Adding upstream version 6.1.76.upstream/6.1.76

Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>

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+.. _cpusets:
+
+=======
+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 <cl@linux.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 task's 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/admin-guide/cgroup-v1/cgroups.rst.
+
+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 task's 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 task's 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 task's cpuset.
+ - Calls to mbind and set_mempolicy are filtered to just
+   those Memory Nodes allowed in that task's 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 descendants) 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 task's cpuset.
+ - in sched.c migrate_live_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 task's 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 task's 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:
+
+ - cpuset.cpus: list of CPUs in that cpuset
+ - cpuset.mems: list of Memory Nodes in that cpuset
+ - cpuset.memory_migrate flag: if set, move pages to cpusets nodes
+ - cpuset.cpu_exclusive flag: is cpu placement exclusive?
+ - cpuset.mem_exclusive flag: is memory placement exclusive?
+ - cpuset.mem_hardwall flag:  is memory allocation hardwalled
+ - cpuset.memory_pressure: measure of how much paging pressure in cpuset
+ - cpuset.memory_spread_page flag: if set, spread page cache evenly on allowed nodes
+ - cpuset.memory_spread_slab flag: if set, spread slab cache evenly on allowed nodes
+ - cpuset.sched_load_balance flag: if set, load balance within CPUs on that cpuset
+ - cpuset.sched_relax_domain_level: the searching range when migrating tasks
+
+In addition, only the root cpuset has the following file:
+
+ - cpuset.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_mask using a CPU hotplug notifier, and the mems file
+automatically tracks the value of node_states[N_MEMORY]--i.e.,
+nodes with memory--using the cpuset_track_online_nodes() hook.
+
+The cpuset.effective_cpus and cpuset.effective_mems files are
+normally read-only copies of cpuset.cpus and cpuset.mems files
+respectively.  If the cpuset cgroup filesystem is mounted with the
+special "cpuset_v2_mode" option, the behavior of these files will become
+similar to the corresponding files in cpuset v2.  In other words, hotplug
+events will not change cpuset.cpus and cpuset.mems.  Those events will
+only affect cpuset.effective_cpus and cpuset.effective_mems which show
+the actual cpus and memory nodes that are currently used by this cpuset.
+See Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst for more information about
+cpuset v2 behavior.
+
+
+1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
+--------------------------------
+
+If a cpuset is cpu or mem exclusive, no other cpuset, other than
+a direct ancestor or descendant, may share any of the same CPUs or
+Memory Nodes.
+
+A cpuset that is cpuset.mem_exclusive *or* cpuset.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 to 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 'cpuset.memory_spread_page' and
+'cpuset.memory_spread_slab'.
+
+If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.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 task's 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 task's 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 task's memory spread settings.  If memory spreading
+is turned off, then the currently specified NUMA mempolicy once again
+applies to memory page allocations.
+
+Both 'cpuset.memory_spread_page' and 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.memory_spread_page' turns on a per-process flag
+PFA_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 PFA_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 'cpuset.memory_spread_slab' turns on the flag
+PFA_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 task's 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/core.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, including those
+marked isolated using the kernel boot time "isolcpus=" argument. However,
+the isolated CPUs will not participate in load balancing, and will not
+have tasks running on them unless explicitly assigned.
+
+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 "cpuset.sched_load_balance" is enabled (the default
+setting), it requests that all the CPUs in that cpusets allowed 'cpuset.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 "cpuset.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 "cpuset.sched_load_balance"
+enabled, then the scheduler will have one sched domain covering all
+CPUs, and the setting of the "cpuset.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
+"cpuset.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 descendant 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 "cpuset.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 'cpuset.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 its 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 "cpuset.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 'cpuset.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.
+
+CPUs in "cpuset.isolcpus" were excluded from load balancing by the
+isolcpus= kernel boot option, and will never be load balanced regardless
+of the value of "cpuset.sched_load_balance" in any cpuset.
+
+1.7.1 sched_load_balance implementation details.
+------------------------------------------------
+
+The per-cpuset flag 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.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 struct cpumask) of CPUs, pairwise disjoint, that cover
+all the CPUs that must be load balanced.
+
+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, whenever:
+
+ - the 'cpuset.sched_load_balance' flag of a cpuset with non-empty CPUs changes,
+ - or CPUs come or go from a cpuset with this flag enabled,
+ - or 'cpuset.sched_relax_domain_level' value of a cpuset with non-empty CPUs
+   and with this flag enabled changes,
+ - or a cpuset with non-empty CPUs and with this flag enabled is removed,
+ - or a cpu is offlined/onlined.
+
+This partition exactly defines what sched domains the scheduler should
+setup - one sched domain for each element (struct cpumask) 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
+every time.  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 searches 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 'cpuset.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 'cpuset.sched_load_balance' of a cpuset
+is disabled, then 'cpuset.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 depends 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 task's 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 task's
+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 'cpuset.cpus' modified, then each task in that cpuset
+will have its allowed CPU placement changed immediately.  Similarly,
+if a task's pid is written to another cpuset's 'tasks' file, 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 effect 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,
+and the processor placement is updated immediately.
+
+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 'cpuset.mems' subsequently changes.
+If the cpuset flag file 'cpuset.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 task's 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 'cpuset.memory_migrate' is set true, then if that cpuset's
+'cpuset.mems' file is modified, pages allocated to tasks in that
+cpuset, that were on nodes in the previous setting of 'cpuset.mems',
+will be moved to nodes in the new setting of 'mems.'
+Pages that were not in the task's prior cpuset, or in the cpuset's
+prior 'cpuset.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 task's 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 /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+ 2) mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+ 3) Create the new cpuset by doing mkdir's and write's (or echo's) in
+    the /sys/fs/cgroup/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
+    /sys/fs/cgroup/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 /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+  cd /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+  mkdir Charlie
+  cd Charlie
+  /bin/echo 2-3 > cpuset.cpus
+  /bin/echo 1 > cpuset.mems
+  /bin/echo $$ > tasks
+  sh
+  # The subshell 'sh' is now running in cpuset Charlie
+  # The next line should display '/Charlie'
+  cat /proc/self/cpuset
+
+There are ways to query or modify cpusets:
+
+ - via the cpuset file system directly, using the various cd, mkdir, echo,
+   cat, rmdir commands from the shell, or their equivalent from C.
+ - via the C library libcpuset.
+ - via the C library libcgroup.
+   (http://sourceforge.net/projects/libcg/)
+ - via the python application cset.
+   (http://code.google.com/p/cpuset/)
+
+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 /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+
+Then under /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset you can find a tree that corresponds to the
+tree of the cpusets in the system. For instance, /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+is the cpuset that holds the whole system.
+
+If you want to create a new cpuset under /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset::
+
+  # cd /sys/fs/cgroup/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
+  cgroup.clone_children  cpuset.memory_pressure
+  cgroup.event_control   cpuset.memory_spread_page
+  cgroup.procs           cpuset.memory_spread_slab
+  cpuset.cpu_exclusive   cpuset.mems
+  cpuset.cpus            cpuset.sched_load_balance
+  cpuset.mem_exclusive   cpuset.sched_relax_domain_level
+  cpuset.mem_hardwall    notify_on_release
+  cpuset.memory_migrate  tasks
+
+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 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive
+
+Add some cpus::
+
+  # /bin/echo 0-7 > cpuset.cpus
+
+Add some mems::
+
+  # /bin/echo 0-7 > cpuset.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 /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+
+is equivalent to::
+
+  mount -t cgroup -ocpuset,noprefix X /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset
+  echo "/sbin/cpuset_release_agent" > /sys/fs/cgroup/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 > cpuset.cpus		-> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
+  # /bin/echo 1,2,3,4 > cpuset.cpus	-> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
+
+To add a CPU to a cpuset, write the new list of CPUs including the
+CPU to be added. To add 6 to the above cpuset::
+
+  # /bin/echo 1-4,6 > cpuset.cpus	-> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4,6
+
+Similarly to remove a CPU from a cpuset, write the new list of CPUs
+without the CPU to be removed.
+
+To remove all the CPUs::
+
+  # /bin/echo "" > cpuset.cpus		-> clear cpus list
+
+2.3 Setting flags
+-----------------
+
+The syntax is very simple::
+
+  # /bin/echo 1 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive 	-> set flag 'cpuset.cpu_exclusive'
+  # /bin/echo 0 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive 	-> unset flag 'cpuset.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