diff options
author | Matt Helsley <matthltc@us.ibm.com> | 2008-10-19 03:27:24 (GMT) |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2008-10-20 15:52:34 (GMT) |
commit | bde5ab65581a63e9f4f4bacfae8f201d04d25bed (patch) | |
tree | b159612b2acc416878a1a80a0aea47f7469163d2 /Documentation/cgroups.txt | |
parent | 1aece34833721d64eb33fc15cd923c727296d3d3 (diff) | |
download | linux-bde5ab65581a63e9f4f4bacfae8f201d04d25bed.tar.xz |
container freezer: document the cgroup freezer subsystem.
Describe why we need the freezer subsystem and how to use it in a
documentation file. Since the cgroups.txt file is focused on the
subsystem-agnostic portions of cgroups make a directory and move the old
cgroups.txt file at the same time.
Signed-off-by: Matt Helsley <matthltc@us.ibm.com>
Cc: Paul Menage <menage@google.com>
Cc: containers@lists.linux-foundation.org
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/cgroups.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/cgroups.txt | 548 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 548 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/cgroups.txt b/Documentation/cgroups.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d9014aa..0000000 --- a/Documentation/cgroups.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,548 +0,0 @@ - CGROUPS - ------- - -Written by Paul Menage <menage@google.com> based on Documentation/cpusets.txt - -Original copyright statements from cpusets.txt: -Portions Copyright (C) 2004 BULL SA. -Portions Copyright (c) 2004-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc. -Modified by Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> -Modified by Christoph Lameter <clameter@sgi.com> - -CONTENTS: -========= - -1. Control Groups - 1.1 What are cgroups ? - 1.2 Why are cgroups needed ? - 1.3 How are cgroups implemented ? - 1.4 What does notify_on_release do ? - 1.5 How do I use cgroups ? -2. Usage Examples and Syntax - 2.1 Basic Usage - 2.2 Attaching processes -3. Kernel API - 3.1 Overview - 3.2 Synchronization - 3.3 Subsystem API -4. Questions - -1. Control Groups -================= - -1.1 What are cgroups ? ----------------------- - -Control Groups provide a mechanism for aggregating/partitioning sets of -tasks, and all their future children, into hierarchical groups with -specialized behaviour. - -Definitions: - -A *cgroup* associates a set of tasks with a set of parameters for one -or more subsystems. - -A *subsystem* is a module that makes use of the task grouping -facilities provided by cgroups to treat groups of tasks in -particular ways. A subsystem is typically a "resource controller" that -schedules a resource or applies per-cgroup limits, but it may be -anything that wants to act on a group of processes, e.g. a -virtualization subsystem. - -A *hierarchy* is a set of cgroups arranged in a tree, such that -every task in the system is in exactly one of the cgroups in the -hierarchy, and a set of subsystems; each subsystem has system-specific -state attached to each cgroup in the hierarchy. Each hierarchy has -an instance of the cgroup virtual filesystem associated with it. - -At any one time there may be multiple active hierachies of task -cgroups. Each hierarchy is a partition of all tasks in the system. - -User level code may create and destroy cgroups by name in an -instance of the cgroup virtual file system, specify and query to -which cgroup a task is assigned, and list the task pids assigned to -a cgroup. Those creations and assignments only affect the hierarchy -associated with that instance of the cgroup file system. - -On their own, the only use for cgroups is for simple job -tracking. The intention is that other subsystems hook into the generic -cgroup support to provide new attributes for cgroups, such as -accounting/limiting the resources which processes in a cgroup can -access. For example, cpusets (see Documentation/cpusets.txt) allows -you to associate a set of CPUs and a set of memory nodes with the -tasks in each cgroup. - -1.2 Why are cgroups needed ? ----------------------------- - -There are multiple efforts to provide process aggregations in the -Linux kernel, mainly for resource tracking purposes. Such efforts -include cpusets, CKRM/ResGroups, UserBeanCounters, and virtual server -namespaces. These all require the basic notion of a -grouping/partitioning of processes, with newly forked processes ending -in the same group (cgroup) as their parent process. - -The kernel cgroup patch provides the minimum essential kernel -mechanisms required to efficiently implement such groups. It has -minimal impact on the system fast paths, and provides hooks for -specific subsystems such as cpusets to provide additional behaviour as -desired. - -Multiple hierarchy support is provided to allow for situations where -the division of tasks into cgroups is distinctly different for -different subsystems - having parallel hierarchies allows each -hierarchy to be a natural division of tasks, without having to handle -complex combinations of tasks that would be present if several -unrelated subsystems needed to be forced into the same tree of -cgroups. - -At one extreme, each resource controller or subsystem could be in a -separate hierarchy; at the other extreme, all subsystems -would be attached to the same hierarchy. - -As an example of a scenario (originally proposed by vatsa@in.ibm.com) -that can benefit from multiple hierarchies, consider a large -university server with various users - students, professors, system -tasks etc. The resource planning for this server could be along the -following lines: - - CPU : Top cpuset - / \ - CPUSet1 CPUSet2 - | | - (Profs) (Students) - - In addition (system tasks) are attached to topcpuset (so - that they can run anywhere) with a limit of 20% - - Memory : Professors (50%), students (30%), system (20%) - - Disk : Prof (50%), students (30%), system (20%) - - Network : WWW browsing (20%), Network File System (60%), others (20%) - / \ - Prof (15%) students (5%) - -Browsers like firefox/lynx go into the WWW network class, while (k)nfsd go -into NFS network class. - -At the same time firefox/lynx will share an appropriate CPU/Memory class -depending on who launched it (prof/student). - -With the ability to classify tasks differently for different resources -(by putting those resource subsystems in different hierarchies) then -the admin can easily set up a script which receives exec notifications -and depending on who is launching the browser he can - - # echo browser_pid > /mnt/<restype>/<userclass>/tasks - -With only a single hierarchy, he now would potentially have to create -a separate cgroup for every browser launched and associate it with -approp network and other resource class. This may lead to -proliferation of such cgroups. - -Also lets say that the administrator would like to give enhanced network -access temporarily to a student's browser (since it is night and the user -wants to do online gaming :)) OR give one of the students simulation -apps enhanced CPU power, - -With ability to write pids directly to resource classes, it's just a -matter of : - - # echo pid > /mnt/network/<new_class>/tasks - (after some time) - # echo pid > /mnt/network/<orig_class>/tasks - -Without this ability, he would have to split the cgroup into -multiple separate ones and then associate the new cgroups with the -new resource classes. - - - -1.3 How are cgroups implemented ? ---------------------------------- - -Control Groups extends the kernel as follows: - - - Each task in the system has a reference-counted pointer to a - css_set. - - - A css_set contains a set of reference-counted pointers to - cgroup_subsys_state objects, one for each cgroup subsystem - registered in the system. There is no direct link from a task to - the cgroup of which it's a member in each hierarchy, but this - can be determined by following pointers through the - cgroup_subsys_state objects. This is because accessing the - subsystem state is something that's expected to happen frequently - and in performance-critical code, whereas operations that require a - task's actual cgroup assignments (in particular, moving between - cgroups) are less common. A linked list runs through the cg_list - field of each task_struct using the css_set, anchored at - css_set->tasks. - - - A cgroup hierarchy filesystem can be mounted for browsing and - manipulation from user space. - - - You can list all the tasks (by pid) attached to any cgroup. - -The implementation of cgroups requires a few, simple hooks -into the rest of the kernel, none in performance critical paths: - - - in init/main.c, to initialize the root cgroups and initial - css_set at system boot. - - - in fork and exit, to attach and detach a task from its css_set. - -In addition a new file system, of type "cgroup" may be mounted, to -enable browsing and modifying the cgroups presently known to the -kernel. When mounting a cgroup hierarchy, you may specify a -comma-separated list of subsystems to mount as the filesystem mount -options. By default, mounting the cgroup filesystem attempts to -mount a hierarchy containing all registered subsystems. - -If an active hierarchy with exactly the same set of subsystems already -exists, it will be reused for the new mount. If no existing hierarchy -matches, and any of the requested subsystems are in use in an existing -hierarchy, the mount will fail with -EBUSY. Otherwise, a new hierarchy -is activated, associated with the requested subsystems. - -It's not currently possible to bind a new subsystem to an active -cgroup hierarchy, or to unbind a subsystem from an active cgroup -hierarchy. This may be possible in future, but is fraught with nasty -error-recovery issues. - -When a cgroup filesystem is unmounted, if there are any -child cgroups created below the top-level cgroup, that hierarchy -will remain active even though unmounted; if there are no -child cgroups then the hierarchy will be deactivated. - -No new system calls are added for cgroups - all support for -querying and modifying cgroups is via this cgroup file system. - -Each task under /proc has an added file named 'cgroup' displaying, -for each active hierarchy, the subsystem names and the cgroup name -as the path relative to the root of the cgroup file system. - -Each cgroup is represented by a directory in the cgroup file system -containing the following files describing that cgroup: - - - tasks: list of tasks (by pid) attached to that cgroup - - releasable flag: cgroup currently removeable? - - notify_on_release flag: run the release agent on exit? - - release_agent: the path to use for release notifications (this file - exists in the top cgroup only) - -Other subsystems such as cpusets may add additional files in each -cgroup dir. - -New cgroups are created using the mkdir system call or shell -command. The properties of a cgroup, such as its flags, are -modified by writing to the appropriate file in that cgroups -directory, as listed above. - -The named hierarchical structure of nested cgroups 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 cgroup allows organizing the work load -on a system into related sets of tasks. A task may be re-attached to -any other cgroup, if allowed by the permissions on the necessary -cgroup file system directories. - -When a task is moved from one cgroup to another, it gets a new -css_set pointer - if there's an already existing css_set with the -desired collection of cgroups then that group is reused, else a new -css_set is allocated. Note that the current implementation uses a -linear search to locate an appropriate existing css_set, so isn't -very efficient. A future version will use a hash table for better -performance. - -To allow access from a cgroup to the css_sets (and hence tasks) -that comprise it, a set of cg_cgroup_link objects form a lattice; -each cg_cgroup_link is linked into a list of cg_cgroup_links for -a single cgroup on its cgrp_link_list field, and a list of -cg_cgroup_links for a single css_set on its cg_link_list. - -Thus the set of tasks in a cgroup can be listed by iterating over -each css_set that references the cgroup, and sub-iterating over -each css_set's task set. - -The use of a Linux virtual file system (vfs) to represent the -cgroup hierarchy provides for a familiar permission and name space -for cgroups, with a minimum of additional kernel code. - -1.4 What does notify_on_release do ? ------------------------------------- - -If the notify_on_release flag is enabled (1) in a cgroup, then -whenever the last task in the cgroup leaves (exits or attaches to -some other cgroup) and the last child cgroup of that cgroup -is removed, then the kernel runs the command specified by the contents -of the "release_agent" file in that hierarchy's root directory, -supplying the pathname (relative to the mount point of the cgroup -file system) of the abandoned cgroup. This enables automatic -removal of abandoned cgroups. The default value of -notify_on_release in the root cgroup at system boot is disabled -(0). The default value of other cgroups at creation is the current -value of their parents notify_on_release setting. The default value of -a cgroup hierarchy's release_agent path is empty. - -1.5 How do I use cgroups ? --------------------------- - -To start a new job that is to be contained within a cgroup, using -the "cpuset" cgroup subsystem, the steps are something like: - - 1) mkdir /dev/cgroup - 2) mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cgroup - 3) Create the new cgroup by doing mkdir's and write's (or echo's) in - the /dev/cgroup virtual file system. - 4) Start a task that will be the "founding father" of the new job. - 5) Attach that task to the new cgroup by writing its pid to the - /dev/cgroup tasks file for that cgroup. - 6) fork, exec or clone the job tasks from this founding father task. - -For example, the following sequence of commands will setup a cgroup -named "Charlie", containing just CPUs 2 and 3, and Memory Node 1, -and then start a subshell 'sh' in that cgroup: - - mount -t cgroup cpuset -ocpuset /dev/cgroup - cd /dev/cgroup - mkdir Charlie - cd Charlie - /bin/echo 2-3 > cpuset.cpus - /bin/echo 1 > cpuset.mems - /bin/echo $$ > tasks - sh - # The subshell 'sh' is now running in cgroup Charlie - # The next line should display '/Charlie' - cat /proc/self/cgroup - -2. Usage Examples and Syntax -============================ - -2.1 Basic Usage ---------------- - -Creating, modifying, using the cgroups can be done through the cgroup -virtual filesystem. - -To mount a cgroup hierarchy will all available subsystems, type: -# mount -t cgroup xxx /dev/cgroup - -The "xxx" is not interpreted by the cgroup code, but will appear in -/proc/mounts so may be any useful identifying string that you like. - -To mount a cgroup hierarchy with just the cpuset and numtasks -subsystems, type: -# mount -t cgroup -o cpuset,numtasks hier1 /dev/cgroup - -To change the set of subsystems bound to a mounted hierarchy, just -remount with different options: - -# mount -o remount,cpuset,ns /dev/cgroup - -Note that changing the set of subsystems is currently only supported -when the hierarchy consists of a single (root) cgroup. Supporting -the ability to arbitrarily bind/unbind subsystems from an existing -cgroup hierarchy is intended to be implemented in the future. - -Then under /dev/cgroup you can find a tree that corresponds to the -tree of the cgroups in the system. For instance, /dev/cgroup -is the cgroup that holds the whole system. - -If you want to create a new cgroup under /dev/cgroup: -# cd /dev/cgroup -# mkdir my_cgroup - -Now you want to do something with this cgroup. -# cd my_cgroup - -In this directory you can find several files: -# ls -notify_on_release releasable tasks -(plus whatever files added by the attached subsystems) - -Now attach your shell to this cgroup: -# /bin/echo $$ > tasks - -You can also create cgroups inside your cgroup by using mkdir in this -directory. -# mkdir my_sub_cs - -To remove a cgroup, just use rmdir: -# rmdir my_sub_cs - -This will fail if the cgroup is in use (has cgroups inside, or -has processes attached, or is held alive by other subsystem-specific -reference). - -2.2 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 - -You can attach the current shell task by echoing 0: - -# echo 0 > tasks - -3. Kernel API -============= - -3.1 Overview ------------- - -Each kernel subsystem that wants to hook into the generic cgroup -system needs to create a cgroup_subsys object. This contains -various methods, which are callbacks from the cgroup system, along -with a subsystem id which will be assigned by the cgroup system. - -Other fields in the cgroup_subsys object include: - -- subsys_id: a unique array index for the subsystem, indicating which - entry in cgroup->subsys[] this subsystem should be managing. - -- name: should be initialized to a unique subsystem name. Should be - no longer than MAX_CGROUP_TYPE_NAMELEN. - -- early_init: indicate if the subsystem needs early initialization - at system boot. - -Each cgroup object created by the system has an array of pointers, -indexed by subsystem id; this pointer is entirely managed by the -subsystem; the generic cgroup code will never touch this pointer. - -3.2 Synchronization -------------------- - -There is a global mutex, cgroup_mutex, used by the cgroup -system. This should be taken by anything that wants to modify a -cgroup. It may also be taken to prevent cgroups from being -modified, but more specific locks may be more appropriate in that -situation. - -See kernel/cgroup.c for more details. - -Subsystems can take/release the cgroup_mutex via the functions -cgroup_lock()/cgroup_unlock(). - -Accessing a task's cgroup pointer may be done in the following ways: -- while holding cgroup_mutex -- while holding the task's alloc_lock (via task_lock()) -- inside an rcu_read_lock() section via rcu_dereference() - -3.3 Subsystem API ------------------ - -Each subsystem should: - -- add an entry in linux/cgroup_subsys.h -- define a cgroup_subsys object called <name>_subsys - -Each subsystem may export the following methods. The only mandatory -methods are create/destroy. Any others that are null are presumed to -be successful no-ops. - -struct cgroup_subsys_state *create(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, - struct cgroup *cgrp) -(cgroup_mutex held by caller) - -Called to create a subsystem state object for a cgroup. The -subsystem should allocate its subsystem state object for the passed -cgroup, returning a pointer to the new object on success or a -negative error code. On success, the subsystem pointer should point to -a structure of type cgroup_subsys_state (typically embedded in a -larger subsystem-specific object), which will be initialized by the -cgroup system. Note that this will be called at initialization to -create the root subsystem state for this subsystem; this case can be -identified by the passed cgroup object having a NULL parent (since -it's the root of the hierarchy) and may be an appropriate place for -initialization code. - -void destroy(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp) -(cgroup_mutex held by caller) - -The cgroup system is about to destroy the passed cgroup; the subsystem -should do any necessary cleanup and free its subsystem state -object. By the time this method is called, the cgroup has already been -unlinked from the file system and from the child list of its parent; -cgroup->parent is still valid. (Note - can also be called for a -newly-created cgroup if an error occurs after this subsystem's -create() method has been called for the new cgroup). - -void pre_destroy(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp); -(cgroup_mutex held by caller) - -Called before checking the reference count on each subsystem. This may -be useful for subsystems which have some extra references even if -there are not tasks in the cgroup. - -int can_attach(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp, - struct task_struct *task) -(cgroup_mutex held by caller) - -Called prior to moving a task into a cgroup; if the subsystem -returns an error, this will abort the attach operation. If a NULL -task is passed, then a successful result indicates that *any* -unspecified task can be moved into the cgroup. Note that this isn't -called on a fork. If this method returns 0 (success) then this should -remain valid while the caller holds cgroup_mutex. - -void attach(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp, - struct cgroup *old_cgrp, struct task_struct *task) - -Called after the task has been attached to the cgroup, to allow any -post-attachment activity that requires memory allocations or blocking. - -void fork(struct cgroup_subsy *ss, struct task_struct *task) - -Called when a task is forked into a cgroup. - -void exit(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct task_struct *task) - -Called during task exit. - -int populate(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp) - -Called after creation of a cgroup to allow a subsystem to populate -the cgroup directory with file entries. The subsystem should make -calls to cgroup_add_file() with objects of type cftype (see -include/linux/cgroup.h for details). Note that although this -method can return an error code, the error code is currently not -always handled well. - -void post_clone(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *cgrp) - -Called at the end of cgroup_clone() to do any paramater -initialization which might be required before a task could attach. For -example in cpusets, no task may attach before 'cpus' and 'mems' are set -up. - -void bind(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cgroup *root) -(cgroup_mutex held by caller) - -Called when a cgroup subsystem is rebound to a different hierarchy -and root cgroup. Currently this will only involve movement between -the default hierarchy (which never has sub-cgroups) and a hierarchy -that is being created/destroyed (and hence has no sub-cgroups). - -4. 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 cgroup 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. - |