PR_SET_THP_DISABLE(2const)

PR_SET_THP_DISABLE2const

Set the state of the "thp disable" flags for the calling thread

Usage

#include <linux/prctl.h>  /* Definition of PR_* constants */
#include <sys/prctl.h>

int prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, long thp_disable, unsigned long flags, 0L, 0L);

Library

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

Overview

Set the state of the "THP disable" flags for the calling thread. If thp_disable has a nonzero value, the THP disable flag is set according to the value of flags, otherwise it is cleared.

This prctl(2) provides a method for disabling transparent huge pages for jobs where the code cannot be modified, and using a malloc(3) hook with madvise(2) is not an option (i.e., statically allocated data). The setting of the "THP disable" flags is inherited by a child created via fork(2) and is preserved across execve(2).

The behavior depends on the value of flags:

0

The prctl(2) call will disable THPs completely for the process, irrespective of global THP controls or MADV_COLLAPSE.

PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED

The prctl(2) call will disable THPs for the process except when the usage of THPs is advised. Consequently, THPs will only be used when:

•

Global THP controls are set to "always" or "madvise" and madvise(..., MADV_HUGEPAGE) or madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE) is used.

•

Global THP controls are set to "never" and madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE) is used. This is the same behavior as if THPs would not be disabled on a process level.

Return value

On success, 0 is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

Releases

2 releases since Debian 13 (Trixie); the text changed 1 time.

  1. 13
  2. Arch

Standards

Linux.

History

Linux 3.15.

From man-pages 6.19-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.