July 23rd, 2024

The challenges of working out how many CPUs your program can use on Linux

Determining CPU utilization on Linux poses challenges. Methods like /proc/cpuinfo, sched_getaffinity(), and cgroup limits are discussed. Programs may overlook CPU restrictions, causing performance issues. Recommendations include taskset(1) for efficient CPU management, crucial for system performance.

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The challenges of working out how many CPUs your program can use on Linux

The article discusses the challenges of determining the number of CPUs a program can utilize on Linux systems. Various methods are outlined, including reading /proc/cpuinfo, using sched_getaffinity(), and checking cgroup-based resource limits. The author highlights issues with programs not recognizing CPU affinity restrictions or cgroup-based limits, leading to performance problems like high load averages. Recommendations are made to use tools like taskset(1) to manage CPU usage effectively, especially on single-user machines. The importance of understanding and managing CPU resources is emphasized to prevent over-subscription and performance issues. The article provides insights into how different methods can impact program parallelism and system performance, based on the available CPU resources.

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Link Icon 3 comments
By @telotortium - 3 months
See also my comment for how to determine this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38185277
By @EionRobb - 3 months
If their complaint is that there's no lightweight API or cli app that provides this info, why not make one?