[PATCH] prctl: Add documentation for PR_FUTEX_HASH
From: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
Date: 2025-05-16 16:14:26
Also in:
lkml
Subsystem:
the rest · Maintainer:
Linus Torvalds
The prctl(PR_FUTEX_HASH) is queued for the v6.16 merge window. Add some documentation of the interface. Signed-off-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de> --- man/man2/prctl.2 | 3 + man/man2const/PR_FUTEX_HASH.2const | 112 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 115 insertions(+) create mode 100644 man/man2const/PR_FUTEX_HASH.2const
diff --git a/man/man2/prctl.2 b/man/man2/prctl.2
index 7a6b73e25e7a8..30c868d051a0c 100644
--- a/man/man2/prctl.2
+++ b/man/man2/prctl.2@@ -150,6 +150,8 @@ with a significance depending on the first one. .B PR_GET_MDWE .TQ .B PR_RISCV_SET_ICACHE_FLUSH_CTX +.TQ +.B PR_FUTEX_HASH .SH RETURN VALUE On success, a nonnegative value is returned.
@@ -262,4 +264,5 @@ so these operations should be used with care. .BR PR_SET_MDWE (2const), .BR PR_GET_MDWE (2const), .BR PR_RISCV_SET_ICACHE_FLUSH_CTX (2const), +.BR PR_FUTEX_HASH (2const), .BR core (5)
diff --git a/man/man2const/PR_FUTEX_HASH.2const b/man/man2const/PR_FUTEX_HASH.2const
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..c6a6396729770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/man2const/PR_FUTEX_HASH.2const@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ +.\" Copyright, The contributors to the Linux man-pages project +.\" +.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft +.\" +.TH PR_FUTEX_HASH 2const (date) "Linux man-pages (unreleased)" +.SH NAME +PR_FUTEX_HASH +\- +configure the private futex hash +.SH LIBRARY +Standard C library +.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc ) +.SH SYNOPSIS +.nf +.BR "#include <linux/prctl.h>" " /* Definition of " PR_* " constants */" +.B #include <sys/prctl.h> +.P +.BI "int prctl(PR_FUTEX_HASH, long " op ", ...);" +.fi +.SH DESCRIPTION +Configure the attributes for the underlying hash used by the +.BR futex (2) +family of operations. The Linux kernel uses a hash to distributes the +.BR futex (2) +users on different data structures. The data structure holds the in-kernel +representation of the operation and keeps track of the current users which are +enqueued and wait for a wake up and those who perform a wake up. The size of +the global hash is determined at boot time and is based on the number of CPUs +in the system. Since the mapping from the provided +.I uaddr +value to the in-kernel representation is based on a hash, two unrelated tasks +in the system can share the same hash bucket. This in turn can lead to delays +of the due +.BR futex (2) +operation due to to lock contention of the data structure. These delays can be +problematic on a PREEMPT_RT system since random tasks can share in-kernel locks +and it is not deterministic which tasks will be involved. +.P +Linux v6.16 implements a process wide private hash which is used by all +.BR futex (2) +operations which specify the +.B FUTEX_PRIVATE_FLAG +as part of the operation. +Without any configuration the kernel will allocate 16 hash slots once the first +thread has been created. If the process continues to create threads, the kernel +will try to resize the private hash based on the number of threads and +available CPUs in the system. The kernel will only increase the size and will +make sure it does not exceed the size of the global hash. +.P +The user can configure the size of the private hash which will also disable the +automatic resize provided by the kernel. +.P +The following values for +.I op +can be specified: +.TP +.BI "int prctl(PR_FUTEX_HASH, PR_FUTEX_HASH_SET_SLOTS, " hash_size ", " hash_flags "); +Set the number of slots to use for the private hash. +.P +.RS +.TP +.I hash_size +Specifies the size of private hash to allocate. Possible values are: +.RS +.TP +.I 0 +Use the global hash. This is the behaviour used before v6.16. The operation can +not be undone. +.TP +.I >0 +Specifies the number of slots to allocate. The value must be power of two and +lowest possible value is 2. The upper limit depends on available memory in +the system. Each slot requires 64bytes of memory. Kernels compiled with +.I CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING +will consume more than that. +.RE +.TP +.I hash_flags +.RS +The following flags can be specified: +.TP +.I FH_FLAG_IMMUTABLE +The private hash can no longer be changed. By using an immutable privat hash +the kernel can avoid some accounting for the data structure. This accounting +is visible in benchmarks if many +.BR futex (2) +operations are invoked in parallel on different CPUs. +.RE +.RE +.TP +.BI "int prctl(PR_FUTEX_HASH, PR_FUTEX_HASH_GET_SLOTS); +Returns the current size of the the private hash. A value of 0 means that a +private has not been allocated or the global hash is used. A value >0 specifies +the size of the private hash. +.TP +.BI "int prctl(PR_FUTEX_HASH, PR_FUTEX_HASH_GET_IMMUTABLE); +Return 1 if the hash has been made immutable and not be changed. Otherwise 0. + +.SH RETURN VALUE +On success, +these calls return a value >=0. +On error, \-1 is returned, and +.I errno +is set to indicate the error. +.SH STANDARDS +Linux. +.SH HISTORY +Linux 6.16. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR prctl (2) , +.BR futex (2) , +.BR futex (7)
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