526 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
526 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
Deadline Task Scheduling
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------------------------
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CONTENTS
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========
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0. WARNING
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1. Overview
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2. Scheduling algorithm
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3. Scheduling Real-Time Tasks
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4. Bandwidth management
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4.1 System-wide settings
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4.2 Task interface
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4.3 Default behavior
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5. Tasks CPU affinity
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5.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
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6. Future plans
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A. Test suite
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B. Minimal main()
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0. WARNING
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==========
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Fiddling with these settings can result in an unpredictable or even unstable
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system behavior. As for -rt (group) scheduling, it is assumed that root users
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know what they're doing.
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1. Overview
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===========
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The SCHED_DEADLINE policy contained inside the sched_dl scheduling class is
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basically an implementation of the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduling
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algorithm, augmented with a mechanism (called Constant Bandwidth Server, CBS)
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that makes it possible to isolate the behavior of tasks between each other.
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2. Scheduling algorithm
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==================
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SCHED_DEADLINE uses three parameters, named "runtime", "period", and
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"deadline", to schedule tasks. A SCHED_DEADLINE task should receive
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"runtime" microseconds of execution time every "period" microseconds, and
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these "runtime" microseconds are available within "deadline" microseconds
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from the beginning of the period. In order to implement this behaviour,
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every time the task wakes up, the scheduler computes a "scheduling deadline"
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consistent with the guarantee (using the CBS[2,3] algorithm). Tasks are then
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scheduled using EDF[1] on these scheduling deadlines (the task with the
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earliest scheduling deadline is selected for execution). Notice that the
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task actually receives "runtime" time units within "deadline" if a proper
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"admission control" strategy (see Section "4. Bandwidth management") is used
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(clearly, if the system is overloaded this guarantee cannot be respected).
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Summing up, the CBS[2,3] algorithms assigns scheduling deadlines to tasks so
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that each task runs for at most its runtime every period, avoiding any
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interference between different tasks (bandwidth isolation), while the EDF[1]
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algorithm selects the task with the earliest scheduling deadline as the one
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to be executed next. Thanks to this feature, tasks that do not strictly comply
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with the "traditional" real-time task model (see Section 3) can effectively
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use the new policy.
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In more details, the CBS algorithm assigns scheduling deadlines to
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tasks in the following way:
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- Each SCHED_DEADLINE task is characterised by the "runtime",
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"deadline", and "period" parameters;
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- The state of the task is described by a "scheduling deadline", and
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a "remaining runtime". These two parameters are initially set to 0;
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- When a SCHED_DEADLINE task wakes up (becomes ready for execution),
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the scheduler checks if
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remaining runtime runtime
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---------------------------------- > ---------
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scheduling deadline - current time period
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then, if the scheduling deadline is smaller than the current time, or
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this condition is verified, the scheduling deadline and the
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remaining runtime are re-initialised as
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scheduling deadline = current time + deadline
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remaining runtime = runtime
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otherwise, the scheduling deadline and the remaining runtime are
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left unchanged;
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- When a SCHED_DEADLINE task executes for an amount of time t, its
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remaining runtime is decreased as
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remaining runtime = remaining runtime - t
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(technically, the runtime is decreased at every tick, or when the
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task is descheduled / preempted);
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- When the remaining runtime becomes less or equal than 0, the task is
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said to be "throttled" (also known as "depleted" in real-time literature)
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and cannot be scheduled until its scheduling deadline. The "replenishment
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time" for this task (see next item) is set to be equal to the current
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value of the scheduling deadline;
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- When the current time is equal to the replenishment time of a
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throttled task, the scheduling deadline and the remaining runtime are
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updated as
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scheduling deadline = scheduling deadline + period
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remaining runtime = remaining runtime + runtime
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3. Scheduling Real-Time Tasks
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=============================
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* BIG FAT WARNING ******************************************************
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*
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* This section contains a (not-thorough) summary on classical deadline
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* scheduling theory, and how it applies to SCHED_DEADLINE.
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* The reader can "safely" skip to Section 4 if only interested in seeing
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* how the scheduling policy can be used. Anyway, we strongly recommend
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* to come back here and continue reading (once the urge for testing is
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* satisfied :P) to be sure of fully understanding all technical details.
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************************************************************************
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There are no limitations on what kind of task can exploit this new
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scheduling discipline, even if it must be said that it is particularly
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suited for periodic or sporadic real-time tasks that need guarantees on their
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timing behavior, e.g., multimedia, streaming, control applications, etc.
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A typical real-time task is composed of a repetition of computation phases
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(task instances, or jobs) which are activated on a periodic or sporadic
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fashion.
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Each job J_j (where J_j is the j^th job of the task) is characterised by an
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arrival time r_j (the time when the job starts), an amount of computation
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time c_j needed to finish the job, and a job absolute deadline d_j, which
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is the time within which the job should be finished. The maximum execution
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time max_j{c_j} is called "Worst Case Execution Time" (WCET) for the task.
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A real-time task can be periodic with period P if r_{j+1} = r_j + P, or
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sporadic with minimum inter-arrival time P is r_{j+1} >= r_j + P. Finally,
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d_j = r_j + D, where D is the task's relative deadline.
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The utilisation of a real-time task is defined as the ratio between its
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WCET and its period (or minimum inter-arrival time), and represents
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the fraction of CPU time needed to execute the task.
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If the total utilisation sum_i(WCET_i/P_i) is larger than M (with M equal
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to the number of CPUs), then the scheduler is unable to respect all the
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deadlines.
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Note that total utilisation is defined as the sum of the utilisations
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WCET_i/P_i over all the real-time tasks in the system. When considering
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multiple real-time tasks, the parameters of the i-th task are indicated
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with the "_i" suffix.
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Moreover, if the total utilisation is larger than M, then we risk starving
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non- real-time tasks by real-time tasks.
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If, instead, the total utilisation is smaller than M, then non real-time
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tasks will not be starved and the system might be able to respect all the
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deadlines.
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As a matter of fact, in this case it is possible to provide an upper bound
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for tardiness (defined as the maximum between 0 and the difference
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between the finishing time of a job and its absolute deadline).
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More precisely, it can be proven that using a global EDF scheduler the
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maximum tardiness of each task is smaller or equal than
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((M − 1) · WCET_max − WCET_min)/(M − (M − 2) · U_max) + WCET_max
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where WCET_max = max_i{WCET_i} is the maximum WCET, WCET_min=min_i{WCET_i}
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is the minimum WCET, and U_max = max_i{WCET_i/P_i} is the maximum utilisation.
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If M=1 (uniprocessor system), or in case of partitioned scheduling (each
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real-time task is statically assigned to one and only one CPU), it is
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possible to formally check if all the deadlines are respected.
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If D_i = P_i for all tasks, then EDF is able to respect all the deadlines
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of all the tasks executing on a CPU if and only if the total utilisation
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of the tasks running on such a CPU is smaller or equal than 1.
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If D_i != P_i for some task, then it is possible to define the density of
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a task as C_i/min{D_i,T_i}, and EDF is able to respect all the deadlines
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of all the tasks running on a CPU if the sum sum_i C_i/min{D_i,T_i} of the
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densities of the tasks running on such a CPU is smaller or equal than 1
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(notice that this condition is only sufficient, and not necessary).
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On multiprocessor systems with global EDF scheduling (non partitioned
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systems), a sufficient test for schedulability can not be based on the
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utilisations (it can be shown that task sets with utilisations slightly
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larger than 1 can miss deadlines regardless of the number of CPUs M).
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However, as previously stated, enforcing that the total utilisation is smaller
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than M is enough to guarantee that non real-time tasks are not starved and
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that the tardiness of real-time tasks has an upper bound.
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SCHED_DEADLINE can be used to schedule real-time tasks guaranteeing that
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the jobs' deadlines of a task are respected. In order to do this, a task
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must be scheduled by setting:
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- runtime >= WCET
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- deadline = D
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- period <= P
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IOW, if runtime >= WCET and if period is >= P, then the scheduling deadlines
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and the absolute deadlines (d_j) coincide, so a proper admission control
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allows to respect the jobs' absolute deadlines for this task (this is what is
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called "hard schedulability property" and is an extension of Lemma 1 of [2]).
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Notice that if runtime > deadline the admission control will surely reject
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this task, as it is not possible to respect its temporal constraints.
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References:
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1 - C. L. Liu and J. W. Layland. Scheduling algorithms for multiprogram-
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ming in a hard-real-time environment. Journal of the Association for
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Computing Machinery, 20(1), 1973.
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2 - L. Abeni , G. Buttazzo. Integrating Multimedia Applications in Hard
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Real-Time Systems. Proceedings of the 19th IEEE Real-time Systems
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Symposium, 1998. http://retis.sssup.it/~giorgio/paps/1998/rtss98-cbs.pdf
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3 - L. Abeni. Server Mechanisms for Multimedia Applications. ReTiS Lab
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Technical Report. http://disi.unitn.it/~abeni/tr-98-01.pdf
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4. Bandwidth management
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=======================
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As previously mentioned, in order for -deadline scheduling to be
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effective and useful (that is, to be able to provide "runtime" time units
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within "deadline"), it is important to have some method to keep the allocation
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of the available fractions of CPU time to the various tasks under control.
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This is usually called "admission control" and if it is not performed, then
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no guarantee can be given on the actual scheduling of the -deadline tasks.
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As already stated in Section 3, a necessary condition to be respected to
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correctly schedule a set of real-time tasks is that the total utilisation
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is smaller than M. When talking about -deadline tasks, this requires that
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the sum of the ratio between runtime and period for all tasks is smaller
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than M. Notice that the ratio runtime/period is equivalent to the utilisation
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of a "traditional" real-time task, and is also often referred to as
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"bandwidth".
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The interface used to control the CPU bandwidth that can be allocated
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to -deadline tasks is similar to the one already used for -rt
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tasks with real-time group scheduling (a.k.a. RT-throttling - see
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Documentation/scheduler/sched-rt-group.txt), and is based on readable/
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writable control files located in procfs (for system wide settings).
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Notice that per-group settings (controlled through cgroupfs) are still not
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defined for -deadline tasks, because more discussion is needed in order to
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figure out how we want to manage SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth at the task group
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level.
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A main difference between deadline bandwidth management and RT-throttling
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is that -deadline tasks have bandwidth on their own (while -rt ones don't!),
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and thus we don't need a higher level throttling mechanism to enforce the
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desired bandwidth. In other words, this means that interface parameters are
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only used at admission control time (i.e., when the user calls
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sched_setattr()). Scheduling is then performed considering actual tasks'
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parameters, so that CPU bandwidth is allocated to SCHED_DEADLINE tasks
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respecting their needs in terms of granularity. Therefore, using this simple
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interface we can put a cap on total utilization of -deadline tasks (i.e.,
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\Sum (runtime_i / period_i) < global_dl_utilization_cap).
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4.1 System wide settings
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------------------------
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The system wide settings are configured under the /proc virtual file system.
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For now the -rt knobs are used for -deadline admission control and the
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-deadline runtime is accounted against the -rt runtime. We realise that this
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isn't entirely desirable; however, it is better to have a small interface for
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now, and be able to change it easily later. The ideal situation (see 5.) is to
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run -rt tasks from a -deadline server; in which case the -rt bandwidth is a
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direct subset of dl_bw.
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This means that, for a root_domain comprising M CPUs, -deadline tasks
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can be created while the sum of their bandwidths stays below:
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M * (sched_rt_runtime_us / sched_rt_period_us)
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It is also possible to disable this bandwidth management logic, and
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be thus free of oversubscribing the system up to any arbitrary level.
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This is done by writing -1 in /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us.
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4.2 Task interface
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------------------
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Specifying a periodic/sporadic task that executes for a given amount of
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runtime at each instance, and that is scheduled according to the urgency of
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its own timing constraints needs, in general, a way of declaring:
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- a (maximum/typical) instance execution time,
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- a minimum interval between consecutive instances,
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- a time constraint by which each instance must be completed.
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Therefore:
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* a new struct sched_attr, containing all the necessary fields is
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provided;
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* the new scheduling related syscalls that manipulate it, i.e.,
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sched_setattr() and sched_getattr() are implemented.
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4.3 Default behavior
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---------------------
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The default value for SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth is to have rt_runtime equal to
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950000. With rt_period equal to 1000000, by default, it means that -deadline
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tasks can use at most 95%, multiplied by the number of CPUs that compose the
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root_domain, for each root_domain.
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This means that non -deadline tasks will receive at least 5% of the CPU time,
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and that -deadline tasks will receive their runtime with a guaranteed
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worst-case delay respect to the "deadline" parameter. If "deadline" = "period"
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and the cpuset mechanism is used to implement partitioned scheduling (see
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Section 5), then this simple setting of the bandwidth management is able to
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deterministically guarantee that -deadline tasks will receive their runtime
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in a period.
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Finally, notice that in order not to jeopardize the admission control a
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-deadline task cannot fork.
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5. Tasks CPU affinity
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=====================
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-deadline tasks cannot have an affinity mask smaller that the entire
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root_domain they are created on. However, affinities can be specified
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through the cpuset facility (Documentation/cgroups/cpusets.txt).
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5.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
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------------------------------------
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An example of a simple configuration (pin a -deadline task to CPU0)
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follows (rt-app is used to create a -deadline task).
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mkdir /dev/cpuset
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mount -t cgroup -o cpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
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cd /dev/cpuset
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mkdir cpu0
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echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.cpus
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echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.mems
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echo 1 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive
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echo 0 > cpuset.sched_load_balance
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echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.cpu_exclusive
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echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.mem_exclusive
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echo $$ > cpu0/tasks
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rt-app -t 100000:10000:d:0 -D5 (it is now actually superfluous to specify
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task affinity)
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6. Future plans
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===============
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Still missing:
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- refinements to deadline inheritance, especially regarding the possibility
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of retaining bandwidth isolation among non-interacting tasks. This is
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being studied from both theoretical and practical points of view, and
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hopefully we should be able to produce some demonstrative code soon;
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- (c)group based bandwidth management, and maybe scheduling;
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- access control for non-root users (and related security concerns to
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address), which is the best way to allow unprivileged use of the mechanisms
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and how to prevent non-root users "cheat" the system?
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As already discussed, we are planning also to merge this work with the EDF
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throttling patches [https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/2/23/239] but we still are in
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the preliminary phases of the merge and we really seek feedback that would
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help us decide on the direction it should take.
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Appendix A. Test suite
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======================
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The SCHED_DEADLINE policy can be easily tested using two applications that
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are part of a wider Linux Scheduler validation suite. The suite is
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available as a GitHub repository: https://github.com/scheduler-tools.
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The first testing application is called rt-app and can be used to
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start multiple threads with specific parameters. rt-app supports
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SCHED_{OTHER,FIFO,RR,DEADLINE} scheduling policies and their related
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parameters (e.g., niceness, priority, runtime/deadline/period). rt-app
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is a valuable tool, as it can be used to synthetically recreate certain
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workloads (maybe mimicking real use-cases) and evaluate how the scheduler
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behaves under such workloads. In this way, results are easily reproducible.
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rt-app is available at: https://github.com/scheduler-tools/rt-app.
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Thread parameters can be specified from the command line, with something like
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this:
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# rt-app -t 100000:10000:d -t 150000:20000:f:10 -D5
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The above creates 2 threads. The first one, scheduled by SCHED_DEADLINE,
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executes for 10ms every 100ms. The second one, scheduled at SCHED_FIFO
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priority 10, executes for 20ms every 150ms. The test will run for a total
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of 5 seconds.
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More interestingly, configurations can be described with a json file that
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can be passed as input to rt-app with something like this:
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# rt-app my_config.json
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The parameters that can be specified with the second method are a superset
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of the command line options. Please refer to rt-app documentation for more
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details (<rt-app-sources>/doc/*.json).
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The second testing application is a modification of schedtool, called
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schedtool-dl, which can be used to setup SCHED_DEADLINE parameters for a
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certain pid/application. schedtool-dl is available at:
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https://github.com/scheduler-tools/schedtool-dl.git.
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The usage is straightforward:
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# schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 -e ./my_cpuhog_app
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With this, my_cpuhog_app is put to run inside a SCHED_DEADLINE reservation
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of 10ms every 100ms (note that parameters are expressed in microseconds).
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You can also use schedtool to create a reservation for an already running
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application, given that you know its pid:
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# schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 my_app_pid
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Appendix B. Minimal main()
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==========================
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We provide in what follows a simple (ugly) self-contained code snippet
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showing how SCHED_DEADLINE reservations can be created by a real-time
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application developer.
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#define _GNU_SOURCE
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#include <unistd.h>
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#include <stdio.h>
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#include <stdlib.h>
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#include <string.h>
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#include <time.h>
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#include <linux/unistd.h>
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#include <linux/kernel.h>
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#include <linux/types.h>
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#include <sys/syscall.h>
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#include <pthread.h>
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#define gettid() syscall(__NR_gettid)
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#define SCHED_DEADLINE 6
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/* XXX use the proper syscall numbers */
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#ifdef __x86_64__
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#define __NR_sched_setattr 314
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#define __NR_sched_getattr 315
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#endif
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#ifdef __i386__
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#define __NR_sched_setattr 351
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#define __NR_sched_getattr 352
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#endif
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#ifdef __arm__
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#define __NR_sched_setattr 380
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#define __NR_sched_getattr 381
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#endif
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static volatile int done;
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struct sched_attr {
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__u32 size;
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__u32 sched_policy;
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__u64 sched_flags;
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/* SCHED_NORMAL, SCHED_BATCH */
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__s32 sched_nice;
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/* SCHED_FIFO, SCHED_RR */
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__u32 sched_priority;
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/* SCHED_DEADLINE (nsec) */
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__u64 sched_runtime;
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__u64 sched_deadline;
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__u64 sched_period;
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};
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int sched_setattr(pid_t pid,
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const struct sched_attr *attr,
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unsigned int flags)
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{
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return syscall(__NR_sched_setattr, pid, attr, flags);
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}
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||
|
||
int sched_getattr(pid_t pid,
|
||
struct sched_attr *attr,
|
||
unsigned int size,
|
||
unsigned int flags)
|
||
{
|
||
return syscall(__NR_sched_getattr, pid, attr, size, flags);
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
void *run_deadline(void *data)
|
||
{
|
||
struct sched_attr attr;
|
||
int x = 0;
|
||
int ret;
|
||
unsigned int flags = 0;
|
||
|
||
printf("deadline thread started [%ld]\n", gettid());
|
||
|
||
attr.size = sizeof(attr);
|
||
attr.sched_flags = 0;
|
||
attr.sched_nice = 0;
|
||
attr.sched_priority = 0;
|
||
|
||
/* This creates a 10ms/30ms reservation */
|
||
attr.sched_policy = SCHED_DEADLINE;
|
||
attr.sched_runtime = 10 * 1000 * 1000;
|
||
attr.sched_period = attr.sched_deadline = 30 * 1000 * 1000;
|
||
|
||
ret = sched_setattr(0, &attr, flags);
|
||
if (ret < 0) {
|
||
done = 0;
|
||
perror("sched_setattr");
|
||
exit(-1);
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
while (!done) {
|
||
x++;
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
printf("deadline thread dies [%ld]\n", gettid());
|
||
return NULL;
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
int main (int argc, char **argv)
|
||
{
|
||
pthread_t thread;
|
||
|
||
printf("main thread [%ld]\n", gettid());
|
||
|
||
pthread_create(&thread, NULL, run_deadline, NULL);
|
||
|
||
sleep(10);
|
||
|
||
done = 1;
|
||
pthread_join(thread, NULL);
|
||
|
||
printf("main dies [%ld]\n", gettid());
|
||
return 0;
|
||
}
|