   The nice value
271       The  nice  value  is an attribute that can be used to influence the CPU
272       scheduler to favor or disfavor a process in scheduling  decisions.   It
273       affects  the scheduling of SCHED_OTHER and SCHED_BATCH (see below) pro‐
274       cesses.  The nice value can be modified using nice(2),  setpriority(2),
275       or sched_setattr(2).
276
277       According  to  POSIX.1, the nice value is a per-process attribute; that
278       is, the threads in a process should share a nice  value.   However,  on
279       Linux,  the  nice value is a per-thread attribute: different threads in
280       the same process may have different nice values.
281
282       The range of the nice value varies  across  UNIX  systems.   On  modern
283       Linux, the range is -20 (high priority) to +19 (low priority).  On some
284       other systems, the range is -20..20.  Very early Linux kernels  (Before
285       Linux 2.0) had the range -infinity..15.
286
287       The  degree  to which the nice value affects the relative scheduling of
288       SCHED_OTHER processes likewise varies across UNIX  systems  and  across
289       Linux kernel versions.
290
291       With the advent of the CFS scheduler in kernel 2.6.23, Linux adopted an
292       algorithm that causes relative differences in nice  values  to  have  a
293       much stronger effect.  In the current implementation, each unit of dif‐
294       ference in the nice values of two processes results in a factor of 1.25
295       in  the  degree  to  which  the  scheduler  favors  the higher priority
296       process.  This causes very low nice values (+19) to truly provide  lit‐
297       tle  CPU  to a process whenever there is any other higher priority load
298       on the system, and makes high nice values (-20) deliver most of the CPU
299       to applications that require it (e.g., some audio applications).
300
301       On  Linux, the RLIMIT_NICE resource limit can be used to define a limit
302       to which an unprivileged process's nice value can be raised; see  setr‐
303       limit(2) for details.
304
305       For further details on the nice value, see the subsections on the auto‐
306       group feature and group scheduling, below.
307
308   SCHED_BATCH: Scheduling batch processes
309       (Since Linux 2.6.16.)  SCHED_BATCH can be used only at static  priority
310       0.   This  policy  is  similar  to SCHED_OTHER in that it schedules the
311       thread according to its dynamic priority (based  on  the  nice  value).
312       The  difference  is that this policy will cause the scheduler to always
313       assume that the thread is CPU-intensive.  Consequently,  the  scheduler
314       will  apply a small scheduling penalty with respect to wakeup behavior,
315       so that this thread is mildly disfavored in scheduling decisions.
316
317       This policy is useful for workloads that are noninteractive, but do not
318       want to lower their nice value, and for workloads that want a determin‐
319       istic scheduling policy without interactivity causing extra preemptions
320       (between the workload's tasks).
321
322   SCHED_IDLE: Scheduling very low priority jobs
323       (Since  Linux  2.6.23.)  SCHED_IDLE can be used only at static priority
324       0; the process nice value has no influence for this policy.
325
326       This policy is intended for running  jobs  at  extremely  low  priority
327       (lower  even  than a +19 nice value with the SCHED_OTHER or SCHED_BATCH
328       policies).
329
330   Resetting scheduling policy for child processes
331       Each thread has a reset-on-fork scheduling flag.   When  this  flag  is
332       set,  children  created by fork(2) do not inherit privileged scheduling
333       policies.  The reset-on-fork flag can be set by either:
334
335       *  ORing the SCHED_RESET_ON_FORK flag into  the  policy  argument  when
336          calling sched_setscheduler(2) (since Linux 2.6.32); or
337
338       *  specifying  the  SCHED_FLAG_RESET_ON_FORK  flag  in attr.sched_flags
339          when calling sched_setattr(2).
340
341       Note that the constants used with these two APIs have different  names.
342       The  state of the reset-on-fork flag can analogously be retrieved using
343       sched_getscheduler(2) and sched_getattr(2).
344
345       The reset-on-fork feature is intended for media-playback  applications,
346       and  can  be  used  to  prevent  applications evading the RLIMIT_RTTIME
347       resource limit (see getrlimit(2)) by creating multiple child processes.
348
349       More precisely, if the reset-on-fork flag is set, the  following  rules
350       apply for subsequently created children:
351
352       *  If  the  calling  thread  has  a  scheduling policy of SCHED_FIFO or
353          SCHED_RR, the policy is reset to SCHED_OTHER in child processes.
354
355       *  If the calling process has a negative nice value, the nice value  is
356          reset to zero in child processes.
357
358       After  the reset-on-fork flag has been enabled, it can be reset only if
359       the thread has the CAP_SYS_NICE capability.  This flag is  disabled  in
360       child processes created by fork(2).
361
362   Privileges and resource limits
363       In  Linux kernels before 2.6.12, only privileged (CAP_SYS_NICE) threads
364       can set a nonzero static priority (i.e.,  set  a  real-time  scheduling
365       policy).   The  only  change that an unprivileged thread can make is to
366       set the SCHED_OTHER policy, and this can be done only if the  effective
367       user ID of the caller matches the real or effective user ID of the tar‐
368       get thread (i.e., the thread specified by pid) whose  policy  is  being
369       changed.
370
371       A  thread must be privileged (CAP_SYS_NICE) in order to set or modify a
372       SCHED_DEADLINE policy.
373
374       Since Linux 2.6.12, the RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limit defines a  ceiling
375       on  an  unprivileged  thread's  static  priority  for  the SCHED_RR and
376       SCHED_FIFO policies.  The rules for changing scheduling policy and pri‐
377       ority are as follows:
378
379       *  If  an  unprivileged  thread has a nonzero RLIMIT_RTPRIO soft limit,
380          then it can change its scheduling policy and  priority,  subject  to
381          the  restriction  that  the priority cannot be set to a value higher
382          than the maximum of its current priority and its RLIMIT_RTPRIO  soft
383          limit.
384
385       *  If  the  RLIMIT_RTPRIO  soft  limit  is  0,  then the only permitted
386          changes are to lower the priority, or to switch to  a  non-real-time
387          policy.
388
389       *  Subject to the same rules, another unprivileged thread can also make
390          these changes, as long as the effective user ID of the thread making
391          the  change  matches  the  real  or  effective user ID of the target
392          thread.
393
394       *  Special rules apply for the SCHED_IDLE  policy.   In  Linux  kernels
395          before  2.6.39,  an  unprivileged thread operating under this policy
396          cannot  change  its  policy,  regardless  of  the   value   of   its
397          RLIMIT_RTPRIO  resource  limit.   In  Linux kernels since 2.6.39, an
398          unprivileged thread can switch to  either  the  SCHED_BATCH  or  the
399          SCHED_OTHER  policy so long as its nice value falls within the range
400          permitted by its RLIMIT_NICE resource limit (see getrlimit(2)).
401
402       Privileged (CAP_SYS_NICE) threads ignore the  RLIMIT_RTPRIO  limit;  as
403       with  older kernels, they can make arbitrary changes to scheduling pol‐
404       icy  and  priority.   See  getrlimit(2)  for  further  information   on
405       RLIMIT_RTPRIO.
406
407   Limiting the CPU usage of real-time and deadline processes
408       A nonblocking infinite loop in a thread scheduled under the SCHED_FIFO,
409       SCHED_RR, or SCHED_DEADLINE policy  can  potentially  block  all  other
410       threads  from  accessing  the  CPU forever.  Prior to Linux 2.6.25, the
411       only way of preventing a runaway real-time process  from  freezing  the
412       system  was  to  run  (at the console) a shell scheduled under a higher
413       static priority than the tested application.  This allows an  emergency
414       kill of tested real-time applications that do not block or terminate as
415       expected.
416
417       Since Linux 2.6.25, there are other techniques for dealing with runaway
418       real-time  and  deadline  processes.   One  of  these  is  to  use  the
419       RLIMIT_RTTIME resource limit to set a ceiling on the CPU  time  that  a
420       real-time process may consume.  See getrlimit(2) for details.
421
422       Since  version  2.6.25, Linux also provides two /proc files that can be
423       used to reserve a certain amount of CPU time to be  used  by  non-real-
424       time  processes.   Reserving  CPU  time in this fashion allows some CPU
425       time to be allocated to (say) a root shell that can be used to  kill  a
426       runaway  process.  Both of these files specify time values in microsec‐
427       onds:
428
429       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us
430              This file specifies a scheduling period that  is  equivalent  to
431              100%  CPU bandwidth.  The value in this file can range from 1 to
432              INT_MAX, giving an operating range of 1 microsecond to around 35
433              minutes.   The  default  value in this file is 1,000,000 (1 sec‐
434              ond).
435
436       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us
437              The value in this file specifies how much of the  "period"  time
438              can be used by all real-time and deadline scheduled processes on
439              the system.  The value  in  this  file  can  range  from  -1  to
440              INT_MAX-1.   Specifying  -1  makes  the run time the same as the
441              period; that is, no CPU time is set aside for non-real-time pro‐
442              cesses (which was the Linux behavior before kernel 2.6.25).  The
443              default value in this file is 950,000  (0.95  seconds),  meaning
444              that 5% of the CPU time is reserved for processes that don't run
445              under a real-time or deadline scheduling policy.
446
447   Response time
448       A blocked high priority thread waiting for I/O has a  certain  response
449       time  before  it  is  scheduled  again.   The  device driver writer can
450       greatly reduce this response time by using a "slow interrupt" interrupt
451       handler.
452
453   Miscellaneous
454       Child  processes  inherit the scheduling policy and parameters across a
455       fork(2).  The scheduling policy and  parameters  are  preserved  across
456       execve(2).
457
458       Memory  locking is usually needed for real-time processes to avoid pag‐
459       ing delays; this can be done with mlock(2) or mlockall(2).
460
461   The autogroup feature
462       Since Linux 2.6.38, the kernel provides a feature known as autogrouping
463       to improve interactive desktop performance in the face of multiprocess,
464       CPU-intensive workloads such as building the Linux  kernel  with  large
465       numbers of parallel build processes (i.e., the make(1) -j flag).
466
467       This  feature  operates  in  conjunction  with  the  CFS  scheduler and
468       requires a kernel that is configured with CONFIG_SCHED_AUTOGROUP.  On a
469       running  system,  this  feature  is  enabled  or  disabled via the file
470       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_autogroup_enabled; a value  of  0  disables  the
471       feature, while a value of 1 enables it.  The default value in this file
472       is 1, unless the kernel was booted with the noautogroup parameter.
473
474       A new autogroup is created when a new session is created via setsid(2);
475       this  happens,  for  example, when a new terminal window is started.  A
476       new process created by fork(2) inherits its parent's autogroup  member‐
477       ship.   Thus, all of the processes in a session are members of the same
478       autogroup.  An autogroup  is  automatically  destroyed  when  the  last
479       process in the group terminates.
480
481       When  autogrouping  is  enabled, all of the members of an autogroup are
482       placed in the same kernel scheduler "task group".   The  CFS  scheduler
483       employs  an  algorithm  that  equalizes  the distribution of CPU cycles
484       across task groups.  The benefits of this for interactive desktop  per‐
485       formance can be described via the following example.
486
487       Suppose that there are two autogroups competing for the same CPU (i.e.,
488       presume either a single CPU system or the use of taskset(1) to  confine
489       all  the  processes to the same CPU on an SMP system).  The first group
490       contains ten CPU-bound processes  from  a  kernel  build  started  with
491       make -j10.   The  other  contains  a  single CPU-bound process: a video
492       player.  The effect of autogrouping is that the two  groups  will  each
493       receive half of the CPU cycles.  That is, the video player will receive
494       50% of the CPU cycles, rather than just 9% of the cycles,  which  would
495       likely lead to degraded video playback.  The situation on an SMP system
496       is more complex, but the general effect is the same: the scheduler dis‐
497       tributes CPU cycles across task groups such that an autogroup that con‐
498       tains a large number of CPU-bound processes does not end up hogging CPU
499       cycles at the expense of the other jobs on the system.
500
501       A  process's  autogroup  (task  group) membership can be viewed via the
502       file /proc/[pid]/autogroup:
503
504           $ cat /proc/1/autogroup
505           /autogroup-1 nice 0
506
507       This file can also be used to modify the CPU bandwidth allocated to  an
508       autogroup.  This is done by writing a number in the "nice" range to the
509       file to set the autogroup's nice value.  The allowed range is from  +19
510       (low priority) to -20 (high priority).  (Writing values outside of this
511       range causes write(2) to fail with the error EINVAL.)
512
513       The autogroup nice setting has the same meaning  as  the  process  nice
514       value,  but applies to distribution of CPU cycles to the autogroup as a
515       whole, based on the relative nice values of other  autogroups.   For  a
516       process  inside an autogroup, the CPU cycles that it receives will be a
517       product of the autogroup's nice value (compared  to  other  autogroups)
518       and  the  process's nice value (compared to other processes in the same
519       autogroup.
520
521       The use of the cgroups(7) CPU controller to place processes in  cgroups
522       other than the root CPU cgroup overrides the effect of autogrouping.
523
524       The  autogroup  feature groups only processes scheduled under non-real-
525       time policies (SCHED_OTHER, SCHED_BATCH, and SCHED_IDLE).  It does  not
526       group processes scheduled under real-time and deadline policies.  Those
527       processes are scheduled according to the rules described earlier.
528
529   The nice value and group scheduling
530       When scheduling non-real-time processes (i.e.,  those  scheduled  under
531       the  SCHED_OTHER, SCHED_BATCH, and SCHED_IDLE policies), the CFS sched‐
532       uler employs a technique known as "group scheduling", if the kernel was
533       configured with the CONFIG_FAIR_GROUP_SCHED option (which is typical).
534
535       Under  group  scheduling, threads are scheduled in "task groups".  Task
536       groups have a hierarchical relationship, rooted under the initial  task
537       group  on  the system, known as the "root task group".  Task groups are
538       formed in the following circumstances:
539
540       *  All of the threads in a CPU cgroup form a task group.  The parent of
541          this  task  group  is  the  task  group  of the corresponding parent
542          cgroup.
543
544       *  If autogrouping is  enabled,  then  all  of  the  threads  that  are
545          (implicitly) placed in an autogroup (i.e., the same session, as cre‐
546          ated by setsid(2)) form a task group.  Each new autogroup is thus  a
547          separate  task group.  The root task group is the parent of all such
548          autogroups.
549
550       *  If autogrouping is enabled, then the root task group consists of all
551          processes  in the root CPU cgroup that were not otherwise implicitly
552          placed into a new autogroup.
553
554       *  If autogrouping is disabled, then the root task  group  consists  of
555          all processes in the root CPU cgroup.
556
557       *  If  group  scheduling  was disabled (i.e., the kernel was configured
558          without CONFIG_FAIR_GROUP_SCHED), then all of the processes  on  the
559          system are notionally placed in a single task group.
560
561       Under  group scheduling, a thread's nice value has an effect for sched‐
562       uling decisions only relative to other threads in the same task  group.
563       This  has  some  surprising  consequences  in  terms of the traditional
564       semantics of the nice value on UNIX systems.  In particular,  if  auto‐
565       grouping  is  enabled  (which is the default in various distributions),
566       then employing setpriority(2) or nice(1) on a  process  has  an  effect
567       only  for  scheduling  relative to other processes executed in the same
568       session (typically: the same terminal window).
569
570       Conversely, for two processes that are (for example) the sole CPU-bound
571       processes in different sessions (e.g., different terminal windows, each
572       of whose jobs are tied to different  autogroups),  modifying  the  nice
573       value  of  the process in one of the sessions has no effect in terms of
574       the scheduler's decisions relative to the process in the other session.
575       A  possibly useful workaround here is to use a command such as the fol‐
576       lowing to modify the autogroup nice value for all of the processes in a
577       terminal session:
578
579           $ echo 10 > /proc/self/autogroup
580
581   Real-time features in the mainline Linux kernel
582       Since  kernel version 2.6.18, Linux is gradually becoming equipped with
583       real-time capabilities, most of which are derived from the former real‐
584       time-preempt  patch set.  Until the patches have been completely merged
585       into the mainline kernel, they must be installed to  achieve  the  best
586       real-time performance.  These patches are named:
587
588           patch-kernelversion-rtpatchversion
589
590       and  can  be  downloaded  from  ⟨http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel
591       /projects/rt/⟩.
592
593       Without the patches and prior to their full inclusion into the mainline
594       kernel,  the  kernel  configuration  offers  only  the three preemption
595       classes CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE, CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY, and  CONFIG_PRE‐
596       EMPT_DESKTOP  which  respectively  provide  no,  some, and considerable
597       reduction of the worst-case scheduling latency.
598
599       With the patches applied or after their full inclusion into  the  main‐
600       line   kernel,  the  additional  configuration  item  CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
601       becomes available.  If this is selected, Linux is  transformed  into  a
602       regular  real-time  operating system.  The FIFO and RR scheduling poli‐
603       cies are then used to run a thread with true real-time priority  and  a
604       minimum worst-case scheduling latency.
605

NOTES

607       The  cgroups(7) CPU controller can be used to limit the CPU consumption
608       of groups of processes.
609
610       Originally, Standard Linux was intended as a general-purpose  operating
611       system  being able to handle background processes, interactive applica‐
612       tions, and less demanding  real-time  applications  (applications  that
613       need  to usually meet timing deadlines).  Although the Linux kernel 2.6
614       allowed for kernel preemption and the newly introduced  O(1)  scheduler
615       ensures  that  the  time  needed to schedule is fixed and deterministic
616       irrespective of the number of active tasks,  true  real-time  computing
617       was not possible up to kernel version 2.6.17.
618

SEE ALSO

620       chrt(1), taskset(1), getpriority(2), mlock(2), mlockall(2), munlock(2),
621       munlockall(2), nice(2), sched_get_priority_max(2),
622       sched_get_priority_min(2), sched_getaffinity(2), sched_getparam(2),
623       sched_getscheduler(2), sched_rr_get_interval(2), sched_setaffinity(2),
624       sched_setparam(2), sched_setscheduler(2), sched_yield(2),
625       setpriority(2), pthread_getaffinity_np(3), pthread_setaffinity_np(3),
626       sched_getcpu(3), capabilities(7), cpuset(7)
627
628       Programming  for  the  real  world  -  POSIX.4  by Bill O. Gallmeister,
629       O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., ISBN 1-56592-074-0.
630
631       The   Linux   kernel   source   files    Documentation/scheduler/sched-
632       deadline.txt,               Documentation/scheduler/sched-rt-group.txt,
633       Documentation/scheduler/sched-design-CFS.txt,                       and
634       Documentation/scheduler/sched-nice-design.txt
635

COLOPHON

637       This  page  is  part of release 4.16 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
638       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
639       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
640       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
641
642
643
644Linux                             2018-02-02                          SCHED(7)
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