The cpupower command is a utility in Linux that is used to manage and configure the CPU frequency scaling settings of a system. CPU frequency scaling is the process of adjusting the speed at which a CPU is able to process instructions in order to save energy or improve performance.
To display the current CPU frequency settings, use the following command:
# cpupower frequency-info
This will display information about the current CPU frequency scaling settings, including the current frequency, the available frequencies, and the current governor.
If you encounter the below error while running the command cpupower:
cpupower: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install linux-cpupower |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install linux-cpupower |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S cpupower |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install linux-cpupower |
| CentOS | yum install cpupowerutils |
| Fedora | dnf install kernel-tools |
| Raspbian | apt-get install linux-cpupower |
cpupower Command Examples
1. List CPUs:
# sudo cpupower --cpu all info
2. Print information about all cores:
# sudo cpupower --cpu all info
3. Set all CPUs to a power-saving frequency governor:
# sudo cpupower --cpu all frequency-set --governor powersave
4. Print CPU 0’s available frequency [g]overnors:
# sudo cpupower --cpu 0 frequency-info g | grep "analyzing\|governors"
5. Print CPU 4’s frequency from the hardware, in a human-readable format:
# sudo cpupower --cpu 4 frequency-info --hwfreq --human