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Index: share/man/man9/hz.9
===================================================================
--- share/man/man9/hz.9
+++ share/man/man9/hz.9
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
.Pp
.Vt extern int hz;
.Vt extern int tick;
-.Vt extern int stathz; /* deprecated */
+.Vt extern int stathz;
.Vt extern int profhz; /* deprecated */
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Fx
@@ -47,34 +47,30 @@
.Pp
The main clock is used to update the system's notion of time via
.Xr timecounters 9
-and to pace periodic system callbacks via
-.Xr callout 9 ,
-.Xr epoch 9 ,
-and other methods documented in
+and to pace periodic system processing as documented in
.Xr hardclock 9 .
-That routine will be called approximately
+That routine may be called once every 1 /
.Va hz
-times per second.
+seconds, though the call is omitted if no work is needed in the next tick and it
+has not been 1 second since the last call.
.Pp
-The second clock, running at either
+A second clock running at
.Va stathz
-or
-.Va profhz
-was used to gather timing statistics, but has been replaced with the more
-functional
-.Xr hwpmc 4 .
-These values are returned for
-.Qq compatibility
-with
-.Bx 4.4 ,
-.St -p1003.1-2001
-and the
-.Xr setitimer 2
-.Va ITIMER_PROF
-flag, which were deprecated in
-.St -p1003.1-2008
-in favor of
-.Xr timer_settime 2 .
+gathers statistics on the system and its processes.
+It computes values for
+.Xr getrusage 2
+and statistics displayed by
+.Xr ps 1
+and
+.Xr top 1 .
+.Pp
+Finally, a third clock runs at
+.Vt profhz
+to sample user program counter values for profiling purposes.
+This profiling mechanism has been replaced by the more functional
+.Xr hwpmc 4
+and may be removed in a future version of
+.Fx .
.Pp
.Va tick
is the length of time in microseconds of one system tick.
@@ -88,6 +84,15 @@
from
.Xr sysctl 8 .
.Pp
+The current global and per-CPU CPU time usage is returned to the user in units
+of 1 /
+.Va stathz
+ticks in the
+.Sy kern.cp_time
+and
+.Sy kern.cp_times
+sysctl MIBs.
+.Pp
The
.Va hz
rate may be overridden by defining
@@ -106,9 +111,36 @@
.Xr setitimer 2 ,
.Xr timer_settime 2 ,
.Xr loader.conf 5 ,
-.Xr callout 9 ,
.Xr eventtimers 9 ,
.Xr hardclock 9 ,
.Xr microtime 9 ,
.Xr time_second 9 ,
.Xr timecounters 9
+.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
+Historically, both the
+.Va stathz
+and
+.Va profhz
+clocks have run off the same physical timer running at the slower rate when no
+process is using the profile features, or at the higher rate when at least one
+process is using it.
+Although the interface is deprecated by
+.St -p1003.1-2008
+in favor of
+.Xr timer_settime 2 ,
+several programs still use
+.Xr setitimer 2
+and
+.Va ITIMER_PROF
+for a higher-resolution periodic interrupt than has been traditionally
+available.
+.Pp
+Historically,
+.Xr hardclock 9
+has also been run off a separate interrupt, except on constrained platforms that
+lack enough periodic interrupt sources.
+.Fx
+uses
+.Xr eventtimers 9
+to abstract these details away, though some old code may still harbor
+assumptions that are an imperfect fit to this abstraction.

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