Merge branch 'linus' into sched/core
[GitHub/mt8127/android_kernel_alcatel_ttab.git] / Documentation / filesystems / proc.txt
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1------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 T H E /proc F I L E S Y S T E M
3------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4/proc/sys Terrehon Bowden <terrehon@pacbell.net> October 7 1999
5 Bodo Bauer <bb@ricochet.net>
6
72.4.x update Jorge Nerin <comandante@zaralinux.com> November 14 2000
349888ee 8move /proc/sys Shen Feng <shen@cn.fujitsu.com> April 1 2009
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9------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10Version 1.3 Kernel version 2.2.12
11 Kernel version 2.4.0-test11-pre4
12------------------------------------------------------------------------------
349888ee 13fixes/update part 1.1 Stefani Seibold <stefani@seibold.net> June 9 2009
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14
15Table of Contents
16-----------------
17
18 0 Preface
19 0.1 Introduction/Credits
20 0.2 Legal Stuff
21
22 1 Collecting System Information
23 1.1 Process-Specific Subdirectories
24 1.2 Kernel data
25 1.3 IDE devices in /proc/ide
26 1.4 Networking info in /proc/net
27 1.5 SCSI info
28 1.6 Parallel port info in /proc/parport
29 1.7 TTY info in /proc/tty
30 1.8 Miscellaneous kernel statistics in /proc/stat
760df93e 31 1.9 Ext4 file system parameters
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32
33 2 Modifying System Parameters
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34
35 3 Per-Process Parameters
36 3.1 /proc/<pid>/oom_adj - Adjust the oom-killer score
37 3.2 /proc/<pid>/oom_score - Display current oom-killer score
38 3.3 /proc/<pid>/io - Display the IO accounting fields
39 3.4 /proc/<pid>/coredump_filter - Core dump filtering settings
40 3.5 /proc/<pid>/mountinfo - Information about mounts
41
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42
43------------------------------------------------------------------------------
44Preface
45------------------------------------------------------------------------------
46
470.1 Introduction/Credits
48------------------------
49
50This documentation is part of a soon (or so we hope) to be released book on
51the SuSE Linux distribution. As there is no complete documentation for the
52/proc file system and we've used many freely available sources to write these
53chapters, it seems only fair to give the work back to the Linux community.
54This work is based on the 2.2.* kernel version and the upcoming 2.4.*. I'm
55afraid it's still far from complete, but we hope it will be useful. As far as
56we know, it is the first 'all-in-one' document about the /proc file system. It
57is focused on the Intel x86 hardware, so if you are looking for PPC, ARM,
58SPARC, AXP, etc., features, you probably won't find what you are looking for.
59It also only covers IPv4 networking, not IPv6 nor other protocols - sorry. But
60additions and patches are welcome and will be added to this document if you
61mail them to Bodo.
62
63We'd like to thank Alan Cox, Rik van Riel, and Alexey Kuznetsov and a lot of
64other people for help compiling this documentation. We'd also like to extend a
65special thank you to Andi Kleen for documentation, which we relied on heavily
66to create this document, as well as the additional information he provided.
67Thanks to everybody else who contributed source or docs to the Linux kernel
68and helped create a great piece of software... :)
69
70If you have any comments, corrections or additions, please don't hesitate to
71contact Bodo Bauer at bb@ricochet.net. We'll be happy to add them to this
72document.
73
74The latest version of this document is available online at
75http://skaro.nightcrawler.com/~bb/Docs/Proc as HTML version.
76
77If the above direction does not works for you, ypu could try the kernel
78mailing list at linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org and/or try to reach me at
79comandante@zaralinux.com.
80
810.2 Legal Stuff
82---------------
83
84We don't guarantee the correctness of this document, and if you come to us
85complaining about how you screwed up your system because of incorrect
86documentation, we won't feel responsible...
87
88------------------------------------------------------------------------------
89CHAPTER 1: COLLECTING SYSTEM INFORMATION
90------------------------------------------------------------------------------
91
92------------------------------------------------------------------------------
93In This Chapter
94------------------------------------------------------------------------------
95* Investigating the properties of the pseudo file system /proc and its
96 ability to provide information on the running Linux system
97* Examining /proc's structure
98* Uncovering various information about the kernel and the processes running
99 on the system
100------------------------------------------------------------------------------
101
102
103The proc file system acts as an interface to internal data structures in the
104kernel. It can be used to obtain information about the system and to change
105certain kernel parameters at runtime (sysctl).
106
107First, we'll take a look at the read-only parts of /proc. In Chapter 2, we
108show you how you can use /proc/sys to change settings.
109
1101.1 Process-Specific Subdirectories
111-----------------------------------
112
113The directory /proc contains (among other things) one subdirectory for each
114process running on the system, which is named after the process ID (PID).
115
116The link self points to the process reading the file system. Each process
117subdirectory has the entries listed in Table 1-1.
118
119
349888ee 120Table 1-1: Process specific entries in /proc
1da177e4 121..............................................................................
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122 File Content
123 clear_refs Clears page referenced bits shown in smaps output
124 cmdline Command line arguments
125 cpu Current and last cpu in which it was executed (2.4)(smp)
126 cwd Link to the current working directory
127 environ Values of environment variables
128 exe Link to the executable of this process
129 fd Directory, which contains all file descriptors
130 maps Memory maps to executables and library files (2.4)
131 mem Memory held by this process
132 root Link to the root directory of this process
133 stat Process status
134 statm Process memory status information
135 status Process status in human readable form
136 wchan If CONFIG_KALLSYMS is set, a pre-decoded wchan
2ec220e2 137 stack Report full stack trace, enable via CONFIG_STACKTRACE
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138 smaps a extension based on maps, showing the memory consumption of
139 each mapping
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140..............................................................................
141
142For example, to get the status information of a process, all you have to do is
143read the file /proc/PID/status:
144
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145 >cat /proc/self/status
146 Name: cat
147 State: R (running)
148 Tgid: 5452
149 Pid: 5452
150 PPid: 743
1da177e4 151 TracerPid: 0 (2.4)
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152 Uid: 501 501 501 501
153 Gid: 100 100 100 100
154 FDSize: 256
155 Groups: 100 14 16
156 VmPeak: 5004 kB
157 VmSize: 5004 kB
158 VmLck: 0 kB
159 VmHWM: 476 kB
160 VmRSS: 476 kB
161 VmData: 156 kB
162 VmStk: 88 kB
163 VmExe: 68 kB
164 VmLib: 1412 kB
165 VmPTE: 20 kb
166 Threads: 1
167 SigQ: 0/28578
168 SigPnd: 0000000000000000
169 ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
170 SigBlk: 0000000000000000
171 SigIgn: 0000000000000000
172 SigCgt: 0000000000000000
173 CapInh: 00000000fffffeff
174 CapPrm: 0000000000000000
175 CapEff: 0000000000000000
176 CapBnd: ffffffffffffffff
177 voluntary_ctxt_switches: 0
178 nonvoluntary_ctxt_switches: 1
d899bf7b 179 Stack usage: 12 kB
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180
181This shows you nearly the same information you would get if you viewed it with
182the ps command. In fact, ps uses the proc file system to obtain its
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183information. But you get a more detailed view of the process by reading the
184file /proc/PID/status. It fields are described in table 1-2.
185
186The statm file contains more detailed information about the process
187memory usage. Its seven fields are explained in Table 1-3. The stat file
188contains details information about the process itself. Its fields are
189explained in Table 1-4.
1da177e4 190
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191Table 1-2: Contents of the statm files (as of 2.6.30-rc7)
192..............................................................................
193 Field Content
194 Name filename of the executable
195 State state (R is running, S is sleeping, D is sleeping
196 in an uninterruptible wait, Z is zombie,
197 T is traced or stopped)
198 Tgid thread group ID
199 Pid process id
200 PPid process id of the parent process
201 TracerPid PID of process tracing this process (0 if not)
202 Uid Real, effective, saved set, and file system UIDs
203 Gid Real, effective, saved set, and file system GIDs
204 FDSize number of file descriptor slots currently allocated
205 Groups supplementary group list
206 VmPeak peak virtual memory size
207 VmSize total program size
208 VmLck locked memory size
209 VmHWM peak resident set size ("high water mark")
210 VmRSS size of memory portions
211 VmData size of data, stack, and text segments
212 VmStk size of data, stack, and text segments
213 VmExe size of text segment
214 VmLib size of shared library code
215 VmPTE size of page table entries
216 Threads number of threads
217 SigQ number of signals queued/max. number for queue
218 SigPnd bitmap of pending signals for the thread
219 ShdPnd bitmap of shared pending signals for the process
220 SigBlk bitmap of blocked signals
221 SigIgn bitmap of ignored signals
222 SigCgt bitmap of catched signals
223 CapInh bitmap of inheritable capabilities
224 CapPrm bitmap of permitted capabilities
225 CapEff bitmap of effective capabilities
226 CapBnd bitmap of capabilities bounding set
227 Cpus_allowed mask of CPUs on which this process may run
228 Cpus_allowed_list Same as previous, but in "list format"
229 Mems_allowed mask of memory nodes allowed to this process
230 Mems_allowed_list Same as previous, but in "list format"
231 voluntary_ctxt_switches number of voluntary context switches
232 nonvoluntary_ctxt_switches number of non voluntary context switches
d899bf7b 233 Stack usage: stack usage high water mark (round up to page size)
349888ee 234..............................................................................
1da177e4 235
349888ee 236Table 1-3: Contents of the statm files (as of 2.6.8-rc3)
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237..............................................................................
238 Field Content
239 size total program size (pages) (same as VmSize in status)
240 resident size of memory portions (pages) (same as VmRSS in status)
241 shared number of pages that are shared (i.e. backed by a file)
242 trs number of pages that are 'code' (not including libs; broken,
243 includes data segment)
244 lrs number of pages of library (always 0 on 2.6)
245 drs number of pages of data/stack (including libs; broken,
246 includes library text)
247 dt number of dirty pages (always 0 on 2.6)
248..............................................................................
249
18d96779 250
349888ee 251Table 1-4: Contents of the stat files (as of 2.6.30-rc7)
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252..............................................................................
253 Field Content
254 pid process id
255 tcomm filename of the executable
256 state state (R is running, S is sleeping, D is sleeping in an
257 uninterruptible wait, Z is zombie, T is traced or stopped)
258 ppid process id of the parent process
259 pgrp pgrp of the process
260 sid session id
261 tty_nr tty the process uses
262 tty_pgrp pgrp of the tty
263 flags task flags
264 min_flt number of minor faults
265 cmin_flt number of minor faults with child's
266 maj_flt number of major faults
267 cmaj_flt number of major faults with child's
268 utime user mode jiffies
269 stime kernel mode jiffies
270 cutime user mode jiffies with child's
271 cstime kernel mode jiffies with child's
272 priority priority level
273 nice nice level
274 num_threads number of threads
2e01e00e 275 it_real_value (obsolete, always 0)
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276 start_time time the process started after system boot
277 vsize virtual memory size
278 rss resident set memory size
279 rsslim current limit in bytes on the rss
280 start_code address above which program text can run
281 end_code address below which program text can run
282 start_stack address of the start of the stack
283 esp current value of ESP
284 eip current value of EIP
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285 pending bitmap of pending signals
286 blocked bitmap of blocked signals
287 sigign bitmap of ignored signals
288 sigcatch bitmap of catched signals
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289 wchan address where process went to sleep
290 0 (place holder)
291 0 (place holder)
292 exit_signal signal to send to parent thread on exit
293 task_cpu which CPU the task is scheduled on
294 rt_priority realtime priority
295 policy scheduling policy (man sched_setscheduler)
296 blkio_ticks time spent waiting for block IO
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297 gtime guest time of the task in jiffies
298 cgtime guest time of the task children in jiffies
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299..............................................................................
300
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301The /proc/PID/map file containing the currently mapped memory regions and
302their access permissions.
303
304The format is:
305
306address perms offset dev inode pathname
307
30808048000-08049000 r-xp 00000000 03:00 8312 /opt/test
30908049000-0804a000 rw-p 00001000 03:00 8312 /opt/test
3100804a000-0806b000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap]
311a7cb1000-a7cb2000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0
d899bf7b 312a7cb2000-a7eb2000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [threadstack:001ff4b4]
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313a7eb2000-a7eb3000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0
314a7eb3000-a7ed5000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
315a7ed5000-a8008000 r-xp 00000000 03:00 4222 /lib/libc.so.6
316a8008000-a800a000 r--p 00133000 03:00 4222 /lib/libc.so.6
317a800a000-a800b000 rw-p 00135000 03:00 4222 /lib/libc.so.6
318a800b000-a800e000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
319a800e000-a8022000 r-xp 00000000 03:00 14462 /lib/libpthread.so.0
320a8022000-a8023000 r--p 00013000 03:00 14462 /lib/libpthread.so.0
321a8023000-a8024000 rw-p 00014000 03:00 14462 /lib/libpthread.so.0
322a8024000-a8027000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
323a8027000-a8043000 r-xp 00000000 03:00 8317 /lib/ld-linux.so.2
324a8043000-a8044000 r--p 0001b000 03:00 8317 /lib/ld-linux.so.2
325a8044000-a8045000 rw-p 0001c000 03:00 8317 /lib/ld-linux.so.2
326aff35000-aff4a000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack]
327ffffe000-fffff000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso]
328
329where "address" is the address space in the process that it occupies, "perms"
330is a set of permissions:
331
332 r = read
333 w = write
334 x = execute
335 s = shared
336 p = private (copy on write)
337
338"offset" is the offset into the mapping, "dev" is the device (major:minor), and
339"inode" is the inode on that device. 0 indicates that no inode is associated
340with the memory region, as the case would be with BSS (uninitialized data).
341The "pathname" shows the name associated file for this mapping. If the mapping
342is not associated with a file:
343
344 [heap] = the heap of the program
345 [stack] = the stack of the main process
346 [vdso] = the "virtual dynamic shared object",
347 the kernel system call handler
d899bf7b 348 [threadstack:xxxxxxxx] = the stack of the thread, xxxxxxxx is the stack size
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349
350 or if empty, the mapping is anonymous.
351
352
353The /proc/PID/smaps is an extension based on maps, showing the memory
354consumption for each of the process's mappings. For each of mappings there
355is a series of lines such as the following:
356
35708048000-080bc000 r-xp 00000000 03:02 13130 /bin/bash
358Size: 1084 kB
359Rss: 892 kB
360Pss: 374 kB
361Shared_Clean: 892 kB
362Shared_Dirty: 0 kB
363Private_Clean: 0 kB
364Private_Dirty: 0 kB
365Referenced: 892 kB
366Swap: 0 kB
367KernelPageSize: 4 kB
368MMUPageSize: 4 kB
369
370The first of these lines shows the same information as is displayed for the
371mapping in /proc/PID/maps. The remaining lines show the size of the mapping,
372the amount of the mapping that is currently resident in RAM, the "proportional
373set size” (divide each shared page by the number of processes sharing it), the
374number of clean and dirty shared pages in the mapping, and the number of clean
375and dirty private pages in the mapping. The "Referenced" indicates the amount
376of memory currently marked as referenced or accessed.
377
378This file is only present if the CONFIG_MMU kernel configuration option is
379enabled.
18d96779 380
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381The /proc/PID/clear_refs is used to reset the PG_Referenced and ACCESSED/YOUNG
382bits on both physical and virtual pages associated with a process.
383To clear the bits for all the pages associated with the process
384 > echo 1 > /proc/PID/clear_refs
385
386To clear the bits for the anonymous pages associated with the process
387 > echo 2 > /proc/PID/clear_refs
388
389To clear the bits for the file mapped pages associated with the process
390 > echo 3 > /proc/PID/clear_refs
391Any other value written to /proc/PID/clear_refs will have no effect.
392
393
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3941.2 Kernel data
395---------------
396
397Similar to the process entries, the kernel data files give information about
398the running kernel. The files used to obtain this information are contained in
349888ee 399/proc and are listed in Table 1-5. Not all of these will be present in your
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400system. It depends on the kernel configuration and the loaded modules, which
401files are there, and which are missing.
402
349888ee 403Table 1-5: Kernel info in /proc
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404..............................................................................
405 File Content
406 apm Advanced power management info
407 buddyinfo Kernel memory allocator information (see text) (2.5)
408 bus Directory containing bus specific information
409 cmdline Kernel command line
410 cpuinfo Info about the CPU
411 devices Available devices (block and character)
412 dma Used DMS channels
413 filesystems Supported filesystems
414 driver Various drivers grouped here, currently rtc (2.4)
415 execdomains Execdomains, related to security (2.4)
416 fb Frame Buffer devices (2.4)
417 fs File system parameters, currently nfs/exports (2.4)
418 ide Directory containing info about the IDE subsystem
419 interrupts Interrupt usage
420 iomem Memory map (2.4)
421 ioports I/O port usage
422 irq Masks for irq to cpu affinity (2.4)(smp?)
423 isapnp ISA PnP (Plug&Play) Info (2.4)
424 kcore Kernel core image (can be ELF or A.OUT(deprecated in 2.4))
425 kmsg Kernel messages
426 ksyms Kernel symbol table
427 loadavg Load average of last 1, 5 & 15 minutes
428 locks Kernel locks
429 meminfo Memory info
430 misc Miscellaneous
431 modules List of loaded modules
432 mounts Mounted filesystems
433 net Networking info (see text)
434 partitions Table of partitions known to the system
8b60756a 435 pci Deprecated info of PCI bus (new way -> /proc/bus/pci/,
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436 decoupled by lspci (2.4)
437 rtc Real time clock
438 scsi SCSI info (see text)
439 slabinfo Slab pool info
d3d64df2 440 softirqs softirq usage
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441 stat Overall statistics
442 swaps Swap space utilization
443 sys See chapter 2
444 sysvipc Info of SysVIPC Resources (msg, sem, shm) (2.4)
445 tty Info of tty drivers
446 uptime System uptime
447 version Kernel version
448 video bttv info of video resources (2.4)
a47a126a 449 vmallocinfo Show vmalloced areas
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450..............................................................................
451
452You can, for example, check which interrupts are currently in use and what
453they are used for by looking in the file /proc/interrupts:
454
455 > cat /proc/interrupts
456 CPU0
457 0: 8728810 XT-PIC timer
458 1: 895 XT-PIC keyboard
459 2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
460 3: 531695 XT-PIC aha152x
461 4: 2014133 XT-PIC serial
462 5: 44401 XT-PIC pcnet_cs
463 8: 2 XT-PIC rtc
464 11: 8 XT-PIC i82365
465 12: 182918 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
466 13: 1 XT-PIC fpu
467 14: 1232265 XT-PIC ide0
468 15: 7 XT-PIC ide1
469 NMI: 0
470
471In 2.4.* a couple of lines where added to this file LOC & ERR (this time is the
472output of a SMP machine):
473
474 > cat /proc/interrupts
475
476 CPU0 CPU1
477 0: 1243498 1214548 IO-APIC-edge timer
478 1: 8949 8958 IO-APIC-edge keyboard
479 2: 0 0 XT-PIC cascade
480 5: 11286 10161 IO-APIC-edge soundblaster
481 8: 1 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc
482 9: 27422 27407 IO-APIC-edge 3c503
483 12: 113645 113873 IO-APIC-edge PS/2 Mouse
484 13: 0 0 XT-PIC fpu
485 14: 22491 24012 IO-APIC-edge ide0
486 15: 2183 2415 IO-APIC-edge ide1
487 17: 30564 30414 IO-APIC-level eth0
488 18: 177 164 IO-APIC-level bttv
489 NMI: 2457961 2457959
490 LOC: 2457882 2457881
491 ERR: 2155
492
493NMI is incremented in this case because every timer interrupt generates a NMI
494(Non Maskable Interrupt) which is used by the NMI Watchdog to detect lockups.
495
496LOC is the local interrupt counter of the internal APIC of every CPU.
497
498ERR is incremented in the case of errors in the IO-APIC bus (the bus that
499connects the CPUs in a SMP system. This means that an error has been detected,
500the IO-APIC automatically retry the transmission, so it should not be a big
501problem, but you should read the SMP-FAQ.
502
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503In 2.6.2* /proc/interrupts was expanded again. This time the goal was for
504/proc/interrupts to display every IRQ vector in use by the system, not
505just those considered 'most important'. The new vectors are:
506
507 THR -- interrupt raised when a machine check threshold counter
508 (typically counting ECC corrected errors of memory or cache) exceeds
509 a configurable threshold. Only available on some systems.
510
511 TRM -- a thermal event interrupt occurs when a temperature threshold
512 has been exceeded for the CPU. This interrupt may also be generated
513 when the temperature drops back to normal.
514
515 SPU -- a spurious interrupt is some interrupt that was raised then lowered
516 by some IO device before it could be fully processed by the APIC. Hence
517 the APIC sees the interrupt but does not know what device it came from.
518 For this case the APIC will generate the interrupt with a IRQ vector
519 of 0xff. This might also be generated by chipset bugs.
520
521 RES, CAL, TLB -- rescheduling, call and TLB flush interrupts are
522 sent from one CPU to another per the needs of the OS. Typically,
523 their statistics are used by kernel developers and interested users to
19f59460 524 determine the occurrence of interrupts of the given type.
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525
526The above IRQ vectors are displayed only when relevent. For example,
527the threshold vector does not exist on x86_64 platforms. Others are
528suppressed when the system is a uniprocessor. As of this writing, only
529i386 and x86_64 platforms support the new IRQ vector displays.
530
531Of some interest is the introduction of the /proc/irq directory to 2.4.
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532It could be used to set IRQ to CPU affinity, this means that you can "hook" an
533IRQ to only one CPU, or to exclude a CPU of handling IRQs. The contents of the
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534irq subdir is one subdir for each IRQ, and two files; default_smp_affinity and
535prof_cpu_mask.
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536
537For example
538 > ls /proc/irq/
539 0 10 12 14 16 18 2 4 6 8 prof_cpu_mask
18404756 540 1 11 13 15 17 19 3 5 7 9 default_smp_affinity
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541 > ls /proc/irq/0/
542 smp_affinity
543
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544smp_affinity is a bitmask, in which you can specify which CPUs can handle the
545IRQ, you can set it by doing:
1da177e4 546
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547 > echo 1 > /proc/irq/10/smp_affinity
548
549This means that only the first CPU will handle the IRQ, but you can also echo
5505 which means that only the first and fourth CPU can handle the IRQ.
1da177e4 551
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552The contents of each smp_affinity file is the same by default:
553
554 > cat /proc/irq/0/smp_affinity
555 ffffffff
1da177e4 556
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557The default_smp_affinity mask applies to all non-active IRQs, which are the
558IRQs which have not yet been allocated/activated, and hence which lack a
559/proc/irq/[0-9]* directory.
1da177e4 560
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561prof_cpu_mask specifies which CPUs are to be profiled by the system wide
562profiler. Default value is ffffffff (all cpus).
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563
564The way IRQs are routed is handled by the IO-APIC, and it's Round Robin
565between all the CPUs which are allowed to handle it. As usual the kernel has
566more info than you and does a better job than you, so the defaults are the
567best choice for almost everyone.
568
569There are three more important subdirectories in /proc: net, scsi, and sys.
570The general rule is that the contents, or even the existence of these
571directories, depend on your kernel configuration. If SCSI is not enabled, the
572directory scsi may not exist. The same is true with the net, which is there
573only when networking support is present in the running kernel.
574
575The slabinfo file gives information about memory usage at the slab level.
576Linux uses slab pools for memory management above page level in version 2.2.
577Commonly used objects have their own slab pool (such as network buffers,
578directory cache, and so on).
579
580..............................................................................
581
582> cat /proc/buddyinfo
583
584Node 0, zone DMA 0 4 5 4 4 3 ...
585Node 0, zone Normal 1 0 0 1 101 8 ...
586Node 0, zone HighMem 2 0 0 1 1 0 ...
587
588Memory fragmentation is a problem under some workloads, and buddyinfo is a
589useful tool for helping diagnose these problems. Buddyinfo will give you a
590clue as to how big an area you can safely allocate, or why a previous
591allocation failed.
592
593Each column represents the number of pages of a certain order which are
594available. In this case, there are 0 chunks of 2^0*PAGE_SIZE available in
595ZONE_DMA, 4 chunks of 2^1*PAGE_SIZE in ZONE_DMA, 101 chunks of 2^4*PAGE_SIZE
596available in ZONE_NORMAL, etc...
597
598..............................................................................
599
600meminfo:
601
602Provides information about distribution and utilization of memory. This
603varies by architecture and compile options. The following is from a
60416GB PIII, which has highmem enabled. You may not have all of these fields.
605
606> cat /proc/meminfo
607
608
609MemTotal: 16344972 kB
610MemFree: 13634064 kB
611Buffers: 3656 kB
612Cached: 1195708 kB
613SwapCached: 0 kB
614Active: 891636 kB
615Inactive: 1077224 kB
616HighTotal: 15597528 kB
617HighFree: 13629632 kB
618LowTotal: 747444 kB
619LowFree: 4432 kB
620SwapTotal: 0 kB
621SwapFree: 0 kB
622Dirty: 968 kB
623Writeback: 0 kB
b88473f7 624AnonPages: 861800 kB
1da177e4 625Mapped: 280372 kB
b88473f7
MS
626Slab: 284364 kB
627SReclaimable: 159856 kB
628SUnreclaim: 124508 kB
629PageTables: 24448 kB
630NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
631Bounce: 0 kB
632WritebackTmp: 0 kB
1da177e4
LT
633CommitLimit: 7669796 kB
634Committed_AS: 100056 kB
1da177e4
LT
635VmallocTotal: 112216 kB
636VmallocUsed: 428 kB
637VmallocChunk: 111088 kB
638
639 MemTotal: Total usable ram (i.e. physical ram minus a few reserved
640 bits and the kernel binary code)
641 MemFree: The sum of LowFree+HighFree
642 Buffers: Relatively temporary storage for raw disk blocks
643 shouldn't get tremendously large (20MB or so)
644 Cached: in-memory cache for files read from the disk (the
645 pagecache). Doesn't include SwapCached
646 SwapCached: Memory that once was swapped out, is swapped back in but
647 still also is in the swapfile (if memory is needed it
648 doesn't need to be swapped out AGAIN because it is already
649 in the swapfile. This saves I/O)
650 Active: Memory that has been used more recently and usually not
651 reclaimed unless absolutely necessary.
652 Inactive: Memory which has been less recently used. It is more
653 eligible to be reclaimed for other purposes
654 HighTotal:
655 HighFree: Highmem is all memory above ~860MB of physical memory
656 Highmem areas are for use by userspace programs, or
657 for the pagecache. The kernel must use tricks to access
658 this memory, making it slower to access than lowmem.
659 LowTotal:
660 LowFree: Lowmem is memory which can be used for everything that
3f6dee9b 661 highmem can be used for, but it is also available for the
1da177e4
LT
662 kernel's use for its own data structures. Among many
663 other things, it is where everything from the Slab is
664 allocated. Bad things happen when you're out of lowmem.
665 SwapTotal: total amount of swap space available
666 SwapFree: Memory which has been evicted from RAM, and is temporarily
667 on the disk
668 Dirty: Memory which is waiting to get written back to the disk
669 Writeback: Memory which is actively being written back to the disk
b88473f7 670 AnonPages: Non-file backed pages mapped into userspace page tables
1da177e4 671 Mapped: files which have been mmaped, such as libraries
e82443c0 672 Slab: in-kernel data structures cache
b88473f7
MS
673SReclaimable: Part of Slab, that might be reclaimed, such as caches
674 SUnreclaim: Part of Slab, that cannot be reclaimed on memory pressure
675 PageTables: amount of memory dedicated to the lowest level of page
676 tables.
677NFS_Unstable: NFS pages sent to the server, but not yet committed to stable
678 storage
679 Bounce: Memory used for block device "bounce buffers"
680WritebackTmp: Memory used by FUSE for temporary writeback buffers
1da177e4
LT
681 CommitLimit: Based on the overcommit ratio ('vm.overcommit_ratio'),
682 this is the total amount of memory currently available to
683 be allocated on the system. This limit is only adhered to
684 if strict overcommit accounting is enabled (mode 2 in
685 'vm.overcommit_memory').
686 The CommitLimit is calculated with the following formula:
687 CommitLimit = ('vm.overcommit_ratio' * Physical RAM) + Swap
688 For example, on a system with 1G of physical RAM and 7G
689 of swap with a `vm.overcommit_ratio` of 30 it would
690 yield a CommitLimit of 7.3G.
691 For more details, see the memory overcommit documentation
692 in vm/overcommit-accounting.
693Committed_AS: The amount of memory presently allocated on the system.
694 The committed memory is a sum of all of the memory which
695 has been allocated by processes, even if it has not been
696 "used" by them as of yet. A process which malloc()'s 1G
697 of memory, but only touches 300M of it will only show up
698 as using 300M of memory even if it has the address space
699 allocated for the entire 1G. This 1G is memory which has
700 been "committed" to by the VM and can be used at any time
701 by the allocating application. With strict overcommit
702 enabled on the system (mode 2 in 'vm.overcommit_memory'),
703 allocations which would exceed the CommitLimit (detailed
704 above) will not be permitted. This is useful if one needs
705 to guarantee that processes will not fail due to lack of
706 memory once that memory has been successfully allocated.
1da177e4
LT
707VmallocTotal: total size of vmalloc memory area
708 VmallocUsed: amount of vmalloc area which is used
19f59460 709VmallocChunk: largest contiguous block of vmalloc area which is free
1da177e4 710
a47a126a
ED
711..............................................................................
712
713vmallocinfo:
714
715Provides information about vmalloced/vmaped areas. One line per area,
716containing the virtual address range of the area, size in bytes,
717caller information of the creator, and optional information depending
718on the kind of area :
719
720 pages=nr number of pages
721 phys=addr if a physical address was specified
722 ioremap I/O mapping (ioremap() and friends)
723 vmalloc vmalloc() area
724 vmap vmap()ed pages
725 user VM_USERMAP area
726 vpages buffer for pages pointers was vmalloced (huge area)
727 N<node>=nr (Only on NUMA kernels)
728 Number of pages allocated on memory node <node>
729
730> cat /proc/vmallocinfo
7310xffffc20000000000-0xffffc20000201000 2101248 alloc_large_system_hash+0x204 ...
732 /0x2c0 pages=512 vmalloc N0=128 N1=128 N2=128 N3=128
7330xffffc20000201000-0xffffc20000302000 1052672 alloc_large_system_hash+0x204 ...
734 /0x2c0 pages=256 vmalloc N0=64 N1=64 N2=64 N3=64
7350xffffc20000302000-0xffffc20000304000 8192 acpi_tb_verify_table+0x21/0x4f...
736 phys=7fee8000 ioremap
7370xffffc20000304000-0xffffc20000307000 12288 acpi_tb_verify_table+0x21/0x4f...
738 phys=7fee7000 ioremap
7390xffffc2000031d000-0xffffc2000031f000 8192 init_vdso_vars+0x112/0x210
7400xffffc2000031f000-0xffffc2000032b000 49152 cramfs_uncompress_init+0x2e ...
741 /0x80 pages=11 vmalloc N0=3 N1=3 N2=2 N3=3
7420xffffc2000033a000-0xffffc2000033d000 12288 sys_swapon+0x640/0xac0 ...
743 pages=2 vmalloc N1=2
7440xffffc20000347000-0xffffc2000034c000 20480 xt_alloc_table_info+0xfe ...
745 /0x130 [x_tables] pages=4 vmalloc N0=4
7460xffffffffa0000000-0xffffffffa000f000 61440 sys_init_module+0xc27/0x1d00 ...
747 pages=14 vmalloc N2=14
7480xffffffffa000f000-0xffffffffa0014000 20480 sys_init_module+0xc27/0x1d00 ...
749 pages=4 vmalloc N1=4
7500xffffffffa0014000-0xffffffffa0017000 12288 sys_init_module+0xc27/0x1d00 ...
751 pages=2 vmalloc N1=2
7520xffffffffa0017000-0xffffffffa0022000 45056 sys_init_module+0xc27/0x1d00 ...
753 pages=10 vmalloc N0=10
1da177e4 754
d3d64df2
KK
755..............................................................................
756
757softirqs:
758
759Provides counts of softirq handlers serviced since boot time, for each cpu.
760
761> cat /proc/softirqs
762 CPU0 CPU1 CPU2 CPU3
763 HI: 0 0 0 0
764 TIMER: 27166 27120 27097 27034
765 NET_TX: 0 0 0 17
766 NET_RX: 42 0 0 39
767 BLOCK: 0 0 107 1121
768 TASKLET: 0 0 0 290
769 SCHED: 27035 26983 26971 26746
770 HRTIMER: 0 0 0 0
771 RCU: 1678 1769 2178 2250
772
773
1da177e4
LT
7741.3 IDE devices in /proc/ide
775----------------------------
776
777The subdirectory /proc/ide contains information about all IDE devices of which
778the kernel is aware. There is one subdirectory for each IDE controller, the
779file drivers and a link for each IDE device, pointing to the device directory
780in the controller specific subtree.
781
782The file drivers contains general information about the drivers used for the
783IDE devices:
784
785 > cat /proc/ide/drivers
786 ide-cdrom version 4.53
787 ide-disk version 1.08
788
789More detailed information can be found in the controller specific
790subdirectories. These are named ide0, ide1 and so on. Each of these
349888ee 791directories contains the files shown in table 1-6.
1da177e4
LT
792
793
349888ee 794Table 1-6: IDE controller info in /proc/ide/ide?
1da177e4
LT
795..............................................................................
796 File Content
797 channel IDE channel (0 or 1)
798 config Configuration (only for PCI/IDE bridge)
799 mate Mate name
800 model Type/Chipset of IDE controller
801..............................................................................
802
803Each device connected to a controller has a separate subdirectory in the
349888ee 804controllers directory. The files listed in table 1-7 are contained in these
1da177e4
LT
805directories.
806
807
349888ee 808Table 1-7: IDE device information
1da177e4
LT
809..............................................................................
810 File Content
811 cache The cache
812 capacity Capacity of the medium (in 512Byte blocks)
813 driver driver and version
814 geometry physical and logical geometry
815 identify device identify block
816 media media type
817 model device identifier
818 settings device setup
819 smart_thresholds IDE disk management thresholds
820 smart_values IDE disk management values
821..............................................................................
822
823The most interesting file is settings. This file contains a nice overview of
824the drive parameters:
825
826 # cat /proc/ide/ide0/hda/settings
827 name value min max mode
828 ---- ----- --- --- ----
829 bios_cyl 526 0 65535 rw
830 bios_head 255 0 255 rw
831 bios_sect 63 0 63 rw
832 breada_readahead 4 0 127 rw
833 bswap 0 0 1 r
834 file_readahead 72 0 2097151 rw
835 io_32bit 0 0 3 rw
836 keepsettings 0 0 1 rw
837 max_kb_per_request 122 1 127 rw
838 multcount 0 0 8 rw
839 nice1 1 0 1 rw
840 nowerr 0 0 1 rw
841 pio_mode write-only 0 255 w
842 slow 0 0 1 rw
843 unmaskirq 0 0 1 rw
844 using_dma 0 0 1 rw
845
846
8471.4 Networking info in /proc/net
848--------------------------------
849
349888ee 850The subdirectory /proc/net follows the usual pattern. Table 1-8 shows the
1da177e4 851additional values you get for IP version 6 if you configure the kernel to
349888ee 852support this. Table 1-9 lists the files and their meaning.
1da177e4
LT
853
854
349888ee 855Table 1-8: IPv6 info in /proc/net
1da177e4
LT
856..............................................................................
857 File Content
858 udp6 UDP sockets (IPv6)
859 tcp6 TCP sockets (IPv6)
860 raw6 Raw device statistics (IPv6)
861 igmp6 IP multicast addresses, which this host joined (IPv6)
862 if_inet6 List of IPv6 interface addresses
863 ipv6_route Kernel routing table for IPv6
864 rt6_stats Global IPv6 routing tables statistics
865 sockstat6 Socket statistics (IPv6)
866 snmp6 Snmp data (IPv6)
867..............................................................................
868
869
349888ee 870Table 1-9: Network info in /proc/net
1da177e4
LT
871..............................................................................
872 File Content
873 arp Kernel ARP table
874 dev network devices with statistics
875 dev_mcast the Layer2 multicast groups a device is listening too
876 (interface index, label, number of references, number of bound
877 addresses).
878 dev_stat network device status
879 ip_fwchains Firewall chain linkage
880 ip_fwnames Firewall chain names
881 ip_masq Directory containing the masquerading tables
882 ip_masquerade Major masquerading table
883 netstat Network statistics
884 raw raw device statistics
885 route Kernel routing table
886 rpc Directory containing rpc info
887 rt_cache Routing cache
888 snmp SNMP data
889 sockstat Socket statistics
890 tcp TCP sockets
891 tr_rif Token ring RIF routing table
892 udp UDP sockets
893 unix UNIX domain sockets
894 wireless Wireless interface data (Wavelan etc)
895 igmp IP multicast addresses, which this host joined
896 psched Global packet scheduler parameters.
897 netlink List of PF_NETLINK sockets
898 ip_mr_vifs List of multicast virtual interfaces
899 ip_mr_cache List of multicast routing cache
900..............................................................................
901
902You can use this information to see which network devices are available in
903your system and how much traffic was routed over those devices:
904
905 > cat /proc/net/dev
906 Inter-|Receive |[...
907 face |bytes packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|[...
908 lo: 908188 5596 0 0 0 0 0 0 [...
909 ppp0:15475140 20721 410 0 0 410 0 0 [...
910 eth0: 614530 7085 0 0 0 0 0 1 [...
911
912 ...] Transmit
913 ...] bytes packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed
914 ...] 908188 5596 0 0 0 0 0 0
915 ...] 1375103 17405 0 0 0 0 0 0
916 ...] 1703981 5535 0 0 0 3 0 0
917
918In addition, each Channel Bond interface has it's own directory. For
919example, the bond0 device will have a directory called /proc/net/bond0/.
920It will contain information that is specific to that bond, such as the
921current slaves of the bond, the link status of the slaves, and how
922many times the slaves link has failed.
923
9241.5 SCSI info
925-------------
926
927If you have a SCSI host adapter in your system, you'll find a subdirectory
928named after the driver for this adapter in /proc/scsi. You'll also see a list
929of all recognized SCSI devices in /proc/scsi:
930
931 >cat /proc/scsi/scsi
932 Attached devices:
933 Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
934 Vendor: IBM Model: DGHS09U Rev: 03E0
935 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
936 Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
937 Vendor: PIONEER Model: CD-ROM DR-U06S Rev: 1.04
938 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
939
940
941The directory named after the driver has one file for each adapter found in
942the system. These files contain information about the controller, including
943the used IRQ and the IO address range. The amount of information shown is
944dependent on the adapter you use. The example shows the output for an Adaptec
945AHA-2940 SCSI adapter:
946
947 > cat /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0
948
949 Adaptec AIC7xxx driver version: 5.1.19/3.2.4
950 Compile Options:
951 TCQ Enabled By Default : Disabled
952 AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS : Disabled
953 AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY : 5
954 Adapter Configuration:
955 SCSI Adapter: Adaptec AHA-294X Ultra SCSI host adapter
956 Ultra Wide Controller
957 PCI MMAPed I/O Base: 0xeb001000
958 Adapter SEEPROM Config: SEEPROM found and used.
959 Adaptec SCSI BIOS: Enabled
960 IRQ: 10
961 SCBs: Active 0, Max Active 2,
962 Allocated 15, HW 16, Page 255
963 Interrupts: 160328
964 BIOS Control Word: 0x18b6
965 Adapter Control Word: 0x005b
966 Extended Translation: Enabled
967 Disconnect Enable Flags: 0xffff
968 Ultra Enable Flags: 0x0001
969 Tag Queue Enable Flags: 0x0000
970 Ordered Queue Tag Flags: 0x0000
971 Default Tag Queue Depth: 8
972 Tagged Queue By Device array for aic7xxx host instance 0:
973 {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255}
974 Actual queue depth per device for aic7xxx host instance 0:
975 {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}
976 Statistics:
977 (scsi0:0:0:0)
978 Device using Wide/Sync transfers at 40.0 MByte/sec, offset 8
979 Transinfo settings: current(12/8/1/0), goal(12/8/1/0), user(12/15/1/0)
980 Total transfers 160151 (74577 reads and 85574 writes)
981 (scsi0:0:6:0)
982 Device using Narrow/Sync transfers at 5.0 MByte/sec, offset 15
983 Transinfo settings: current(50/15/0/0), goal(50/15/0/0), user(50/15/0/0)
984 Total transfers 0 (0 reads and 0 writes)
985
986
9871.6 Parallel port info in /proc/parport
988---------------------------------------
989
990The directory /proc/parport contains information about the parallel ports of
991your system. It has one subdirectory for each port, named after the port
992number (0,1,2,...).
993
349888ee 994These directories contain the four files shown in Table 1-10.
1da177e4
LT
995
996
349888ee 997Table 1-10: Files in /proc/parport
1da177e4
LT
998..............................................................................
999 File Content
1000 autoprobe Any IEEE-1284 device ID information that has been acquired.
1001 devices list of the device drivers using that port. A + will appear by the
1002 name of the device currently using the port (it might not appear
1003 against any).
1004 hardware Parallel port's base address, IRQ line and DMA channel.
1005 irq IRQ that parport is using for that port. This is in a separate
1006 file to allow you to alter it by writing a new value in (IRQ
1007 number or none).
1008..............................................................................
1009
10101.7 TTY info in /proc/tty
1011-------------------------
1012
1013Information about the available and actually used tty's can be found in the
1014directory /proc/tty.You'll find entries for drivers and line disciplines in
349888ee 1015this directory, as shown in Table 1-11.
1da177e4
LT
1016
1017
349888ee 1018Table 1-11: Files in /proc/tty
1da177e4
LT
1019..............................................................................
1020 File Content
1021 drivers list of drivers and their usage
1022 ldiscs registered line disciplines
1023 driver/serial usage statistic and status of single tty lines
1024..............................................................................
1025
1026To see which tty's are currently in use, you can simply look into the file
1027/proc/tty/drivers:
1028
1029 > cat /proc/tty/drivers
1030 pty_slave /dev/pts 136 0-255 pty:slave
1031 pty_master /dev/ptm 128 0-255 pty:master
1032 pty_slave /dev/ttyp 3 0-255 pty:slave
1033 pty_master /dev/pty 2 0-255 pty:master
1034 serial /dev/cua 5 64-67 serial:callout
1035 serial /dev/ttyS 4 64-67 serial
1036 /dev/tty0 /dev/tty0 4 0 system:vtmaster
1037 /dev/ptmx /dev/ptmx 5 2 system
1038 /dev/console /dev/console 5 1 system:console
1039 /dev/tty /dev/tty 5 0 system:/dev/tty
1040 unknown /dev/tty 4 1-63 console
1041
1042
10431.8 Miscellaneous kernel statistics in /proc/stat
1044-------------------------------------------------
1045
1046Various pieces of information about kernel activity are available in the
1047/proc/stat file. All of the numbers reported in this file are aggregates
1048since the system first booted. For a quick look, simply cat the file:
1049
1050 > cat /proc/stat
c574358e
ED
1051 cpu 2255 34 2290 22625563 6290 127 456 0 0
1052 cpu0 1132 34 1441 11311718 3675 127 438 0 0
1053 cpu1 1123 0 849 11313845 2614 0 18 0 0
1da177e4
LT
1054 intr 114930548 113199788 3 0 5 263 0 4 [... lots more numbers ...]
1055 ctxt 1990473
1056 btime 1062191376
1057 processes 2915
1058 procs_running 1
1059 procs_blocked 0
d3d64df2 1060 softirq 183433 0 21755 12 39 1137 231 21459 2263
1da177e4
LT
1061
1062The very first "cpu" line aggregates the numbers in all of the other "cpuN"
1063lines. These numbers identify the amount of time the CPU has spent performing
1064different kinds of work. Time units are in USER_HZ (typically hundredths of a
1065second). The meanings of the columns are as follows, from left to right:
1066
1067- user: normal processes executing in user mode
1068- nice: niced processes executing in user mode
1069- system: processes executing in kernel mode
1070- idle: twiddling thumbs
1071- iowait: waiting for I/O to complete
1072- irq: servicing interrupts
1073- softirq: servicing softirqs
b68f2c3a 1074- steal: involuntary wait
c574358e 1075- guest: running a guest
1da177e4
LT
1076
1077The "intr" line gives counts of interrupts serviced since boot time, for each
1078of the possible system interrupts. The first column is the total of all
1079interrupts serviced; each subsequent column is the total for that particular
1080interrupt.
1081
1082The "ctxt" line gives the total number of context switches across all CPUs.
1083
1084The "btime" line gives the time at which the system booted, in seconds since
1085the Unix epoch.
1086
1087The "processes" line gives the number of processes and threads created, which
1088includes (but is not limited to) those created by calls to the fork() and
1089clone() system calls.
1090
1091The "procs_running" line gives the number of processes currently running on
1092CPUs.
1093
1094The "procs_blocked" line gives the number of processes currently blocked,
1095waiting for I/O to complete.
1096
d3d64df2
KK
1097The "softirq" line gives counts of softirqs serviced since boot time, for each
1098of the possible system softirqs. The first column is the total of all
1099softirqs serviced; each subsequent column is the total for that particular
1100softirq.
1101
37515fac 1102
c9de560d
AT
11031.9 Ext4 file system parameters
1104------------------------------
37515fac
TT
1105
1106Information about mounted ext4 file systems can be found in
1107/proc/fs/ext4. Each mounted filesystem will have a directory in
1108/proc/fs/ext4 based on its device name (i.e., /proc/fs/ext4/hdc or
1109/proc/fs/ext4/dm-0). The files in each per-device directory are shown
349888ee 1110in Table 1-12, below.
37515fac 1111
349888ee 1112Table 1-12: Files in /proc/fs/ext4/<devname>
37515fac
TT
1113..............................................................................
1114 File Content
1115 mb_groups details of multiblock allocator buddy cache of free blocks
37515fac
TT
1116..............................................................................
1117
1da177e4
LT
1118
1119------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1120Summary
1121------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1122The /proc file system serves information about the running system. It not only
1123allows access to process data but also allows you to request the kernel status
1124by reading files in the hierarchy.
1125
1126The directory structure of /proc reflects the types of information and makes
1127it easy, if not obvious, where to look for specific data.
1128------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1129
1130------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1131CHAPTER 2: MODIFYING SYSTEM PARAMETERS
1132------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1133
1134------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1135In This Chapter
1136------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1137* Modifying kernel parameters by writing into files found in /proc/sys
1138* Exploring the files which modify certain parameters
1139* Review of the /proc/sys file tree
1140------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1141
1142
1143A very interesting part of /proc is the directory /proc/sys. This is not only
1144a source of information, it also allows you to change parameters within the
1145kernel. Be very careful when attempting this. You can optimize your system,
1146but you can also cause it to crash. Never alter kernel parameters on a
1147production system. Set up a development machine and test to make sure that
1148everything works the way you want it to. You may have no alternative but to
1149reboot the machine once an error has been made.
1150
1151To change a value, simply echo the new value into the file. An example is
1152given below in the section on the file system data. You need to be root to do
1153this. You can create your own boot script to perform this every time your
1154system boots.
1155
1156The files in /proc/sys can be used to fine tune and monitor miscellaneous and
1157general things in the operation of the Linux kernel. Since some of the files
1158can inadvertently disrupt your system, it is advisable to read both
1159documentation and source before actually making adjustments. In any case, be
1160very careful when writing to any of these files. The entries in /proc may
1161change slightly between the 2.1.* and the 2.2 kernel, so if there is any doubt
1162review the kernel documentation in the directory /usr/src/linux/Documentation.
1163This chapter is heavily based on the documentation included in the pre 2.2
1164kernels, and became part of it in version 2.2.1 of the Linux kernel.
1165
760df93e 1166Please see: Documentation/sysctls/ directory for descriptions of these
db0fb184 1167entries.
9d0243bc 1168
760df93e
SF
1169------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1170Summary
1171------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1172Certain aspects of kernel behavior can be modified at runtime, without the
1173need to recompile the kernel, or even to reboot the system. The files in the
1174/proc/sys tree can not only be read, but also modified. You can use the echo
1175command to write value into these files, thereby changing the default settings
1176of the kernel.
1177------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9d0243bc 1178
760df93e
SF
1179------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1180CHAPTER 3: PER-PROCESS PARAMETERS
1181------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1da177e4 1182
760df93e 11833.1 /proc/<pid>/oom_adj - Adjust the oom-killer score
d7ff0dbf
JFM
1184------------------------------------------------------
1185
0753ba01
KM
1186This file can be used to adjust the score used to select which processes
1187should be killed in an out-of-memory situation. Giving it a high score will
1188increase the likelihood of this process being killed by the oom-killer. Valid
1189values are in the range -16 to +15, plus the special value -17, which disables
1190oom-killing altogether for this process.
d7ff0dbf 1191
9e9e3cbc
EP
1192The process to be killed in an out-of-memory situation is selected among all others
1193based on its badness score. This value equals the original memory size of the process
1194and is then updated according to its CPU time (utime + stime) and the
1195run time (uptime - start time). The longer it runs the smaller is the score.
1196Badness score is divided by the square root of the CPU time and then by
1197the double square root of the run time.
1198
1199Swapped out tasks are killed first. Half of each child's memory size is added to
1200the parent's score if they do not share the same memory. Thus forking servers
1201are the prime candidates to be killed. Having only one 'hungry' child will make
1202parent less preferable than the child.
1203
1204/proc/<pid>/oom_score shows process' current badness score.
1205
1206The following heuristics are then applied:
1207 * if the task was reniced, its score doubles
1208 * superuser or direct hardware access tasks (CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
1209 or CAP_SYS_RAWIO) have their score divided by 4
495789a5 1210 * if oom condition happened in one cpuset and checked process does not belong
9e9e3cbc
EP
1211 to it, its score is divided by 8
1212 * the resulting score is multiplied by two to the power of oom_adj, i.e.
1213 points <<= oom_adj when it is positive and
1214 points >>= -(oom_adj) otherwise
1215
1216The task with the highest badness score is then selected and its children
1217are killed, process itself will be killed in an OOM situation when it does
1218not have children or some of them disabled oom like described above.
1219
760df93e 12203.2 /proc/<pid>/oom_score - Display current oom-killer score
d7ff0dbf
JFM
1221-------------------------------------------------------------
1222
d7ff0dbf
JFM
1223This file can be used to check the current score used by the oom-killer is for
1224any given <pid>. Use it together with /proc/<pid>/oom_adj to tune which
1225process should be killed in an out-of-memory situation.
1da177e4 1226
f9c99463 1227
760df93e 12283.3 /proc/<pid>/io - Display the IO accounting fields
f9c99463
RK
1229-------------------------------------------------------
1230
1231This file contains IO statistics for each running process
1232
1233Example
1234-------
1235
1236test:/tmp # dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/test.dat &
1237[1] 3828
1238
1239test:/tmp # cat /proc/3828/io
1240rchar: 323934931
1241wchar: 323929600
1242syscr: 632687
1243syscw: 632675
1244read_bytes: 0
1245write_bytes: 323932160
1246cancelled_write_bytes: 0
1247
1248
1249Description
1250-----------
1251
1252rchar
1253-----
1254
1255I/O counter: chars read
1256The number of bytes which this task has caused to be read from storage. This
1257is simply the sum of bytes which this process passed to read() and pread().
1258It includes things like tty IO and it is unaffected by whether or not actual
1259physical disk IO was required (the read might have been satisfied from
1260pagecache)
1261
1262
1263wchar
1264-----
1265
1266I/O counter: chars written
1267The number of bytes which this task has caused, or shall cause to be written
1268to disk. Similar caveats apply here as with rchar.
1269
1270
1271syscr
1272-----
1273
1274I/O counter: read syscalls
1275Attempt to count the number of read I/O operations, i.e. syscalls like read()
1276and pread().
1277
1278
1279syscw
1280-----
1281
1282I/O counter: write syscalls
1283Attempt to count the number of write I/O operations, i.e. syscalls like
1284write() and pwrite().
1285
1286
1287read_bytes
1288----------
1289
1290I/O counter: bytes read
1291Attempt to count the number of bytes which this process really did cause to
1292be fetched from the storage layer. Done at the submit_bio() level, so it is
1293accurate for block-backed filesystems. <please add status regarding NFS and
1294CIFS at a later time>
1295
1296
1297write_bytes
1298-----------
1299
1300I/O counter: bytes written
1301Attempt to count the number of bytes which this process caused to be sent to
1302the storage layer. This is done at page-dirtying time.
1303
1304
1305cancelled_write_bytes
1306---------------------
1307
1308The big inaccuracy here is truncate. If a process writes 1MB to a file and
1309then deletes the file, it will in fact perform no writeout. But it will have
1310been accounted as having caused 1MB of write.
1311In other words: The number of bytes which this process caused to not happen,
1312by truncating pagecache. A task can cause "negative" IO too. If this task
1313truncates some dirty pagecache, some IO which another task has been accounted
1314for (in it's write_bytes) will not be happening. We _could_ just subtract that
1315from the truncating task's write_bytes, but there is information loss in doing
1316that.
1317
1318
1319Note
1320----
1321
1322At its current implementation state, this is a bit racy on 32-bit machines: if
1323process A reads process B's /proc/pid/io while process B is updating one of
1324those 64-bit counters, process A could see an intermediate result.
1325
1326
1327More information about this can be found within the taskstats documentation in
1328Documentation/accounting.
1329
760df93e 13303.4 /proc/<pid>/coredump_filter - Core dump filtering settings
bb90110d
KH
1331---------------------------------------------------------------
1332When a process is dumped, all anonymous memory is written to a core file as
1333long as the size of the core file isn't limited. But sometimes we don't want
1334to dump some memory segments, for example, huge shared memory. Conversely,
1335sometimes we want to save file-backed memory segments into a core file, not
1336only the individual files.
1337
1338/proc/<pid>/coredump_filter allows you to customize which memory segments
1339will be dumped when the <pid> process is dumped. coredump_filter is a bitmask
1340of memory types. If a bit of the bitmask is set, memory segments of the
1341corresponding memory type are dumped, otherwise they are not dumped.
1342
e575f111 1343The following 7 memory types are supported:
bb90110d
KH
1344 - (bit 0) anonymous private memory
1345 - (bit 1) anonymous shared memory
1346 - (bit 2) file-backed private memory
1347 - (bit 3) file-backed shared memory
b261dfea
HK
1348 - (bit 4) ELF header pages in file-backed private memory areas (it is
1349 effective only if the bit 2 is cleared)
e575f111
KM
1350 - (bit 5) hugetlb private memory
1351 - (bit 6) hugetlb shared memory
bb90110d
KH
1352
1353 Note that MMIO pages such as frame buffer are never dumped and vDSO pages
1354 are always dumped regardless of the bitmask status.
1355
e575f111
KM
1356 Note bit 0-4 doesn't effect any hugetlb memory. hugetlb memory are only
1357 effected by bit 5-6.
1358
1359Default value of coredump_filter is 0x23; this means all anonymous memory
1360segments and hugetlb private memory are dumped.
bb90110d
KH
1361
1362If you don't want to dump all shared memory segments attached to pid 1234,
e575f111 1363write 0x21 to the process's proc file.
bb90110d 1364
e575f111 1365 $ echo 0x21 > /proc/1234/coredump_filter
bb90110d
KH
1366
1367When a new process is created, the process inherits the bitmask status from its
1368parent. It is useful to set up coredump_filter before the program runs.
1369For example:
1370
1371 $ echo 0x7 > /proc/self/coredump_filter
1372 $ ./some_program
1373
760df93e 13743.5 /proc/<pid>/mountinfo - Information about mounts
2d4d4864
RP
1375--------------------------------------------------------
1376
1377This file contains lines of the form:
1378
137936 35 98:0 /mnt1 /mnt2 rw,noatime master:1 - ext3 /dev/root rw,errors=continue
1380(1)(2)(3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)
1381
1382(1) mount ID: unique identifier of the mount (may be reused after umount)
1383(2) parent ID: ID of parent (or of self for the top of the mount tree)
1384(3) major:minor: value of st_dev for files on filesystem
1385(4) root: root of the mount within the filesystem
1386(5) mount point: mount point relative to the process's root
1387(6) mount options: per mount options
1388(7) optional fields: zero or more fields of the form "tag[:value]"
1389(8) separator: marks the end of the optional fields
1390(9) filesystem type: name of filesystem of the form "type[.subtype]"
1391(10) mount source: filesystem specific information or "none"
1392(11) super options: per super block options
1393
1394Parsers should ignore all unrecognised optional fields. Currently the
1395possible optional fields are:
1396
1397shared:X mount is shared in peer group X
1398master:X mount is slave to peer group X
97e7e0f7 1399propagate_from:X mount is slave and receives propagation from peer group X (*)
2d4d4864
RP
1400unbindable mount is unbindable
1401
97e7e0f7
MS
1402(*) X is the closest dominant peer group under the process's root. If
1403X is the immediate master of the mount, or if there's no dominant peer
1404group under the same root, then only the "master:X" field is present
1405and not the "propagate_from:X" field.
1406
2d4d4864
RP
1407For more information on mount propagation see:
1408
1409 Documentation/filesystems/sharedsubtree.txt
1410