Manual: numactl
NUMACTL(8) Linux Administrator's Manual NUMACTL(8)
NAME
numactl - Control NUMA policy for processes or shared memory
SYNOPSIS
numactl [ --all ] [ --balancing ] [ --interleave nodes ] [ --weighted-interleave nodes ] [ --pre‐
ferred node ] [ --preferred-many nodes ] [ --membind nodes ] [ --cpunodebind nodes ] [ --physcpubind
cpus ] [ --localalloc ] [--] command {arguments ...}
numactl --show
numactl --hardware [--cpu-compress]
numactl --version
numactl [ --huge ] [ --offset offset ] [ --shmmode shmmode ] [ --length length ] [ --strict ]
[ --shmid id ] --shm shmkeyfile | --file tmpfsfile
[ --touch ] [ --dump ] [ --dump-nodes ] memory policy
DESCRIPTION
numactl runs processes with a specific NUMA scheduling or memory placement policy. The policy is set
for command and inherited by all of its children. In addition it can set persistent policy for
shared memory segments or files.
Use -- before command if using command options that could be confused with numactl options.
nodes may be specified as N,N,N or N-N or N,N-N or N-N,N-N and so forth. Relative nodes may be
specified as +N,N,N or +N-N or +N,N-N and so forth. The + indicates that the node numbers are rela‐
tive to the process' set of allowed nodes in its current cpuset. A !N-N notation indicates the in‐
verse of N-N, in other words all nodes except N-N. If used with + notation, specify !+N-N. When same
is specified the previous nodemask specified on the command line is used. all means all nodes in the
current cpuset.
Instead of a number a node can also be:
netdev:DEV The node connected to network device DEV.
file:PATH The node the block device of PATH.
ip:HOST The node of the network device of HOST
block:PATH The node of block device PATH
pci:[seg:]bus:dev[:func] The node of a PCI device.
Note that block resolves the kernel block device names only for udev names in /dev use file:
Policy settings are:
--all, -a
Unset default cpuset awareness, so user can use all possible CPUs/nodes for following policy
settings.
--interleave=nodes, -i nodes
Set a memory interleave policy. Memory will be allocated using round robin on nodes. When
memory cannot be allocated on the current interleave target fall back to other nodes. Multi‐
ple nodes may be specified on --interleave, --membind and --cpunodebind.
--weighted-interleave=nodes, -w nodes
Set a weighted memory interleave policy. Memory will be allocated using the weighted ratio for
each node, which can be read from /sys/kernel/mm/mempolicy/weighted_interleave/node*. When
memory cannot be allocated on the current interleave target fall back to other nodes.
--membind=nodes, -m nodes
Only allocate memory from nodes. Allocation will fail when there is not enough memory avail‐
able on these nodes. nodes may be specified as noted above.
--cpunodebind=nodes, -N nodes
Only execute command on the CPUs of nodes. Note that nodes may consist of multiple CPUs.
nodes may be specified as noted above.
--physcpubind=cpus, -C cpus
Only execute process on cpus. This accepts cpu numbers as shown in the processor fields of
/proc/cpuinfo, or relative cpus as in relative to the current cpuset. You may specify "all",
which means all cpus in the current cpuset. Physical cpus may be specified as N,N,N or N-N
or N,N-N or N-N,N-N and so forth. Relative cpus may be specified as +N,N,N or +N-N or +N,N-
N and so forth. The + indicates that the cpu numbers are relative to the process' set of al‐
lowed cpus in its current cpuset. A !N-N notation indicates the inverse of N-N, in other
words all cpus except N-N. If used with + notation, specify !+N-N.
--localalloc, -l
Try to allocate on the current node of the process, but if memory cannot be allocated there
fall back to other nodes.
--preferred=node, -p node
Preferably allocate memory on node, but if memory cannot be allocated there fall back to other
nodes. This option takes only a single node number. Relative notation may be used.
--balancing, -b
Enable Linux kernel NUMA balancing for the process if it is supported by kernel. This should
only be used with --membind, -m only, otherwise ignored.
--preferred-many=nodes, -P nodes
Preferably allocate memory on nodes, but if memory cannot be allocated there fall back to
other nodes. This option takes a mask of preferred nodes where the closest node to local is
considered most preferred. Relative notation may be used.
--show, -s
Show NUMA policy settings of the current process.
--hardware, -H
Show inventory of available nodes on the system. When the --cpu-compress option is set show
cpu ranges. This is not default not break any existing scripts.
Numactl can set up policy for a SYSV shared memory segment or a file in shmfs/hugetlbfs.
--version
print the version of the numactl package and exit.
The following policy settings are persistent and will be used by
all mappings from that shared memory. The order of options matters here. The specification must at
least include either of --shm, --shmid, --file to specify the shared memory segment or file and a
memory policy like described above ( --interleave, --localalloc, --preferred, --preferred-many,
--membind ).
--huge
When creating a SYSV shared memory segment use huge pages. Only valid before --shmid or --shm
--offset
Specify offset into the shared memory segment. Default 0. Valid units are m (for MB), g (for GB), k
(for KB), otherwise it specifies bytes.
--strict
Give an error when a page in the policied area in the shared memory segment already was faulted in
with a conflicting policy. Default is to silently ignore this.
--shmmode shmmode
Only valid before --shmid or --shm When creating a shared memory segment set it to numeric mode shm‐
mode.
--length length
Apply policy to length range in the shared memory segment or make the segment length long Default is
to use the remaining length Required when a shared memory segment is created and specifies the length
of the new segment then. Valid units are m (for MB), g (for GB), k (for KB), otherwise it specifies
bytes.
--shmid id
Create or use a shared memory segment with numeric ID id
--shm shmkeyfile
Create or use a shared memory segment, with the ID generated using ftok(3) from shmkeyfile
--file tmpfsfile
Set policy for a file in tmpfs or hugetlbfs
--touch
Touch pages to enforce policy early. Default is to not touch them, the policy is applied when an ap‐
plications maps and accesses a page.
--dump
Dump policy in the specified range.
--dump-nodes
Dump all nodes of the specific range (very verbose!)
Valid node specifiers
all All nodes
number Node number
number1{,number2} Node number1 and Node number2
number1-number2 Nodes from number1 to number2
! nodes Invert selection of the following specification.
EXAMPLES
numactl --physcpubind=+0-4,8-12 myapplic arguments Run myapplic on cpus 0-4 and 8-12 of the current
cpuset.
numactl --interleave=all bigdatabase arguments Run big database with its memory interleaved on all
CPUs.
numactl --weighted-interleave=all bigdatabase arguments Run big database with its memory interleaved
with weighted ratio on all CPUs.
numactl --cpunodebind=0 --membind=0,1 process Run process on node 0 with memory allocated on node 0
and 1.
numactl --cpunodebind=0 --membind=0,1 -- process -l Run process as above, but with an option (-l)
that would be confused with a numactl option.
numactl --cpunodebind=0 --balancing --membind=0,1 process Run process on node 0 with memory allocated
on node 0 and 1. Optimize the page placement with Linux kernel NUMA balancing mechanism if possible.
numactl --cpunodebind=netdev:eth0 --membind=netdev:eth0 network-server Run network-server on the node
of network device eth0 with its memory also in the same node.
numactl --preferred=1 numactl --show Set preferred node 1 and show the resulting state.
numactl --preferred-many=0x3 numactl --show Set preferred nodes 1 and 2, and show the resulting
state.
numactl --length 1g --shm /tmp/shmkey --interleave=all Interleave all of the sysv shared memory re‐
gion of size 1g specified by /tmp/shmkey over all nodes.
Place a tmpfs file on 2 nodes:
numactl --membind=2 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/A bs=1M count=1024
numactl --membind=3 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/A seek=1024 bs=1M count=1024
numactl --localalloc /dev/shm/file Reset the policy for the shared memory file file to the default
localalloc policy.
NOTES
Requires a NUMA policy aware kernel.
Command is not executed using a shell. If you want to use shell metacharacters in the child use sh -c
as wrapper.
Setting policy for a hugetlbfs file does currently not work because it cannot be extended by trun‐
cate.
Shared memory segments larger than numactl's address space cannot be completely policied. This could
be a problem on 32bit architectures. Changing it piece by piece may work.
The old --cpubind which accepts node numbers, not cpu numbers, is deprecated and replaced with the
new --cpunodebind and --physcpubind options.
FILES
/proc/cpuinfo for the listing of active CPUs. See proc(5) for details.
/sys/devices/system/node/node*/numastat for NUMA memory hit statistics.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2002,2004 Andi Kleen, SuSE Labs. numactl and the demo programs are under the GNU General
Public License, v.2
SEE ALSO
set_mempolicy(2) , get_mempolicy(2) , mbind(2) , sched_setaffinity(2) , sched_getaffinity(2) ,
proc(5) , ftok(3) , shmat(2) , migratepages(8)
SuSE Labs Mar 2004 NUMACTL(8)