submit=echo 'pbind -b...' > dobmk; sh dobmk (SPEC tools, Unix shell)
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is often used to
cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. If so, the specific command may be found in the config file; here
is a guide to understanding that command:
pbind -b causes this copy's processes to be bound to the CPU specified by the expression that follows it. See the config file used in the submission for the exact syntax, which tends to be cumbersome because of the need to carefully quote parts of the expression. When all expressions are evaluated, the jobs are typically distributed evenly across the system, with each chip running the same number of jobs as all other chips, and each core running the same number of jobs as all other cores.
The pbind expression may include various elements from the SPEC toolset and from standard Unix commands, such as:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<directories>
LD_LIBRARY_PATH controls the search order for both the compile-time and run-time linkers. Usually, it can be
defaulted; but testers may sometimes choose to explicitly set it (as documented in the notes in the submission), in order to
ensure that the correct versions of libraries are picked up.
MADV=access_lwp and LD_PRELOAD=madv.so.1
When the madv.so.1 shared object is present in the LD_PRELOAD list, it is possible to provide advice to the system
about how memory is likely to be accessed. The advice present in MADV applies to all processes and their descendants. A
commonly used value is access_lwp, which means that when memory is allocated, the next process to touch it will be
the primary user. Examples of other possible values include sequential, for memory that is used only once and
then no longer needed and acces_many when many processes will be sharing data.
MPSSHEAP=<size>, MPSSSTACK=<size>, and
LD_PRELOAD=mpss.so.1
When these variables are set, the mpss.so.1 shared object will set the preferred page size for new processes, and their
descendants, to the requested sizes for the heap and stack.
Platform settings
One or more of the following settings may have been applied to the testbed. If so, the "Platform Notes" section of the report will say so; and you can read below to find out more about what these settings mean.
autoup=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
When the file system flush daemon fsflush runs, it writes to disk all modified file buffers that are more
than n seconds old.
bufhwm=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
Sets the upper limit of the file system buffer cache. The units for bufhwm are in kilobytes.
cpu_bringup_set=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
Specifies which processors are enabled at boot time. <n> represents a bitmap of the
processors to be brought online.
poweradm set administrative-authority=none (Unix, superuser commands)
Solaris power management settings are determined by an 'administrative-authority'. When the authority is set to
'none', Solaris does not attempt to manage power.
psrset -c <n> (Unix, superuser commands)
Creates a new processor set and displays the new processor set ID.
psrset -e <n> (Unix, superuser commands)
Executes a command (with optional arguments) in the specified processor set.
The command process and any child processes are executed only by processors in the processor set.
segmap_percent=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
This value controls the size of the segmap cache as a percent of total memory. Set this value to help keep the file system cache from consuming memory unnecessarily.
STACKSIZE=<n> (Unix environment variable)
Set the size of the stack (temporary storage area) for each slave thread of a multithreaded program.
svcadm disable webconsole (Unix, superuser commands)
Turns off the Sun Web Console, a browser-based interface that performs systems management.
If it is enabled, system administrators can manage systems, devices and services from remote systems.
ts_dispatch_extended=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
Controls which dispatch table is loaded upon boot. A value of 1 loads the large system table, a value of 0 loads the regular system table.
tune_t_fsflushr=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
Controls the number of seconds between runs of the file system flush daemon, fsflush.
user_reserve_hint_pct=<n> (Unix /etc/system)
Informs the system about how much memory is expected
to be used by applications (as a percentage).
Power management policy (Integrated Lights Out Manager, ILOM)
The power management settings available from the ILOM menus, and their meanings, are: