Multiprocessor Control Interfaces (v2.0)

Hello All,

Version 2.0 of Concurrent's multiprocessor control library (mpadvise) and user-level tool (run) are now available. A source tarball, README and ChangeLog can be found here:

http://www.ccur.com/realtime/oss

These are GPL'd clean-room implementations of similar tools that have been available in our proprietary *nix for quite some time, and so the interfaces have a fair amount of mileage under their belts. Note that the scope is somewhat wider than just MP.

Briefly, it works like this:

   # run -b 0 foobar
   (runs foobar biased to cpu 0)

   # run --negate --bias 0 foobar
   (runs foobar anywhere but cpu 0)

but it can combine MP and scheduler parameters easily too:

   # run --bias 0-2,5 --policy rr --priority 50 autopilot

Here's the full help output. See the man pages in the tarball for details on using the mpadvise(3) library service.

# run --help
Usage: run [OPTIONS] { COMMAND [ARGS] | PROCESS_SPECIFIER }
Set scheduling parameters and CPU bias for a new process or a list
of existing processes.

OPTIONS can be one or more of the following options:

-b, --bias=LIST Set the CPU bias to the LIST of CPUs;
CPUs are numbered starting from 0
-s, --policy=POLICY Set the scheduling policy to POLICY
(SCHED_OTHER, SCHED_RR or SCHED_FIFO)
-P, --priority=LEVEL Set the scheduling priority to LEVEL;
SCHED_FIFO and SCHED_RR range: 1 to 99
SCHED_OTHER: only priority 0 is valid
-q, --quantum=QUANTUM Set the SCHED_RR quantum to QUANTUM;

                          use --quantum=list for valid settings
   -N, --negate           Negate the CPU bias list; all CPUs
                          except those listed will be selected
   -f, --fork             Fork COMMAND and return immediately
   -c, --copies=COUNT     Run COUNT identical copies of COMMAND
   -i, --info             Output process environment information
   -V, --version          Output version information and exit
   -v, --verbose          Output information before each action
   -h, --help             Display this help and exit

PROCESS_SPECIFIER is exactly one of the following options:

-p, --pid=LIST Specify LIST of existing PIDs to modify
-g, --group=LIST Specify LIST of process groups to modify; all
existing processes in the groups will be modified
-u, --user=LIST Specify LIST of users to modify; all existing
processes owned by the users will be modified
-n, --name=LIST Specify LIST of existing process names to modify

Multiple comma separated values can be specified for all LISTs and ranges are allowed where appropriate (e.g. "run -b 0,2-5 autopilot").

See the run(1) man page for more information.

Take care,
Jason
--
Jason Baietto
[email protected]