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diff --git a/Documentation/accounting/taskstats.txt b/Documentation/accounting/taskstats.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ff06b738b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/accounting/taskstats.txt @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ +Per-task statistics interface +----------------------------- + + +Taskstats is a netlink-based interface for sending per-task and +per-process statistics from the kernel to userspace. + +Taskstats was designed for the following benefits: + +- efficiently provide statistics during lifetime of a task and on its exit +- unified interface for multiple accounting subsystems +- extensibility for use by future accounting patches + +Terminology +----------- + +"pid", "tid" and "task" are used interchangeably and refer to the standard +Linux task defined by struct task_struct. per-pid stats are the same as +per-task stats. + +"tgid", "process" and "thread group" are used interchangeably and refer to the +tasks that share an mm_struct i.e. the traditional Unix process. Despite the +use of tgid, there is no special treatment for the task that is thread group +leader - a process is deemed alive as long as it has any task belonging to it. + +Usage +----- + +To get statistics during a task's lifetime, userspace opens a unicast netlink +socket (NETLINK_GENERIC family) and sends commands specifying a pid or a tgid. +The response contains statistics for a task (if pid is specified) or the sum of +statistics for all tasks of the process (if tgid is specified). + +To obtain statistics for tasks which are exiting, the userspace listener +sends a register command and specifies a cpumask. Whenever a task exits on +one of the cpus in the cpumask, its per-pid statistics are sent to the +registered listener. Using cpumasks allows the data received by one listener +to be limited and assists in flow control over the netlink interface and is +explained in more detail below. + +If the exiting task is the last thread exiting its thread group, +an additional record containing the per-tgid stats is also sent to userspace. +The latter contains the sum of per-pid stats for all threads in the thread +group, both past and present. + +getdelays.c is a simple utility demonstrating usage of the taskstats interface +for reporting delay accounting statistics. Users can register cpumasks, +send commands and process responses, listen for per-tid/tgid exit data, +write the data received to a file and do basic flow control by increasing +receive buffer sizes. + +Interface +--------- + +The user-kernel interface is encapsulated in include/linux/taskstats.h + +To avoid this documentation becoming obsolete as the interface evolves, only +an outline of the current version is given. taskstats.h always overrides the +description here. + +struct taskstats is the common accounting structure for both per-pid and +per-tgid data. It is versioned and can be extended by each accounting subsystem +that is added to the kernel. The fields and their semantics are defined in the +taskstats.h file. + +The data exchanged between user and kernel space is a netlink message belonging +to the NETLINK_GENERIC family and using the netlink attributes interface. +The messages are in the format + + +----------+- - -+-------------+-------------------+ + | nlmsghdr | Pad | genlmsghdr | taskstats payload | + +----------+- - -+-------------+-------------------+ + + +The taskstats payload is one of the following three kinds: + +1. Commands: Sent from user to kernel. Commands to get data on +a pid/tgid consist of one attribute, of type TASKSTATS_CMD_ATTR_PID/TGID, +containing a u32 pid or tgid in the attribute payload. The pid/tgid denotes +the task/process for which userspace wants statistics. + +Commands to register/deregister interest in exit data from a set of cpus +consist of one attribute, of type +TASKSTATS_CMD_ATTR_REGISTER/DEREGISTER_CPUMASK and contain a cpumask in the +attribute payload. The cpumask is specified as an ascii string of +comma-separated cpu ranges e.g. to listen to exit data from cpus 1,2,3,5,7,8 +the cpumask would be "1-3,5,7-8". If userspace forgets to deregister interest +in cpus before closing the listening socket, the kernel cleans up its interest +set over time. However, for the sake of efficiency, an explicit deregistration +is advisable. + +2. Response for a command: sent from the kernel in response to a userspace +command. The payload is a series of three attributes of type: + +a) TASKSTATS_TYPE_AGGR_PID/TGID : attribute containing no payload but indicates +a pid/tgid will be followed by some stats. + +b) TASKSTATS_TYPE_PID/TGID: attribute whose payload is the pid/tgid whose stats +are being returned. + +c) TASKSTATS_TYPE_STATS: attribute with a struct taskstats as payload. The +same structure is used for both per-pid and per-tgid stats. + +3. New message sent by kernel whenever a task exits. The payload consists of a + series of attributes of the following type: + +a) TASKSTATS_TYPE_AGGR_PID: indicates next two attributes will be pid+stats +b) TASKSTATS_TYPE_PID: contains exiting task's pid +c) TASKSTATS_TYPE_STATS: contains the exiting task's per-pid stats +d) TASKSTATS_TYPE_AGGR_TGID: indicates next two attributes will be tgid+stats +e) TASKSTATS_TYPE_TGID: contains tgid of process to which task belongs +f) TASKSTATS_TYPE_STATS: contains the per-tgid stats for exiting task's process + + +per-tgid stats +-------------- + +Taskstats provides per-process stats, in addition to per-task stats, since +resource management is often done at a process granularity and aggregating task +stats in userspace alone is inefficient and potentially inaccurate (due to lack +of atomicity). + +However, maintaining per-process, in addition to per-task stats, within the +kernel has space and time overheads. To address this, the taskstats code +accumulates each exiting task's statistics into a process-wide data structure. +When the last task of a process exits, the process level data accumulated also +gets sent to userspace (along with the per-task data). + +When a user queries to get per-tgid data, the sum of all other live threads in +the group is added up and added to the accumulated total for previously exited +threads of the same thread group. + +Extending taskstats +------------------- + +There are two ways to extend the taskstats interface to export more +per-task/process stats as patches to collect them get added to the kernel +in future: + +1. Adding more fields to the end of the existing struct taskstats. Backward + compatibility is ensured by the version number within the + structure. Userspace will use only the fields of the struct that correspond + to the version its using. + +2. Defining separate statistic structs and using the netlink attributes + interface to return them. Since userspace processes each netlink attribute + independently, it can always ignore attributes whose type it does not + understand (because it is using an older version of the interface). + + +Choosing between 1. and 2. is a matter of trading off flexibility and +overhead. If only a few fields need to be added, then 1. is the preferable +path since the kernel and userspace don't need to incur the overhead of +processing new netlink attributes. But if the new fields expand the existing +struct too much, requiring disparate userspace accounting utilities to +unnecessarily receive large structures whose fields are of no interest, then +extending the attributes structure would be worthwhile. + +Flow control for taskstats +-------------------------- + +When the rate of task exits becomes large, a listener may not be able to keep +up with the kernel's rate of sending per-tid/tgid exit data leading to data +loss. This possibility gets compounded when the taskstats structure gets +extended and the number of cpus grows large. + +To avoid losing statistics, userspace should do one or more of the following: + +- increase the receive buffer sizes for the netlink sockets opened by +listeners to receive exit data. + +- create more listeners and reduce the number of cpus being listened to by +each listener. In the extreme case, there could be one listener for each cpu. +Users may also consider setting the cpu affinity of the listener to the subset +of cpus to which it listens, especially if they are listening to just one cpu. + +Despite these measures, if the userspace receives ENOBUFS error messages +indicated overflow of receive buffers, it should take measures to handle the +loss of data. + +---- |