ee3ed4b45e
We originally approached the potential problem of % CPU distortions as unique to Nehalem type cpus. The latest information suggests that it may have been due to a kernel anomaly that has since been corrected. Yet even without such a cpu, wide disparities in tics allocation among all available cpus have sometimes been observed -- spikes as it were in the normal pattern. This has happened under both version 2.26.38-13 and 3.0.0-15 kernels. The small amount of additional code addressing the original problem carries very little overhead. It is being retained to afford protection against any future tic accounting aberrations. In this commit, supporting programmer comments have been divorced from any particular cpu type. Also, another variable and manifest constant will now be eliminated when CPU_ZEROTICS is defined. References: commit 02508b3d76af5bc33c7e559b84d3e5e123cdf2ac http://www.freelists.org/post/procps/CStates-handling-new-switch,50
COMPATIBILITY
This code is intended for use with Linux 2.2.xx, 2.4.xx,
2.6.xx, and hopefully all future kernels. You should be
running a system with libc 6, but libc 5 might work too.
INSTALLATION
make
make install
Only the second ("make install") is needed if you just
want to build and install procps-ng in the normal way.
If you wish to test before installing, use the scripts
named t, v, and p to ensure that the correct libproc
(the new one) is used during your testing.
You may set SKIP to avoid building or installing things.
For example:
make SKIP='/bin/kill /usr/share/man/man1/kill.1' install
Use SHARED=0 to build procps-ng without shared libraries.
This may be useful for installing in your home directory.
make SHARED=0 DESTDIR=$HOME install
Suppose you wanted to install stuff in strange places.
You might do something like this:
make usr/bin=/tmp/Q/i/ DESTDIR=/tmp/Q install="install -D" ldconfig=echo install
If cross-compiling, you might need to set lib64 to
either "lib" or "lib64". You might need to set m64 to
-m64, -m32, or nothing at all. Some examples:
make lib64=lib m64=-m32 # for a bi-arch gcc
make lib64=lib64 CC=x86_64-gcc
make lib64=lib CC=alpha-gcc
PACKAGING
If you are a downstream maintainer (packager) for a Linux distribution,
please avoid causing troubles. This section applies to you.
Send patches in regularly. Many patches made by vendors have been buggy,
some quite severely so. Sending in a patch will at least get it reviewed,
if not included. There is a procps-ng test suite that must be passed.
Forward all bug reports. If your bug database is public and busy enough
to bother with, please make this known. Follow Debian's lead in making
the bug database easy to comment on via email w/o need for an account.
Do not change the user interface. Many of the programs are intended to be
compatible with Solaris, FreeBSD, AIX, IRIX, Tru64, and the UNIX standard.
Your nice new command options WILL BE BROKEN as needed to ensure that
procps-ng remains compatible with the rest of the world. Sysadmins hate to
deal with incompatible behavior. If you need a new option, ask for it.
For normal packages, ensure that you do not add debugging flags
to the CFLAGS variable. If debugging flags are present, the Makefile
will avoid adding several optimizations that would interfere with gdb.
There should be no need to modify the Makefile. You can set variables
on the "make" command line or use "make -e" to pass variables from
the environment.
BUG REPORTS
Email to procps@freelists.org.