svsematest8
Start two threads or fork two processes and measure the latency of sysv semaphores
Usage
svsematest [{-a | --affinity
NUM}]
[{-b | --breaktrace
USEC}]
[{-d | --distance
DIST}]
[{-D | --duration
TIME}]
[{-f | --fork
[OPT]}]
[{-i | --interval
INTV}]
[--json
FILENAME]
[{-l | --loops
LOOPS}]
[{-p | --prio
PRIO}]
[{-q | --quiet}]
[{-S | --smp}]
[{-t | --threads
[NUM]}]
# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
Overview
The program svsematest starts two threads or, optionally, forks two processes that are synchronized via SYSV semaphores and measures the latency between releasing a semaphore on one side and getting it on the other side.
Options
-
-a, --affinity[=NUM] -
Run on processor number NUM. If PROC is not specified, run on current processor.
-
-b, --breaktrace=USEC -
Send break trace command when latency > USEC. This is a debugging option to control the latency tracer in the realtime preemption patch. It is useful to track down unexpected large latencies of a system.
-
-d, --distance=DIST -
Set the distance of thread intervals in microseconds (default is 500 us). When cyclictest is called with the -t option and more than one thread is created, then this distance value is added to the interval of the threads: Interval(thread N) = Interval(thread N-1) + DIST
-
-D, --duration=TIME -
Specify a length for the test run.
Append 'm', 'h', or 'd' to specify minutes, hours or days.
-
-f, --fork -
Instead of creating threads (which is the default), fork new processes
-
-i, --interval=INTV -
Set the base interval of the thread(s) in microseconds (default is 1000 us). This sets the interval of the first thread. See also -d.
-
--json=FILENAME -
Write final results into FILENAME, JSON formatted.
-
-l, --loops=LOOPS -
Set the number of loops. The default is 0 (endless). This option is useful for automated tests with a given number of test cycles. svsematest is stopped once the number of timer intervals has been reached.
-
-p, --prio=PRIO -
Set the priority of the process.
-
-q, --quiet -
Print a summary only on exit. Useful for automated tests, where only the summary output needs to be captured.
-
-S, --smp -
SMP testing: options -a -t and same priority of all threads
-
-t, --threads[=NUM] -
Set the number of test threads (default is 1, if this option is not given). If NUM is specified, create NUM test threads. If NUM is not specified, NUM is set to the number of available CPUs.
Examples
The following example was running on a 4-way CPU:
# svsematest -a -t -p99 -i100 -d25 -l1000000 #0: ID13110, P99, CPU0, I100; #1: ID13111, P99, CPU0, Cycles 1000000 #2: ID13112, P98, CPU1, I125; #3: ID13113, P98, CPU1, Cycles 813573 #4: ID13114, P97, CPU2, I150; #5: ID13115, P97, CPU2, Cycles 667285 #6: ID13116, P96, CPU3, I175; #7: ID13117, P96, CPU3, Cycles 591403 #1 -> #0, Min 1, Cur 2, Avg 2, Max 12 #3 -> #2, Min 1, Cur 3, Avg 2, Max 12 #5 -> #4, Min 1, Cur 3, Avg 3, Max 12 #7 -> #6, Min 1, Cur 2, Avg 3, Max 11
History
- Arch Linux 2026-11-01: the text shown here
- Debian 13 (Trixie) to Debian 12 (Bookworm)
- Debian 11 (Bullseye)
- Debian 10 (Buster) to Debian 9 (Stretch)
- Debian 8 (Jessie) to Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
--affinity since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--breaktrace since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--distance since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--duration since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--fork since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--interval since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--json since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
--loops since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--prio since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--quiet since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
--smp since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
--threads since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-D since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-S since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
-a since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-b since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-d since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-f since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-i since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-l since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-p since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-q since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
-t since Debian 11 (Bullseye).