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Cgroup, which stands for Control Groups, is a Linux kernel feature that allows you to manage and limit the system resources, such as CPU, memory, and I/O, used by a group of processes. Cgroups enable the organization of processes into a hierarchical structure, making it easier to allocate, account for, and control the usage of system resources.

Cgroups were initially introduced in Linux kernel version 2.6.24 and have since evolved into two versions: cgroup v1 and cgroup v2. The primary goal of cgroups is to provide a unified and consistent way to manage system resources and to prevent specific processes or groups of processes from monopolizing system resources, ensuring fair distribution and preventing system instability.

Cgroups are widely used in containerization technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes, to enforce resource limits and manage resource usage for containers, providing isolation and resource control for running applications. They are also used in high-performance computing environments, like Slurm, to manage resources for compute nodes and jobs.