NAME

sched,resched,getsched - change a process' scheduler/priority

SYNOPSIS

sched [-h] [-v] -r|-o|-f priority program [args, ..]

resched [-h] [-v] -r|-o|-f pid [priority]

getsched [-h] pid [pid, ...]

DESCRIPTION

schedutils are some utilities used to manipulate the scheduling and priority of processes on *nix systems. This is realized with the functions found in sched.h, see the manpage for sched_setscheduler(2) for more info about what's going on.

sched runs a new program under the specified scheduler and priority, resched is used to change the scheduler and/or priority of already running processes identified with their pid. getsched is a little utility that prints the scheduler and priority of running processes identified with their pid, it does not alter anything. Usually only the superuser(root) are allowed to change scheduling parameters.

OPTIONS

-h print help

-v be verbose, prints out the scheduler/priority before and after it's changed.

-r Round Robin scheduler

-f FIFO scheduler

-o Other scheduler, this is the 'default' scheduler that normal processes start under.

SCHEDULING

The scheduler is the part of the kernel that decides which process that will get the CPU next. Posix defines three diffrent policies that can be used to decide this. See sched_setscheduler for an in-depth explanation for the platform you use.

Other the default timesharing scheduler used by normal processes. The 'Other' scheduler uses the lowest priority 0 , and it cannot be set higher.

FIFO First In First Out must have a priority in the range 1-99 and uses a simple fifo queue to hold the processes A process that is executed will continue to execute until it's either preempted by a process with higher priority, gives up the CPU (e.g. by calling sched_yield) or performs a call that blocks. Then then next process in the queue can run.

Round Robin must have a priority in the range 1-99 and are very similar to FIFO, except it uses timesharing between the processes in the queue, a running process will therefore give up the CPU to another process with the same priority when it has used its time quantum.

NOTES

When a process is run under another scheduler than the default (Other) it can never be preempted by a process with a lower priority. So, if a process run under another scheduler uses the CPU heavily, or worse have e.g. a bug that causes it to go in an infinite loop, no other process might ever run and the machine might look completely locked, unless there is an open shell running somewhere with a even higher priority, one can execute commands and possibly kill the process.

BUGS

None known, report any you find to http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=399898&group_id=30636&func=browse

AUTHOR

Nils O. Selåsdal <NOS@Utel.no>