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 <clameter@sgi.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 tasks 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/cgroups/cgroups.txt.

  
  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 tasks 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 tasks 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 tasks cpuset.
   - Calls to mbind and set_mempolicy are filtered to just
     those Memory Nodes allowed in that tasks 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 descendents) 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 tasks cpuset.
   - in sched.c migrate_all_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 tasks 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 tasks 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:

  
   - cpus: list of CPUs in that cpuset
   - mems: list of Memory Nodes in that cpuset

   - memory_migrate flag: if set, move pages to cpusets nodes

   - cpu_exclusive flag: is cpu placement exclusive?
   - mem_exclusive flag: is memory placement exclusive?

   - mem_hardwall flag:  is memory allocation hardwalled

   - memory_pressure: measure of how much paging pressure in cpuset
  
  In addition, the root cpuset only has the following file:
   - 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_map using a CPU hotplug notifier, and the mems file

  automatically tracks the value of node_states[N_HIGH_MEMORY]--i.e.,

  nodes with memory--using the cpuset_track_online_nodes() hook.

  
  1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
  --------------------------------
  
  If a cpuset is cpu or mem exclusive, no other cpuset, other than
  a direct ancestor or descendent, may share any of the same CPUs or
  Memory Nodes.

  A cpuset that is mem_exclusive *or* 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 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 'memory_spread_page' and
  'memory_spread_slab'.
  
  If the per-cpuset boolean flag file '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 '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 tasks 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 tasks 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 tasks memory spread settings.  If memory spreading
  is turned off, then the currently specified NUMA mempolicy once again
  applies to memory page allocations.
  
  Both 'memory_spread_page' and '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 'memory_spread_page' turns on a per-process flag
  PF_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 PF_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 'memory_spread_slab' turns on the flag

  PF_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 tasks 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.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, except those
  marked isolated using the kernel boot time "isolcpus=" argument.
  
  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 "sched_load_balance" is enabled (the default
  setting), it requests that all the CPUs in that cpusets allowed '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 "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 "sched_load_balance"
  enabled, then the scheduler will have one sched domain covering all
  CPUs, and the setting of the "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
  "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 descendent 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 "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 '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 it 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 "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 '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.
  
  1.7.1 sched_load_balance implementation details.
  ------------------------------------------------
  
  The per-cpuset flag '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 '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 '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 '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 cpumask_t) of CPUs, pairwise disjoint, that cover all
  the CPUs that must be load balanced.
  
  Whenever the 'sched_load_balance' flag changes, or CPUs come or go
  from a cpuset with this flag enabled, or a cpuset with this flag
  enabled is removed, 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.
  
  This partition exactly defines what sched domains the scheduler should
  setup - one sched domain for each element (cpumask_t) 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
  everytime.  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 searchs 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 '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 'sched_load_balance' of a cpuset
  is disabled, then '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 will be depend 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 tasks 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 tasks
  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 'cpus' modified, then each task in that cpuset
  will have its allowed CPU placement changed immediately.  Similarly,
  if a tasks pid is written to a cpusets 'tasks' file, in either its
  current cpuset or another cpuset, 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
  affect 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,
  but the processor placement is not updated, until that tasks pid is
  rewritten to the 'tasks' file of its cpuset.  This is done to avoid
  impacting the scheduler code in the kernel with a check for changes
  in a tasks processor placement.

  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 'mems' subsequently changes.
  If the cpuset flag file '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 tasks 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 'memory_migrate' is set true, then if that cpusets
  'mems' file is modified, pages allocated to tasks in that
  cpuset, that were on nodes in the previous setting of 'mems',

  will be moved to nodes in the new setting of 'mems.'
  Pages that were not in the tasks prior cpuset, or in the cpusets
  prior '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 tasks 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 /dev/cpuset

   2) mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset

   3) Create the new cpuset by doing mkdir's and write's (or echo's) in
      the /dev/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
      /dev/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 /dev/cpuset

    cd /dev/cpuset
    mkdir Charlie
    cd Charlie
    /bin/echo 2-3 > cpus
    /bin/echo 1 > mems
    /bin/echo $$ > tasks
    sh
    # The subshell 'sh' is now running in cpuset Charlie
    # The next line should display '/Charlie'
    cat /proc/self/cpuset

  In the future, a C library interface to cpusets will likely be
  available.  For now, the only way to query or modify cpusets is
  via the cpuset file system, using the various cd, mkdir, echo, cat,
  rmdir commands from the shell, or their equivalent from C.
  
  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 /dev/cpuset

  
  Then under /dev/cpuset you can find a tree that corresponds to the
  tree of the cpusets in the system. For instance, /dev/cpuset
  is the cpuset that holds the whole system.
  
  If you want to create a new cpuset under /dev/cpuset:
  # cd /dev/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

  cpu_exclusive  memory_migrate      mems                      tasks
  cpus           memory_pressure     notify_on_release
  mem_exclusive  memory_spread_page  sched_load_balance
  mem_hardwall   memory_spread_slab  sched_relax_domain_level

  
  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 > cpu_exclusive
  
  Add some cpus:
  # /bin/echo 0-7 > cpus

  Add some mems:
  # /bin/echo 0-7 > 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 /dev/cpuset
  
  is equivalent to
  
  mount -t cgroup -ocpuset X /dev/cpuset
  echo "/sbin/cpuset_release_agent" > /dev/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 > cpus		-> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
  # /bin/echo 1,2,3,4 > cpus	-> set cpus list to cpus 1,2,3,4
  
  2.3 Setting flags
  -----------------
  
  The syntax is very simple:
  
  # /bin/echo 1 > cpu_exclusive 	-> set flag 'cpu_exclusive'
  # /bin/echo 0 > cpu_exclusive 	-> unset flag '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