Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
POWERD(8)		FreeBSD	System Manager's Manual		     POWERD(8)

NAME
     powerd -- system power control utility

SYNOPSIS
     powerd [-a	mode] [-b mode]	[-i percent] [-M freq] [-m freq] [-N]
	    [-n	mode] [-P pidfile] [-p ival] [-r percent] [-s source] [-v]

DESCRIPTION
     The powerd	utility	monitors the system state and sets various power con-
     trol options accordingly.	It offers power-saving modes that can be indi-
     vidually selected for operation on	AC power or batteries.

     maximum	 Choose	the highest performance	values.	 May be	abbreviated as
		 max.

     minimum	 Choose	the lowest performance values to get the most power
		 savings.  May be abbreviated as min.

     adaptive	 Attempt to strike a balance by	degrading performance when the
		 system	appears	idle and increasing it when the	system is
		 busy.	It offers a good balance between a small performance
		 loss for greatly increased power savings.  May	be abbreviated
		 as adp.

     hiadaptive	 Like adaptive mode, but tuned for systems where performance
		 and interactivity are more important than power consumption.
		 It increases frequency	faster,	reduces	frequency less aggres-
		 sively, and will maintain full	frequency for longer.  May be
		 abbreviated as	hadp.

     The default mode is adaptive for battery power and	hiadaptive for the
     rest.

     powerd recognizes these runtime options:

     -a	mode	 Selects the mode to use while on AC power.

     -b	mode	 Selects the mode to use while on battery power.

     -i	percent	 Specifies the CPU load	percent	level when adaptive mode
		 should	begin to degrade performance to	save power.  The de-
		 fault is 50% or lower.

     -M	freq	 Specifies the maximum frequency to throttle up	to.

     -m	freq	 Specifies the minimum frequency to throttle down to.

     -N		 Treat "nice" time as idle for the purpose of load calcula-
		 tion; i.e., do	not increase the CPU frequency if the CPU is
		 only busy with	"nice" processes.

     -n	mode	 Selects the mode to use normally when the AC line state is
		 unknown.

     -P	pidfile	 Specifies an alternative file in which	the process ID should
		 be stored.

     -p	ival	 Specifies a different polling interval	(in milliseconds) for
		 AC line state and system idle levels.	The default is 250 ms.

     -r	percent	 Specifies the CPU load	percent	level where adaptive mode
		 should	consider the CPU running and increase performance.
		 The default is	75% or higher.

     -s	source	 Enforces method for AC	line state refresh; by default,	it is
		 chosen	automatically.	The set	of valid methods is sysctl,
		 devd and apm (i386 only).

     -v		 Verbose mode.	Messages about power changes will be printed
		 to stdout and powerd will operate in the foreground.

FILES
     /var/run/powerd.pid  The default PID file.

SEE ALSO
     acpi(4), apm(4), cpufreq(4), rc.conf(5)

HISTORY
     The powerd	utility	first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.

AUTHORS
     Colin Percival first wrote	estctrl, the utility that powerd is based on.
     Nate Lawson then updated it for cpufreq(4), added features, and wrote
     this manual page.

BUGS
     The powerd	utility	should also power down idle disks and other components
     besides the CPU.

     If	powerd is used with power_profile, they	may override each other.

     The powerd	utility	should probably	use the	devctl(4) interface instead of
     polling for AC line state.

FreeBSD	13.0		       November	6, 2021			  FreeBSD 13.0

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS | BUGS

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=powerd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+13.2-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help