CUDA Driver API :: CUDA Toolkit Documentation

4.8. Context Management

This section describes the context management functions of the low-level CUDA driver application programming interface.

Functions

CUresult cuCtxCreate ( CUcontext* pctx, unsigned int flags, CUdevice dev ): Create a CUDA context.
CUresult cuCtxDestroy ( CUcontext ctx ): Destroy a CUDA context.
CUresult cuCtxGetApiVersion ( CUcontext ctx, unsigned int* version ): Gets the context's API version.
CUresult cuCtxGetCacheConfig ( CUfunc_cache* pconfig ): Returns the preferred cache configuration for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxGetCurrent ( CUcontext* pctx ): Returns the CUDA context bound to the calling CPU thread.
CUresult cuCtxGetDevice ( CUdevice* device ): Returns the device ID for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxGetFlags ( unsigned int* flags ): Returns the flags for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxGetLimit ( size_t* pvalue, CUlimit limit ): Returns resource limits.
CUresult cuCtxGetSharedMemConfig ( CUsharedconfig* pConfig ): Returns the current shared memory configuration for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxGetStreamPriorityRange ( int* leastPriority, int* greatestPriority ): Returns numerical values that correspond to the least and greatest stream priorities.
CUresult cuCtxPopCurrent ( CUcontext* pctx ): Pops the current CUDA context from the current CPU thread.
CUresult cuCtxPushCurrent ( CUcontext ctx ): Pushes a context on the current CPU thread.
CUresult cuCtxSetCacheConfig ( CUfunc_cache config ): Sets the preferred cache configuration for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxSetCurrent ( CUcontext ctx ): Binds the specified CUDA context to the calling CPU thread.
CUresult cuCtxSetLimit ( CUlimit limit, size_t value ): Set resource limits.
CUresult cuCtxSetSharedMemConfig ( CUsharedconfig config ): Sets the shared memory configuration for the current context.
CUresult cuCtxSynchronize ( void ): Block for a context's tasks to complete.

Functions

CUresult cuCtxCreate ( CUcontext* pctx, unsigned int flags, CUdevice dev )

Create a CUDA context.

Parameters

pctx: - Returned context handle of the new context
flags: - Context creation flags
dev: - Device to create context on

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_DEVICE, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE, CUDA_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY, CUDA_ERROR_UNKNOWN

Description

Creates a new CUDA context and associates it with the calling thread. The flags parameter is described below. The context is created with a usage count of 1 and the caller of cuCtxCreate() must call cuCtxDestroy() or when done using the context. If a context is already current to the thread, it is supplanted by the newly created context and may be restored by a subsequent call to cuCtxPopCurrent().

The three LSBs of the flags parameter can be used to control how the OS thread, which owns the CUDA context at the time of an API call, interacts with the OS scheduler when waiting for results from the GPU. Only one of the scheduling flags can be set when creating a context.

CU_CTX_SCHED_SPIN: Instruct CUDA to actively spin when waiting for results from the GPU. This can decrease latency when waiting for the GPU, but may lower the performance of CPU threads if they are performing work in parallel with the CUDA thread.

CU_CTX_SCHED_YIELD: Instruct CUDA to yield its thread when waiting for results from the GPU. This can increase latency when waiting for the GPU, but can increase the performance of CPU threads performing work in parallel with the GPU.

CU_CTX_SCHED_BLOCKING_SYNC: Instruct CUDA to block the CPU thread on a synchronization primitive when waiting for the GPU to finish work.

CU_CTX_BLOCKING_SYNC: Instruct CUDA to block the CPU thread on a synchronization primitive when waiting for the GPU to finish work.

Deprecated: This flag was deprecated as of CUDA 4.0 and was replaced with CU_CTX_SCHED_BLOCKING_SYNC.

CU_CTX_SCHED_AUTO: The default value if the flags parameter is zero, uses a heuristic based on the number of active CUDA contexts in the process C and the number of logical processors in the system P. If C > P, then CUDA will yield to other OS threads when waiting for the GPU (CU_CTX_SCHED_YIELD), otherwise CUDA will not yield while waiting for results and actively spin on the processor (CU_CTX_SCHED_SPIN). However, on low power devices like Tegra, it always defaults to CU_CTX_SCHED_BLOCKING_SYNC.

CU_CTX_MAP_HOST: Instruct CUDA to support mapped pinned allocations. This flag must be set in order to allocate pinned host memory that is accessible to the GPU.

CU_CTX_LMEM_RESIZE_TO_MAX: Instruct CUDA to not reduce local memory after resizing local memory for a kernel. This can prevent thrashing by local memory allocations when launching many kernels with high local memory usage at the cost of potentially increased memory usage.

Context creation will fail with CUDA_ERROR_UNKNOWN if the compute mode of the device is CU_COMPUTEMODE_PROHIBITED. The function cuDeviceGetAttribute() can be used with CU_DEVICE_ATTRIBUTE_COMPUTE_MODE to determine the compute mode of the device. The nvidia-smi tool can be used to set the compute mode for * devices. Documentation for nvidia-smi can be obtained by passing a -h option to it.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxDestroy ( CUcontext ctx )

Destroy a CUDA context.

Parameters

ctx: - Context to destroy

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

Destroys the CUDA context specified by ctx. The context ctx will be destroyed regardless of how many threads it is current to. It is the responsibility of the calling function to ensure that no API call issues using ctx while cuCtxDestroy() is executing.

If ctx is current to the calling thread then ctx will also be popped from the current thread's context stack (as though cuCtxPopCurrent() were called). If ctx is current to other threads, then ctx will remain current to those threads, and attempting to access ctx from those threads will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_CONTEXT_IS_DESTROYED.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetApiVersion ( CUcontext ctx, unsigned int* version )

Gets the context's API version.

Parameters

ctx: - Context to check
version: - Pointer to version

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_UNKNOWN

Description

Returns a version number in version corresponding to the capabilities of the context (e.g. 3010 or 3020), which library developers can use to direct callers to a specific API version. If ctx is NULL, returns the API version used to create the currently bound context.

Note that new API versions are only introduced when context capabilities are changed that break binary compatibility, so the API version and driver version may be different. For example, it is valid for the API version to be 3020 while the driver version is 4020.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetCacheConfig ( CUfunc_cache* pconfig )

Returns the preferred cache configuration for the current context.

Parameters

pconfig: - Returned cache configuration

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

On devices where the L1 cache and shared memory use the same hardware resources, this function returns through pconfig the preferred cache configuration for the current context. This is only a preference. The driver will use the requested configuration if possible, but it is free to choose a different configuration if required to execute functions.

This will return a pconfig of CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_NONE on devices where the size of the L1 cache and shared memory are fixed.

The supported cache configurations are:

CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_NONE: no preference for shared memory or L1 (default)
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_SHARED: prefer larger shared memory and smaller L1 cache
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_L1: prefer larger L1 cache and smaller shared memory
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_EQUAL: prefer equal sized L1 cache and shared memory

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetCurrent ( CUcontext* pctx )

Returns the CUDA context bound to the calling CPU thread.

Parameters

pctx: - Returned context handle

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED,

Description

Returns in *pctx the CUDA context bound to the calling CPU thread. If no context is bound to the calling CPU thread then *pctx is set to NULL and CUDA_SUCCESS is returned.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetDevice ( CUdevice* device )

Returns the device ID for the current context.

Parameters

device: - Returned device ID for the current context

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE,

Description

Returns in *device the ordinal of the current context's device.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetFlags ( unsigned int* flags )

Returns the flags for the current context.

Parameters

flags: - Pointer to store flags of current context

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE,

Description

Returns in *flags the flags of the current context. See cuCtxCreate for flag values.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetLimit ( size_t* pvalue, CUlimit limit )

Returns resource limits.

Parameters

pvalue: - Returned size of limit
limit: - Limit to query

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE, CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT

Description

Returns in *pvalue the current size of limit. The supported CUlimit values are:

CU_LIMIT_STACK_SIZE: stack size in bytes of each GPU thread.
CU_LIMIT_PRINTF_FIFO_SIZE: size in bytes of the FIFO used by the printf() device system call.
CU_LIMIT_MALLOC_HEAP_SIZE: size in bytes of the heap used by the malloc() and free() device system calls.
CU_LIMIT_DEV_RUNTIME_SYNC_DEPTH: maximum grid depth at which a thread can issue the device runtime call cudaDeviceSynchronize() to wait on child grid launches to complete.
CU_LIMIT_DEV_RUNTIME_PENDING_LAUNCH_COUNT: maximum number of outstanding device runtime launches that can be made from this context.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetSharedMemConfig ( CUsharedconfig* pConfig )

Returns the current shared memory configuration for the current context.

Parameters

pConfig: - returned shared memory configuration

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

This function will return in pConfig the current size of shared memory banks in the current context. On devices with configurable shared memory banks, cuCtxSetSharedMemConfig can be used to change this setting, so that all subsequent kernel launches will by default use the new bank size. When cuCtxGetSharedMemConfig is called on devices without configurable shared memory, it will return the fixed bank size of the hardware.

The returned bank configurations can be either:

CU_SHARED_MEM_CONFIG_FOUR_BYTE_BANK_SIZE: shared memory bank width is four bytes.
CU_SHARED_MEM_CONFIG_EIGHT_BYTE_BANK_SIZE: shared memory bank width will eight bytes.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxGetStreamPriorityRange ( int* leastPriority, int* greatestPriority )

Returns numerical values that correspond to the least and greatest stream priorities.

Parameters

leastPriority: - Pointer to an int in which the numerical value for least stream priority is returned
greatestPriority: - Pointer to an int in which the numerical value for greatest stream priority is returned

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE,

Description

Returns in *leastPriority and *greatestPriority the numerical values that correspond to the least and greatest stream priorities respectively. Stream priorities follow a convention where lower numbers imply greater priorities. The range of meaningful stream priorities is given by [*greatestPriority, *leastPriority]. If the user attempts to create a stream with a priority value that is outside the meaningful range as specified by this API, the priority is automatically clamped down or up to either *leastPriority or *greatestPriority respectively. See cuStreamCreateWithPriority for details on creating a priority stream. A NULL may be passed in for *leastPriority or *greatestPriority if the value is not desired.

This function will return '0' in both *leastPriority and *greatestPriority if the current context's device does not support stream priorities (see cuDeviceGetAttribute).

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxPopCurrent ( CUcontext* pctx )

Pops the current CUDA context from the current CPU thread.

Parameters

pctx: - Returned new context handle

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT

Description

Pops the current CUDA context from the CPU thread and passes back the old context handle in *pctx. That context may then be made current to a different CPU thread by calling cuCtxPushCurrent().

If a context was current to the CPU thread before cuCtxCreate() or cuCtxPushCurrent() was called, this function makes that context current to the CPU thread again.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxPushCurrent ( CUcontext ctx )

Pushes a context on the current CPU thread.

Parameters

ctx: - Context to push

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

Pushes the given context ctx onto the CPU thread's stack of current contexts. The specified context becomes the CPU thread's current context, so all CUDA functions that operate on the current context are affected.

The previous current context may be made current again by calling cuCtxDestroy() or cuCtxPopCurrent().

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxSetCacheConfig ( CUfunc_cache config )

Sets the preferred cache configuration for the current context.

Parameters

config: - Requested cache configuration

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

On devices where the L1 cache and shared memory use the same hardware resources, this sets through config the preferred cache configuration for the current context. This is only a preference. The driver will use the requested configuration if possible, but it is free to choose a different configuration if required to execute the function. Any function preference set via cuFuncSetCacheConfig() will be preferred over this context-wide setting. Setting the context-wide cache configuration to CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_NONE will cause subsequent kernel launches to prefer to not change the cache configuration unless required to launch the kernel.

This setting does nothing on devices where the size of the L1 cache and shared memory are fixed.

Launching a kernel with a different preference than the most recent preference setting may insert a device-side synchronization point.

The supported cache configurations are:

CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_NONE: no preference for shared memory or L1 (default)
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_SHARED: prefer larger shared memory and smaller L1 cache
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_L1: prefer larger L1 cache and smaller shared memory
CU_FUNC_CACHE_PREFER_EQUAL: prefer equal sized L1 cache and shared memory

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

CUresult cuCtxSetCurrent ( CUcontext ctx )

Binds the specified CUDA context to the calling CPU thread.

Parameters

ctx: - Context to bind to the calling CPU thread

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT

Description

Binds the specified CUDA context to the calling CPU thread. If ctx is NULL then the CUDA context previously bound to the calling CPU thread is unbound and CUDA_SUCCESS is returned.

If there exists a CUDA context stack on the calling CPU thread, this will replace the top of that stack with ctx. If ctx is NULL then this will be equivalent to popping the top of the calling CPU thread's CUDA context stack (or a no-op if the calling CPU thread's CUDA context stack is empty).

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxSetLimit ( CUlimit limit, size_t value )

Set resource limits.

Parameters

limit: - Limit to set
value: - Size of limit

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE, CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT, CUDA_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY

Description

Setting limit to value is a request by the application to update the current limit maintained by the context. The driver is free to modify the requested value to meet h/w requirements (this could be clamping to minimum or maximum values, rounding up to nearest element size, etc). The application can use cuCtxGetLimit() to find out exactly what the limit has been set to.

Setting each CUlimit has its own specific restrictions, so each is discussed here.

CU_LIMIT_STACK_SIZE controls the stack size in bytes of each GPU thread. This limit is only applicable to devices of compute capability 2.0 and higher. Attempting to set this limit on devices of compute capability less than 2.0 will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT being returned.

CU_LIMIT_PRINTF_FIFO_SIZE controls the size in bytes of the FIFO used by the printf() device system call. Setting CU_LIMIT_PRINTF_FIFO_SIZE must be performed before launching any kernel that uses the printf() device system call, otherwise CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE will be returned. This limit is only applicable to devices of compute capability 2.0 and higher. Attempting to set this limit on devices of compute capability less than 2.0 will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT being returned.

CU_LIMIT_MALLOC_HEAP_SIZE controls the size in bytes of the heap used by the malloc() and free() device system calls. Setting CU_LIMIT_MALLOC_HEAP_SIZE must be performed before launching any kernel that uses the malloc() or free() device system calls, otherwise CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE will be returned. This limit is only applicable to devices of compute capability 2.0 and higher. Attempting to set this limit on devices of compute capability less than 2.0 will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT being returned.

CU_LIMIT_DEV_RUNTIME_SYNC_DEPTH controls the maximum nesting depth of a grid at which a thread can safely call cudaDeviceSynchronize(). Setting this limit must be performed before any launch of a kernel that uses the device runtime and calls cudaDeviceSynchronize() above the default sync depth, two levels of grids. Calls to cudaDeviceSynchronize() will fail with error code cudaErrorSyncDepthExceeded if the limitation is violated. This limit can be set smaller than the default or up the maximum launch depth of 24. When setting this limit, keep in mind that additional levels of sync depth require the driver to reserve large amounts of device memory which can no longer be used for user allocations. If these reservations of device memory fail, cuCtxSetLimit will return CUDA_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY, and the limit can be reset to a lower value. This limit is only applicable to devices of compute capability 3.5 and higher. Attempting to set this limit on devices of compute capability less than 3.5 will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT being returned.

CU_LIMIT_DEV_RUNTIME_PENDING_LAUNCH_COUNT controls the maximum number of outstanding device runtime launches that can be made from the current context. A grid is outstanding from the point of launch up until the grid is known to have been completed. Device runtime launches which violate this limitation fail and return cudaErrorLaunchPendingCountExceeded when cudaGetLastError() is called after launch. If more pending launches than the default (2048 launches) are needed for a module using the device runtime, this limit can be increased. Keep in mind that being able to sustain additional pending launches will require the driver to reserve larger amounts of device memory upfront which can no longer be used for allocations. If these reservations fail, cuCtxSetLimit will return CUDA_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY, and the limit can be reset to a lower value. This limit is only applicable to devices of compute capability 3.5 and higher. Attempting to set this limit on devices of compute capability less than 3.5 will result in the error CUDA_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_LIMIT being returned.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

CUresult cuCtxSetSharedMemConfig ( CUsharedconfig config )

Sets the shared memory configuration for the current context.

Parameters

config: - requested shared memory configuration

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE

Description

On devices with configurable shared memory banks, this function will set the context's shared memory bank size which is used for subsequent kernel launches.

Changed the shared memory configuration between launches may insert a device side synchronization point between those launches.

Changing the shared memory bank size will not increase shared memory usage or affect occupancy of kernels, but may have major effects on performance. Larger bank sizes will allow for greater potential bandwidth to shared memory, but will change what kinds of accesses to shared memory will result in bank conflicts.

This function will do nothing on devices with fixed shared memory bank size.

The supported bank configurations are:

CU_SHARED_MEM_CONFIG_DEFAULT_BANK_SIZE: set bank width to the default initial setting (currently, four bytes).
CU_SHARED_MEM_CONFIG_FOUR_BYTE_BANK_SIZE: set shared memory bank width to be natively four bytes.
CU_SHARED_MEM_CONFIG_EIGHT_BYTE_BANK_SIZE: set shared memory bank width to be natively eight bytes.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.

See also:

CUresult cuCtxSynchronize ( void )

Block for a context's tasks to complete.

Returns

CUDA_SUCCESS, CUDA_ERROR_DEINITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED, CUDA_ERROR_INVALID_CONTEXT

Description

Blocks until the device has completed all preceding requested tasks. cuCtxSynchronize() returns an error if one of the preceding tasks failed. If the context was created with the CU_CTX_SCHED_BLOCKING_SYNC flag, the CPU thread will block until the GPU context has finished its work.

Note:

Note that this function may also return error codes from previous, asynchronous launches.