NAME
cpulimit -- limits the CPU usage of a process
SYNOPSIS
cpulimit TARGET [OPTIONS...]
DESCRIPTION
TARGET must be exactly one of these:
-p, --pid=N
pid of the process
-e, --exe=FILE
name of the executable program file
-P, --path=PATH
absolute path name of the executable program file
OPTIONS
-l, --limit=N
percentage of CPU allowed from 0 to 100 (mandatory)
-v, --verbose
show control statistics
-z, --lazy
exit if there is no suitable target process, or if it dies
-h, --help
display this help and exit
EXAMPLES
Assuming you have started ‘foo --bar‘ and you find out with top(1) or
ps(1) that this process uses all your CPU time you can either
# cpulimit -e foo -l 50
limits the CPU usage of the process by acting on the executable
program file (note: the argument "--bar" is omitted)
# cpulimit -p 1234 -l 50
limits the CPU usage of the process by acting on its PID, as
shown by ps(1)
# cpulimit -P /usr/bin/foo -l 50
same as -e but uses the absolute path name
NOTES
· cpulimit always sends the SIGSTOP and SIGCONT signals to a process,
both to verify that it can control it and to limit the average
amount of CPU it consumes. This can result in misleading
(annoying) job control messages that indicate that the job has been
stopped (when actually it was, but immediately restarted). This
can also cause issues with interactive shells that detect or
otherwise depend on SIGSTOP/SIGCONT. For example, you may place a
job in the foreground, only to see it immediately stopped and
restarted in the background. (See also
<http://bugs.debian.org/558763>.)
· When invoked with the -e or -P options, cpulimit looks for any
process under /proc with a name that matches the process name
argument given. Furthermore, it uses the first instance of the
process found. To control a specific instance of a process, use
the -p option and provide a PID.
· The current version of cpulimit assumes the kernel HZ value 100.
AUTHOR
This manpage was written for the Debian project by gregor herrmann
<gregoa@debian.org> but may be used by others.