pidstat(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | BUGS | FILES | AUTHOR | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PIDSTAT(1)                 Linux User's Manual                PIDSTAT(1)

NAME         top

       pidstat - Report statistics for Linux tasks.

SYNOPSIS         top

       pidstat [ -d ] [ -H ] [ -h ] [ -I ] [ -l ] [ -R ] [ -r ] [ -s ] [
       -t ] [ -U [ username ] ] [ -u ] [ -V ] [ -v ] [ -w ] [ -C comm ]
       [ -G process_name ] [ --dec={ 0 | 1 | 2 } ] [ --human ] [ -p {
       pid[,...]  | SELF | ALL } ] [ -T { TASK | CHILD | ALL } ] [
       interval [ count ] ] [ -e program args ]

DESCRIPTION         top

       The pidstat command is used for monitoring individual tasks
       currently being managed by the Linux kernel.  It writes to
       standard output activities for every task selected with option -p
       or for every task managed by the Linux kernel if option -p ALL
       has been used. Not selecting any tasks is equivalent to
       specifying -p ALL but only active tasks (tasks with non-zero
       statistics values) will appear in the report.

       The pidstat command can also be used for monitoring the child
       processes of selected tasks.  Read about option -T below.

       The interval parameter specifies the amount of time in seconds
       between each report.  A value of 0 (or no parameters at all)
       indicates that tasks statistics are to be reported for the time
       since system startup (boot). The count parameter can be specified
       in conjunction with the interval parameter if this one is not set
       to zero. The value of count determines the number of reports
       generated at interval seconds apart. If the interval parameter is
       specified without the count parameter, the pidstat command
       generates reports continuously.

       You can select information about specific task activities using
       flags.  Not specifying any flags selects only CPU activity.

OPTIONS         top

       -C comm
              Display only tasks whose command name includes the string
              comm. This string can be a regular expression.

       -d     Report I/O statistics (kernels 2.6.20 and later only).
              The following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              kB_rd/s
                     Number of kilobytes the task has caused to be read
                     from disk per second.

              kB_wr/s
                     Number of kilobytes the task has caused, or shall
                     cause to be written to disk per second.

              kB_ccwr/s
                     Number of kilobytes whose writing to disk has been
                     cancelled by the task. This may occur when the task
                     truncates some dirty pagecache. In this case, some
                     IO which another task has been accounted for will
                     not be happening.

              iodelay
                     Block I/O delay of the task being monitored,
                     measured in clock ticks. This metric includes the
                     delays spent waiting for sync block I/O completion
                     and for swapin block I/O completion.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

       --dec={ 0 | 1 | 2 }
              Specify the number of decimal places to use (0 to 2,
              default value is 2).

       -e program args
              Execute program with given arguments args and monitor it
              with pidstat.  pidstat stops when program terminates.

       -G process_name
              Display only processes whose command name includes the
              string process_name.  This string can be a regular
              expression. If option -t is used together with option -G
              then the threads belonging to that process are also
              displayed (even if their command name doesn't include the
              string process_name).

       -H     Display timestamp in seconds since the epoch.

       -h     Display all activities horizontally on a single line, with
              no average statistics at the end of the report. This is
              intended to make it easier to be parsed by other programs.

       --human
              Print sizes in human readable format (e.g. 1.0k, 1.2M,
              etc.)  The units displayed with this option supersede any
              other default units (e.g.  kilobytes, sectors...)
              associated with the metrics.

       -I     In an SMP environment, indicate that tasks CPU usage (as
              displayed by option -u) should be divided by the total
              number of processors.

       -l     Display the process command name and all its arguments.

       -p { pid[,...] | SELF | ALL }
              Select tasks (processes) for which statistics are to be
              reported.  pid is the process identification number. The
              SELF keyword indicates that statistics are to be reported
              for the pidstat process itself, whereas the ALL keyword
              indicates that statistics are to be reported for all the
              tasks managed by the system.

       -R     Report realtime priority and scheduling policy
              information.  The following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              prio   The realtime priority of the task being monitored.

              policy The scheduling policy of the task being monitored.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

       -r     Report page faults and memory utilization.

              When reporting statistics for individual tasks, the
              following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              minflt/s
                     Total number of minor faults the task has made per
                     second, those which have not required loading a
                     memory page from disk.

              majflt/s
                     Total number of major faults the task has made per
                     second, those which have required loading a memory
                     page from disk.

              VSZ    Virtual Size: The virtual memory usage of entire
                     task in kilobytes.

              RSS    Resident Set Size: The non-swapped physical memory
                     used by the task in kilobytes.

              %MEM   The tasks's currently used share of available
                     physical memory.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

              When reporting global statistics for tasks and all their
              children, the following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     which is being monitored together with its
                     children.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task which is
                     being monitored together with its children.

              PID    The identification number of the task which is
                     being monitored together with its children.

              minflt-nr
                     Total number of minor faults made by the task and
                     all its children, and collected during the interval
                     of time.

              majflt-nr
                     Total number of major faults made by the task and
                     all its children, and collected during the interval
                     of time.

              Command
                     The command name of the task which is being
                     monitored together with its children.

       -s     Report stack utilization.  The following values may be
              displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              StkSize
                     The amount of memory in kilobytes reserved for the
                     task as stack, but not necessarily used.

              StkRef The amount of memory in kilobytes used as stack,
                     referenced by the task.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

       -T { TASK | CHILD | ALL }
              This option specifies what has to be monitored by the
              pidstat command. The TASK keyword indicates that
              statistics are to be reported for individual tasks (this
              is the default option) whereas the CHILD keyword indicates
              that statistics are to be globally reported for the
              selected tasks and all their children. The ALL keyword
              indicates that statistics are to be reported for
              individual tasks and globally for the selected tasks and
              their children.

              Note: Global statistics for tasks and all their children
              are not available for all options of pidstat.  Also these
              statistics are not necessarily relevant to current time
              interval: The statistics of a child process are collected
              only when it finishes or it is killed.

       -t     Also display statistics for threads associated with
              selected tasks.

              This option adds the following values to the reports:

              TGID   The identification number of the thread group
                     leader.

              TID    The identification number of the thread being
                     monitored.

       -U [ username ]
              Display the real user name of the tasks being monitored
              instead of the UID.  If username is specified, then only
              tasks belonging to the specified user are displayed.

       -u     Report CPU utilization.

              When reporting statistics for individual tasks, the
              following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              %usr   Percentage of CPU used by the task while executing
                     at the user level (application), with or without
                     nice priority. Note that this field does NOT
                     include time spent running a virtual processor.

              %system
                     Percentage of CPU used by the task while executing
                     at the system level (kernel).

              %guest Percentage of CPU spent by the task in virtual
                     machine (running a virtual processor).

              %wait  Percentage of CPU spent by the task while waiting
                     to run.

              %CPU   Total percentage of CPU time used by the task. In
                     an SMP environment, the task's CPU usage will be
                     divided by the total number of CPU's if option -I
                     has been entered on the command line.

              CPU    Processor number to which the task is attached.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

              When reporting global statistics for tasks and all their
              children, the following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     which is being monitored together with its
                     children.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task which is
                     being monitored together with its children.

              PID    The identification number of the task which is
                     being monitored together with its children.

              usr-ms Total number of milliseconds spent by the task and
                     all its children while executing at the user level
                     (application), with or without nice priority, and
                     collected during the interval of time. Note that
                     this field does NOT include time spent running a
                     virtual processor.

              system-ms
                     Total number of milliseconds spent by the task and
                     all its children while executing at the system
                     level (kernel), and collected during the interval
                     of time.

              guest-ms
                     Total number of milliseconds spent by the task and
                     all its children in virtual machine (running a
                     virtual processor).

              Command
                     The command name of the task which is being
                     monitored together with its children.

       -V     Print version number then exit.

       -v     Report values of some kernel tables. The following values
              may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              threads
                     Number of threads associated with current task.

              fd-nr  Number of file descriptors associated with current
                     task.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

       -w     Report task switching activity (kernels 2.6.23 and later
              only).  The following values may be displayed:

              UID    The real user identification number of the task
                     being monitored.

              USER   The name of the real user owning the task being
                     monitored.

              PID    The identification number of the task being
                     monitored.

              cswch/s
                     Total number of voluntary context switches the task
                     made per second.  A voluntary context switch occurs
                     when a task blocks because it requires a resource
                     that is unavailable.

              nvcswch/s
                     Total number of non voluntary context switches the
                     task made per second.  An involuntary context
                     switch takes place when a task executes for the
                     duration of its time slice and then is forced to
                     relinquish the processor.

              Command
                     The command name of the task.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       The pidstat command takes into account the following environment
       variables:

       S_COLORS
              By default statistics are displayed in color when the
              output is connected to a terminal.  Use this variable to
              change the settings. Possible values for this variable are
              never, always or auto (the latter is equivalent to the
              default settings).
              Please note that the color (being red, yellow, or some
              other color) used to display a value is not indicative of
              any kind of issue simply because of the color. It only
              indicates different ranges of values.

       S_COLORS_SGR
              Specify the colors and other attributes used to display
              statistics on the terminal.  Its value is a colon-
              separated list of capabilities that defaults to
              I=32;22:N=34;1:W=35;1:X=31;1:Z=34;22.  Supported
              capabilities are:

              I=     SGR (Select Graphic Rendition) substring for item
                     values like PID, UID or CPU number.

              N=     SGR substring for non-zero statistics values and
                     for tasks names.

              W= (or M=)
                     SGR substring for percentage values in the range
                     from 75% to 90% (or in the range 10% to 25%
                     depending on the metric's meaning).

              X= (or H=)
                     SGR substring for percentage values greater than or
                     equal to 90% (or lower than or equal to 10%
                     depending on the metric's meaning).

              Z=     SGR substring for zero values and for threads
                     names.

       S_TIME_FORMAT
              If this variable exists and its value is ISO then the
              current locale will be ignored when printing the date in
              the report header. The pidstat command will use the ISO
              8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD) instead.  The timestamp will also
              be compliant with ISO 8601 format.

EXAMPLES         top

       pidstat 2 5
              Display five reports of CPU statistics for every active
              task in the system at two second intervals.

       pidstat -r -p 1643 2 5
              Display five reports of page faults and memory statistics
              for PID 1643 at two second intervals.

       pidstat -C "fox|bird" -r -p ALL
              Display global page faults and memory statistics for all
              the processes whose command name includes the string "fox"
              or "bird".

       pidstat -T CHILD -r 2 5
              Display five reports of page faults statistics at two
              second intervals for the child processes of all tasks in
              the system. Only child processes with non-zero statistics
              values are displayed.

BUGS         top

       /proc filesystem must be mounted for the pidstat command to work.

       Although pidstat speaks of kilobytes (kB), megabytes (MB)..., it
       actually uses kibibytes (kiB), mebibytes (MiB)...  A kibibyte is
       equal to 1024 bytes, and a mebibyte is equal to 1024 kibibytes.

FILES         top

       /proc contains various files with system statistics.

AUTHOR         top

       Sebastien Godard (sysstat <at> orange.fr)

SEE ALSO         top

       sar(1), top(1), ps(1), mpstat(1), iostat(1), vmstat(8)

       https://github.com/sysstat/sysstat 
       https://sysstat.github.io/ 

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the sysstat (sysstat performance monitoring
       tools) project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to sysstat-AT-orange.fr.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/sysstat/sysstat.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-17.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Linux                          AUGUST 2023                    PIDSTAT(1)

Pages that refer to this page: cifsiostat(1)iostat(1)mpstat(1)pcp-pidstat(1)sar(1)