Linux – What do the flags in /proc/cpuinfo mean

armcpulinuxx86

How can I tell whether my processor has a particular feature? (64-bit instruction set, hardware-assisted virtualization, cryptographic accelerators, etc.) I know that the file /proc/cpuinfo contains this information, in the flags line, but what do all these cryptic abbreviations mean?

For example, given the following extract from /proc/cpuinfo, do I have a 64-bit CPU? Do I have hardware virtualization?

model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8400  @ 3.00GHz
…
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority

Best Answer

x86

(32-bit a.k.a. i386–i686 and 64-bit a.k.a. amd64. In other words, your workstation, laptop or server.)

FAQ: Do I have…

  • 64-bit (x86_64/AMD64/Intel64)? lm
  • Hardware virtualization (VMX/AMD-V)? vmx (Intel), svm (AMD)
  • Accelerated AES (AES-NI)? aes
  • TXT (TPM)? smx
  • a hypervisor (announced as such)? hypervisor

Most of the other features are only of interest to compiler or kernel authors.

All the flags

The full listing is in the kernel source, in the file arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeatures.h.

Intel-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x00000001 (edx)

See also Wikipedia and table 2-27 in Intel Advanced Vector Extensions Programming Reference

AMD-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x80000001

See also Wikipedia and table 2-23 in Intel Advanced Vector Extensions Programming Reference

Transmeta-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x80860001

  • recovery: CPU in recovery mode
  • longrun: Longrun power control
  • lrti: LongRun table interface

Other features, Linux-defined mapping

  • cxmmx: Cyrix MMX extensions
  • k6_mtrr: AMD K6 nonstandard MTRRs
  • cyrix_arr: Cyrix ARRs (= MTRRs)
  • centaur_mcr: Centaur MCRs (= MTRRs)
  • constant_tsc: TSC ticks at a constant rate
  • up: SMP kernel running on UP
  • art: Always-Running Timer
  • arch_perfmon: Intel Architectural PerfMon
  • pebs: Precise-Event Based Sampling
  • bts: Branch Trace Store
  • rep_good: rep microcode works well
  • acc_power: AMD accumulated power mechanism
  • nopl: The NOPL (0F 1F) instructions
  • xtopology: cpu topology enum extensions
  • tsc_reliable: TSC is known to be reliable
  • nonstop_tsc: TSC does not stop in C states
  • cpuid: CPU has CPUID instruction itself
  • extd_apicid: has extended APICID (8 bits)
  • amd_dcm: multi-node processor
  • aperfmperf: APERFMPERF
  • eagerfpu: Non lazy FPU restore
  • nonstop_tsc_s3: TSC doesn't stop in S3 state
  • tsc_known_freq: TSC has known frequency
  • mce_recovery: CPU has recoverable machine checks

Intel-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x00000001 (ecx)

See also Wikipedia and table 2-26 in Intel Advanced Vector Extensions Programming Reference

VIA/Cyrix/Centaur-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0xC0000001

  • rng: Random Number Generator present (xstore)
  • rng_en: Random Number Generator enabled
  • ace: on-CPU crypto (xcrypt)
  • ace_en: on-CPU crypto enabled
  • ace2: Advanced Cryptography Engine v2
  • ace2_en: ACE v2 enabled
  • phe: PadLock Hash Engine
  • phe_en: PHE enabled
  • pmm: PadLock Montgomery Multiplier
  • pmm_en: PMM enabled

More extended AMD flags: CPUID level 0x80000001, ecx

  • lahf_lm: Load AH from Flags (LAHF) and Store AH into Flags (SAHF) in long mode
  • cmp_legacy: If yes HyperThreading not valid
  • svm: “Secure virtual machine”: AMD-V
  • extapic: Extended APIC space
  • cr8_legacy: CR8 in 32-bit mode
  • abm: Advanced Bit Manipulation
  • sse4a: SSE-4A
  • misalignsse: indicates if a general-protection exception (#GP) is generated when some legacy SSE instructions operate on unaligned data. Also depends on CR0 and Alignment Checking bit
  • 3dnowprefetch: 3DNow prefetch instructions
  • osvw: indicates OS Visible Workaround, which allows the OS to work around processor errata.
  • ibs: Instruction Based Sampling
  • xop: extended AVX instructions
  • skinit: SKINIT/STGI instructions
  • wdt: Watchdog timer
  • lwp: Light Weight Profiling
  • fma4: 4 operands MAC instructions
  • tce: translation cache extension
  • nodeid_msr: NodeId MSR
  • tbm: Trailing Bit Manipulation
  • topoext: Topology Extensions CPUID leafs
  • perfctr_core: Core Performance Counter Extensions
  • perfctr_nb: NB Performance Counter Extensions
  • bpext: data breakpoint extension
  • ptsc: performance time-stamp counter
  • perfctr_l2: L2 Performance Counter Extensions
  • mwaitx: MWAIT extension (MONITORX/MWAITX)

Auxiliary flags: Linux defined - For features scattered in various CPUID levels

  • ring3mwait: Ring 3 MONITOR/MWAIT
  • cpuid_fault: Intel CPUID faulting
  • cpb: AMD Core Performance Boost
  • epb: IA32_ENERGY_PERF_BIAS support
  • cat_l3: Cache Allocation Technology L3
  • cat_l2: Cache Allocation Technology L2
  • cdp_l3: Code and Data Prioritization L3
  • invpcid_single: effectively invpcid and CR4.PCIDE=1
  • hw_pstate: AMD HW-PState
  • proc_feedback: AMD ProcFeedbackInterface
  • sme: AMD Secure Memory Encryption
  • pti: Kernel Page Table Isolation (Kaiser)
  • retpoline: Retpoline mitigation for Spectre variant 2 (indirect branches)
  • retpoline_amd: AMD Retpoline mitigation
  • intel_ppin: Intel Processor Inventory Number
  • avx512_4vnniw: AVX-512 Neural Network Instructions
  • avx512_4fmaps: AVX-512 Multiply Accumulation Single precision
  • mba: Memory Bandwidth Allocation
  • rsb_ctxsw: Fill RSB on context switches

Virtualization flags: Linux defined

  • tpr_shadow: Intel TPR Shadow
  • vnmi: Intel Virtual NMI
  • flexpriority: Intel FlexPriority
  • ept: Intel Extended Page Table
  • vpid: Intel Virtual Processor ID
  • vmmcall: prefer VMMCALL to VMCALL

Intel-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x00000007:0 (ebx)

Extended state features, CPUID level 0x0000000d:1 (eax)

  • xsaveopt: Optimized XSAVE
  • xsavec: XSAVEC
  • xgetbv1: XGETBV with ECX = 1
  • xsaves: XSAVES/XRSTORS

Intel-defined CPU QoS sub-leaf, CPUID level 0x0000000F:0 (edx)

  • cqm_llc: LLC QoS

Intel-defined CPU QoS sub-leaf, CPUID level 0x0000000F:1 (edx)

  • cqm_occup_llc: LLC occupancy monitoring
  • cqm_mbm_total: LLC total MBM monitoring
  • cqm_mbm_local: LLC local MBM monitoring

AMD-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x80000008 (ebx)

  • clzero: CLZERO instruction
  • irperf: instructions retired performance counter
  • xsaveerptr: Always save/restore FP error pointers

Thermal and Power Management leaf, CPUID level 0x00000006 (eax)

  • dtherm (formerly dts): digital thermal sensor
  • ida: Intel Dynamic Acceleration
  • arat: Always Running APIC Timer
  • pln: Intel Power Limit Notification
  • pts: Intel Package Thermal Status
  • hwp: Intel Hardware P-states
  • hwp_notify: HWP notification
  • hwp_act_window: HWP Activity Window
  • hwp_epp: HWP Energy Performance Preference
  • hwp_pkg_req: HWP package-level request

AMD SVM Feature Identification, CPUID level 0x8000000a (edx)

  • npt: AMD Nested Page Table support
  • lbrv: AMD LBR Virtualization support
  • svm_lock: AMD SVM locking MSR
  • nrip_save: AMD SVM next_rip save
  • tsc_scale: AMD TSC scaling support
  • vmcb_clean: AMD VMCB clean bits support
  • flushbyasid: AMD flush-by-ASID support
  • decodeassists: AMD Decode Assists support
  • pausefilter: AMD filtered pause intercept
  • pfthreshold: AMD pause filter threshold
  • avic: Virtual Interrupt Controller
  • vmsave_vmload: Virtual VMSAVE VMLOAD
  • vgif: Virtual GIF

Intel-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x00000007:0 (ecx)

  • avx512vbmi: AVX512 Vector Bit Manipulation instructions
  • umip: User Mode Instruction Protection
  • pku: Protection Keys for Userspace
  • ospke: OS Protection Keys Enable
  • avx512_vbmi2: Additional AVX512 Vector Bit Manipulation instructions
  • gfni: Galois Field New Instructions
  • vaes: Vector AES
  • vpclmulqdq: Carry-Less Multiplication Double Quadword
  • avx512_vnni: Vector Neural Network Instructions
  • avx512_bitalg: VPOPCNT[B,W] and VPSHUF-BITQMB instructions
  • avx512_vpopcntdq: POPCNT for vectors of DW/QW
  • la57: 5-level page tables
  • rdpid: RDPID instruction

AMD-defined CPU features, CPUID level 0x80000007 (ebx)

  • overflow_recov: MCA overflow recovery support
  • succor: uncorrectable error containment and recovery
  • smca: Scalable MCA

Detected CPU bugs (Linux-defined)

  • f00f: Intel F00F
  • fdiv: CPU FDIV
  • coma: Cyrix 6x86 coma
  • amd_tlb_mmatch: tlb_mmatch AMD Erratum 383
  • amd_apic_c1e: apic_c1e AMD Erratum 400
  • 11ap: Bad local APIC aka 11AP
  • fxsave_leak: FXSAVE leaks FOP/FIP/FOP
  • clflush_monitor: AAI65, CLFLUSH required before MONITOR
  • sysret_ss_attrs: SYSRET doesn't fix up SS attrs
  • espfix: "" IRET to 16-bit SS corrupts ESP/RSP high bits
  • null_seg: Nulling a selector preserves the base
  • swapgs_fence: SWAPGS without input dep on GS
  • monitor: IPI required to wake up remote CPU
  • amd_e400: CPU is among the affected by Erratum 400
  • cpu_meltdown: CPU is affected by meltdown attack and needs kernel page table isolation
  • spectre_v1: CPU is affected by Spectre variant 1 attack with conditional branches
  • spectre_v2: CPU is affected by Spectre variant 2 attack with indirect branches
  • spec_store_bypass: CPU is affected by the Speculative Store Bypass vulnerability (Spectre variant 4).

P.S. This listing was derived from arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeatures.h in the kernel source. The flags are listed in the same order as the source code. Please help by adding links to descriptions of features when they're missing, by writing a short description of features that have an unexpressive names, and by updating the list for new kernel versions. The current list is from Linux 4.15 plus some later additions.

Related Question