From: Vishal Chourasia <vishalc@linux.ibm.com>
To: "Tejun Heo" <tj@kernel.org>,
"Johannes Weiner" <hannes@cmpxchg.org>,
"Michal Koutný" <mkoutny@suse.com>,
"Jonathan Corbet" <corbet@lwn.net>,
cgroups@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, llong@redhat.com,
bagasdotme@gmail.com
Cc: Vishal Chourasia <vishalc@linux.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2] Documentation: cgroup: add section explaining controller availability
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 20:24:22 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250605145421.193189-2-vishalc@linux.ibm.com> (raw)
A new documentation section titled "Availability" has been added to
describe the meaning of a controller being available in a cgroup,
complementing the existing "Enabling and Disabling" section.
This update improves the clarity of cgroup controller management by
explicitly distinguishing between:
1. Availability – when a controller is supported by the kernel and
listed in "cgroup.controllers", making its interface files accessible
in the cgroup's directory.
2. Enabling – when a controller is enabled via explicitly writing the
name of the controller to "cgroup.subtree_control" to control
distribution of resource across the cgroup's immediate children.
As an example, consider
/sys/fs/cgroup # cat cgroup.controllers
cpuset cpu io memory hugetlb pids misc
/sys/fs/cgroup # cat cgroup.subtree_control # No controllers enabled by default
/sys/fs/cgroup # echo +cpu +memory > cgroup.subtree_control # enabling "cpu" and "memory"
/sys/fs/cgroup # cat cgroup.subtree_control
cpu memory # cpu and memory enabled in /sys/fs/cgroup
/sys/fs/cgroup # mkdir foo_cgrp
/sys/fs/cgroup # cd foo_cgrp/
/sys/fs/cgroup/foo_cgrp # cat cgroup.controllers
cpu memory # cpu and memory available in 'foo_cgrp'
/sys/fs/cgroup/foo_cgrp # cat cgroup.subtree_control # empty by default
/sys/fs/cgroup/foo_cgrp # ls
cgroup.controllers cpu.max.burst memory.numa_stat
cgroup.events cpu.pressure memory.oom.group
cgroup.freeze cpu.stat memory.peak
cgroup.kill cpu.stat.local memory.pressure
cgroup.max.depth cpu.weight memory.reclaim
cgroup.max.descendants cpu.weight.nice memory.stat
cgroup.pressure io.pressure memory.swap.current
cgroup.procs memory.current memory.swap.events
cgroup.stat memory.events memory.swap.high
cgroup.subtree_control memory.events.local memory.swap.max
cgroup.threads memory.high memory.swap.peak
cgroup.type memory.low memory.zswap.current
cpu.idle memory.max memory.zswap.max
cpu.max memory.min memory.zswap.writeback
In this example, "cpu" and "memory" are enabled in the root cgroup,
making them available in "foo_cgrp". This exposes the corresponding
interface files in "foo_cgrp/", allowing resource control of processes
in that cgroup. However, these controllers are not yet enabled in
"foo_cgrp" itself.
Once a controller is available in a cgroup it can be used to resource
control processes of the cgroup.
Signed-off-by: Vishal Chourasia <vishalc@linux.ibm.com>
---
Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst | 9 +++++++++
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
index 0cc35a14afbe..31acc64e656f 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
@@ -435,6 +435,15 @@ both cgroups.
Controlling Controllers
-----------------------
+Availablity
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A controller is available in a cgroup when it is supported by the kernel (i.e.,
+compiled in, not disabled and not attached to a v1 hierarchy) and listed in the
+"cgroup.controllers" file. Availability means the controller's interface files
+are exposed in the cgroup’s directory, allowing the distribution of the target
+resource to be observed or controlled within that cgroup.
+
Enabling and Disabling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--
2.49.0
next reply other threads:[~2025-06-05 14:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-06-05 14:54 Vishal Chourasia [this message]
2025-06-05 15:50 ` [PATCH v2] Documentation: cgroup: add section explaining controller availability Michal Koutný
2025-06-05 22:56 ` Bagas Sanjaya
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