move_pages(2) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | STANDARDS | HISTORY | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

move_pages(2)              System Calls Manual             move_pages(2)

NAME         top

       move_pages - move individual pages of a process to another node

LIBRARY         top

       NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) policy library (libnuma, -lnuma)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <numaif.h>

       long move_pages(int pid, unsigned long count, void *pages[.count],
                       const int nodes[.count], int status[.count], int flags);

DESCRIPTION         top

       move_pages() moves the specified pages of the process pid to the
       memory nodes specified by nodes.  The result of the move is
       reflected in status.  The flags indicate constraints on the pages
       to be moved.

       pid is the ID of the process in which pages are to be moved.  If
       pid is 0, then move_pages() moves pages of the calling process.

       To move pages in another process requires the following
       privileges:

       •  Up to and including Linux 4.12: the caller must be privileged
          (CAP_SYS_NICE) or the real or effective user ID of the calling
          process must match the real or saved-set user ID of the target
          process.

       •  The older rules allowed the caller to discover various virtual
          address choices made by the kernel that could lead to the
          defeat of address-space-layout randomization for a process
          owned by the same UID as the caller, the rules were changed
          starting with Linux 4.13.  Since Linux 4.13, permission is
          governed by a ptrace access mode PTRACE_MODE_READ_REALCREDS
          check with respect to the target process; see ptrace(2).

       count is the number of pages to move.  It defines the size of the
       three arrays pages, nodes, and status.

       pages is an array of pointers to the pages that should be moved.
       These are pointers that should be aligned to page boundaries.
       Addresses are specified as seen by the process specified by pid.

       nodes is an array of integers that specify the desired location
       for each page.  Each element in the array is a node number.
       nodes can also be NULL, in which case move_pages() does not move
       any pages but instead will return the node where each page
       currently resides, in the status array.  Obtaining the status of
       each page may be necessary to determine pages that need to be
       moved.

       status is an array of integers that return the status of each
       page.  The array contains valid values only if move_pages() did
       not return an error.  Preinitialization of the array to a value
       which cannot represent a real numa node or valid error of status
       array could help to identify pages that have been migrated.

       flags specify what types of pages to move.  MPOL_MF_MOVE means
       that only pages that are in exclusive use by the process are to
       be moved.  MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL means that pages shared between
       multiple processes can also be moved.  The process must be
       privileged (CAP_SYS_NICE) to use MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL.

   Page states in the status array
       The following values can be returned in each element of the
       status array.

       0..MAX_NUMNODES
              Identifies the node on which the page resides.

       -EACCES
              The page is mapped by multiple processes and can be moved
              only if MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL is specified.

       -EBUSY The page is currently busy and cannot be moved.  Try again
              later.  This occurs if a page is undergoing I/O or another
              kernel subsystem is holding a reference to the page.

       -EFAULT
              This is a zero page or the memory area is not mapped by
              the process.

       -EIO   Unable to write back a page.  The page has to be written
              back in order to move it since the page is dirty and the
              filesystem does not provide a migration function that
              would allow the move of dirty pages.

       -EINVAL
              A dirty page cannot be moved.  The filesystem does not
              provide a migration function and has no ability to write
              back pages.

       -ENOENT
              The page is not present.

       -ENOMEM
              Unable to allocate memory on target node.

RETURN VALUE         top

       On success move_pages() returns zero.  On error, it returns -1,
       and sets errno to indicate the error.  If positive value is
       returned, it is the number of nonmigrated pages.

ERRORS         top

       Positive value
              The number of nonmigrated pages if they were the result of
              nonfatal reasons (since Linux 4.17).

       E2BIG  Too many pages to move.  Since Linux 2.6.29, the kernel no
              longer generates this error.

       EACCES One of the target nodes is not allowed by the current
              cpuset.

       EFAULT Parameter array could not be accessed.

       EINVAL Flags other than MPOL_MF_MOVE and MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL was
              specified or an attempt was made to migrate pages of a
              kernel thread.

       ENODEV One of the target nodes is not online.

       EPERM  The caller specified MPOL_MF_MOVE_ALL without sufficient
              privileges (CAP_SYS_NICE).  Or, the caller attempted to
              move pages of a process belonging to another user but did
              not have privilege to do so (CAP_SYS_NICE).

       ESRCH  Process does not exist.

STANDARDS         top

       Linux.

HISTORY         top

       Linux 2.6.18.

NOTES         top

       For information on library support, see numa(7).

       Use get_mempolicy(2) with the MPOL_F_MEMS_ALLOWED flag to obtain
       the set of nodes that are allowed by the current cpuset.  Note
       that this information is subject to change at any time by manual
       or automatic reconfiguration of the cpuset.

       Use of this function may result in pages whose location (node)
       violates the memory policy established for the specified
       addresses (See mbind(2)) and/or the specified process (See
       set_mempolicy(2)).  That is, memory policy does not constrain the
       destination nodes used by move_pages().

       The <numaif.h> header is not included with glibc, but requires
       installing libnuma-devel or a similar package.

SEE ALSO         top

       get_mempolicy(2), mbind(2), set_mempolicy(2), numa(3),
       numa_maps(5), cpuset(7), numa(7), migratepages(8), numastat(8)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the man-pages (Linux kernel and C library
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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                  move_pages(2)

Pages that refer to this page: syscalls(2)numa(3)capabilities(7)numa(7)