serialize(1)						      General Commands Manual						      serialize(1)

NAME

       serialize - force target process to run serially with other processes

SYNOPSIS

       command [command_args]

       pid]

DESCRIPTION

       The  command  is used to force the target process to run serially with other processes also marked by this command.  The target process can
       be referred to by pid value, or it can be invoked directly on the command.  Once a process has been marked  by  the  process  stays  marked
       until process completion unless is reissued on the serialized process with the option.  The option causes the pid specified with the option
       to return to normal timeshare scheduling algorithms.

       This call is used to improve process throughput, since process throughput usually increases for large  processes  when  they  are  executed
       serially  instead  of  allowing	each program to run for only a short period of time.  By running large processes one at a time, the system
       makes more efficient use of the CPU as well as system memory, since each process does not end up constantly faulting in its working set, to
       only  have  the	pages  stolen  when  another process starts running.  As long as there is enough memory in the system, processes marked by
       behave no differently from other processes in the system.  However, once memory becomes tight, processes marked by are run one  at  a  time
       with the highest priority processes being run first.  Each process will run for a finite interval of time before another serialized process
       is allowed to run.

   Options
       supports the following options:

	      Indicates the process specified by
			pid should be returned to timeshare scheduling.

	      Indicates the
			pid of the target process.

       If neither option is specified, is invoked on the command line passed in.

RETURN VALUE

       returns the following value:

	      Successful completion.

	      Invalid
		     pid specification, nonnumeric entry, or pid specification is that of a special system process.

	      Could not execute the specified command.

	      No such process.

	      Must be root or a member of a group having the
		     privilege to execute

ERRORS

       fails under the following condition and sets (see errno(2)) to the following value:

	      The	     pid passed in does not exist.

EXAMPLES

       Use to force a database application to run serially with other processes marked for serialization:

       Force a currently running process with a pid value of 215 to run serially with other processes marked for serialization:

       Return a process previously marked for serialization to normal timeshare scheduling.  The pid of the target process for this example is

WARNINGS

       The user has no way of forcing an execution order on serialized processes.

AUTHOR

       was developed by HP.

SEE ALSO

       setprivgrp(1M), getprivgrp(2), serialize(2).

																      serialize(1)