summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorNeilBrown <neilb@suse.com>2015-09-05 11:07:04 +0200
committerNeilBrown <neilb@suse.com>2015-09-05 11:08:32 +0200
commite89c6fdf9e0eb1b5a03574d4ca73e83eae8deb91 (patch)
treef9df292ed03a5a3c4ddc658ae3646f02a1ffafce /Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt
parentc3cce6cda162eb2b2960a85d9c8992f4f3be85d0 (diff)
parent1081230b748de8f03f37f80c53dfa89feda9b8de (diff)
downloadtalos-obmc-linux-e89c6fdf9e0eb1b5a03574d4ca73e83eae8deb91.tar.gz
talos-obmc-linux-e89c6fdf9e0eb1b5a03574d4ca73e83eae8deb91.zip
Merge linux-block/for-4.3/core into md/for-linux
There were a few conflicts that are fairly easy to resolve. Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt85
1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt b/Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1a078b5d281a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/cgroups/pids.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+ Process Number Controller
+ =========================
+
+Abstract
+--------
+
+The process number controller is used to allow a cgroup hierarchy to stop any
+new tasks from being fork()'d or clone()'d after a certain limit is reached.
+
+Since it is trivial to hit the task limit without hitting any kmemcg limits in
+place, PIDs are a fundamental resource. As such, PID exhaustion must be
+preventable in the scope of a cgroup hierarchy by allowing resource limiting of
+the number of tasks in a cgroup.
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+In order to use the `pids` controller, set the maximum number of tasks in
+pids.max (this is not available in the root cgroup for obvious reasons). The
+number of processes currently in the cgroup is given by pids.current.
+
+Organisational operations are not blocked by cgroup policies, so it is possible
+to have pids.current > pids.max. This can be done by either setting the limit to
+be smaller than pids.current, or attaching enough processes to the cgroup such
+that pids.current > pids.max. However, it is not possible to violate a cgroup
+policy through fork() or clone(). fork() and clone() will return -EAGAIN if the
+creation of a new process would cause a cgroup policy to be violated.
+
+To set a cgroup to have no limit, set pids.max to "max". This is the default for
+all new cgroups (N.B. that PID limits are hierarchical, so the most stringent
+limit in the hierarchy is followed).
+
+pids.current tracks all child cgroup hierarchies, so parent/pids.current is a
+superset of parent/child/pids.current.
+
+Example
+-------
+
+First, we mount the pids controller:
+# mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/pids
+# mount -t cgroup -o pids none /sys/fs/cgroup/pids
+
+Then we create a hierarchy, set limits and attach processes to it:
+# mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/child
+# echo 2 > /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.max
+# echo $$ > /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/cgroup.procs
+# cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.current
+2
+#
+
+It should be noted that attempts to overcome the set limit (2 in this case) will
+fail:
+
+# cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.current
+2
+# ( /bin/echo "Here's some processes for you." | cat )
+sh: fork: Resource temporary unavailable
+#
+
+Even if we migrate to a child cgroup (which doesn't have a set limit), we will
+not be able to overcome the most stringent limit in the hierarchy (in this case,
+parent's):
+
+# echo $$ > /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/child/cgroup.procs
+# cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.current
+2
+# cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/child/pids.current
+2
+# cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/child/pids.max
+max
+# ( /bin/echo "Here's some processes for you." | cat )
+sh: fork: Resource temporary unavailable
+#
+
+We can set a limit that is smaller than pids.current, which will stop any new
+processes from being forked at all (note that the shell itself counts towards
+pids.current):
+
+# echo 1 > /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.max
+# /bin/echo "We can't even spawn a single process now."
+sh: fork: Resource temporary unavailable
+# echo 0 > /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/parent/pids.max
+# /bin/echo "We can't even spawn a single process now."
+sh: fork: Resource temporary unavailable
+#
OpenPOWER on IntegriCloud