pidstat stands for PID Statistics.
This tool can monitor an individual process that is managed by kernel and generate a report. It can monitor either a specific PID (process id), or all the process running on the system.
pidstat is a part of sysstat utility.
This tool reports various statistics including CPU used by a process, disk usage statistics of a process, statistics for threads associated with selected tasks and child processes.
You should install systat package to use this command.
yum install sysstat
1. Display Statistics for ALL Running Process (or a Specific Process)
Use -p ALL option to view performance statistics of all running process as shown below.
By default this will display the CPU usage. But, you can change this to any other performance statistics as shown in later examples.
# pidstat -p ALL | wc -l 165 # pidstat -p ALL | head Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 05:00:03 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 05:00:03 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 init 05:00:03 2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 kthreadd 05:00:03 3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 ksoftirqd/0 05:00:03 6 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 migration/0 05:00:03 7 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 watchdog/0 05:00:03 8 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 cpuset 05:00:03 9 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 khelper
Use -p PID to monitor performance statistics for a particular process as shown below.
# pidstat -p 13203 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 05:04:29 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 05:04:29 13203 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 vim
If you are new to systat package, you should also understand the performance statistics data provided by sar command.
2. Display Performance Statistics based on Process Name using -C
The following example will display performance statistics for all the process that matches a specific keyword (for example: mysql).
# pidstat -C "mysql" Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:33:14 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 06:33:14 23132 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld_safe 06:33:14 23493 0.06 0.02 0.00 0.08 0 mysqld
Note: In the above example, the option -C stands for “Command Name”. i.e It will search the command name of the process with the given keyword.
3. Repeat the Output at Certain Interval
By default, the output will not be repeated. For example, option -u is to display the CPU usage statistics of tasks and this is the default statistics given by pidstat command. Thsi will display the output only one time.
# pidstat -p 23493 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:52:35 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 06:52:36 23493 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 0 mysqld
To repeat the output, specific the interval in seconds as the last parameter. For example, the following example will repeat the output every 1 second (until you press Ctrl-C).
# pidstat -p 23493 1 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:52:35 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 06:52:36 23493 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 0 mysqld 06:52:37 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld 06:52:38 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld 06:52:39 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld 06:52:40 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld 06:52:41 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld ..
The following will repeat the output every 5 seconds (until you press Ctrl-C).
# pidstat -p 23493 5
4. Display I/O Statistics for a Specific Process using -d
Use option -d to report I/O statistics of process. It output displays different attributes like PID, disk read and write speed in kB/s as shown below.
The following example displays the disk usage for PID 23493 every 1 second.
# pidstat -p 23493 -d 1 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:48:33 PID kB_rd/s kB_wr/s kB_ccwr/s Command 06:48:34 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:35 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:36 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:37 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:38 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:39 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:40 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld 06:48:41 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 mysqld
5. Display Paging Activity for a Specific Process using -r
Use option -r to display page faults and memory utilization for a given task (PID).
# pidstat -p 23493 -r 1 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:58:48 PID minflt/s majflt/s VSZ RSS %MEM Command 06:58:49 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:50 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:51 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:52 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:53 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:54 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld 06:58:55 23493 0.00 0.00 398876 33468 3.28 mysqld
6. Display Command Name and its Arguments using option -l
By default, pidstat displays only the command name. i.e Without the full path of the command and its argument. For example, in the command column you’ll see only “java” (which is just the name of the program).
$ pidstat -C java Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 11:00:25 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 11:00:25 3288 0.04 0.03 0.00 0.07 0 java 11:00:25 17861 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.05 6 java
However when you use option -l, it will display the full path of the command, and all its arguments as shown below.
$ pidstat -C java -l Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 11:00:31 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 11:00:31 3288 0.04 0.03 0.00 0.07 0 /usr/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/home/tomcat/apache-tomcat-7.0.56/conf/logging.properties 11:00:31 17861 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.05 6 java -jar /home/rabbit/myapp.jar /home/app/conf/myapp.conf
In order to get the statistics on regular intervals for tasks, just pass the number of seconds at which you wish to see the statistics,
# pidstat -p 23493 1 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 06:25:50 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 06:25:51 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld 06:25:52 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld
As seen above, watching the mysqld process’s statistics for every 1 second.
You can also fetch few process ids from top command output and watch it here to understand its usage of system resources on regular intervals.
7. Display Output at Regular Intervals for X Number of Times
It is also possible to get reports for certain number of times at given intervals for list of process as shown below.
Add the number of times as the last parameter (after the intervals in seconds).
For example, the following will display the output 5 times (at a regular interval of 2 seconds). At the end of the report, it will also display the “Average” values.
# pidstat 2 5 Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 07:14:11 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 07:14:13 1445 0.00 0.50 0.00 0.50 0 pidstat 07:14:13 28222 0.50 0.00 0.00 0.50 0 cma 07:14:13 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 07:14:15 1445 0.00 0.50 0.00 0.50 0 pidstat 07:14:15 28222 0.00 0.50 0.00 0.50 0 cma 07:14:15 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 07:14:17 1445 0.50 0.00 0.00 0.50 0 pidstat 07:14:17 19614 0.00 0.50 0.00 0.50 0 nailswebd 07:14:17 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 07:14:19 1445 0.50 0.50 0.00 1.00 0 pidstat 07:14:19 PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 07:14:21 1445 0.00 0.51 0.00 0.51 0 pidstat 07:14:21 28222 0.00 0.51 0.00 0.51 0 cma Average: PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command Average: 1445 0.20 0.40 0.00 0.60 - pidstat Average: 19614 0.00 0.10 0.00 0.10 - nailswebd Average: 28222 0.10 0.20 0.00 0.30 - cma
8. Display Statistics of Selected Process and its Child using -T
Use option -T to specify either CHILD or TASKS. In this case the statistics will be reported for TASKS, or tasks and all their children. You can also specify ALL.
Possible values for -T: CHILD, or TASKS, or ALL.
# pidstat -T CHILD | head Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 10:13:34 IST PID usr-ms system-ms guest-ms Command 10:13:34 IST 1 7950 3340 0 init 10:13:34 IST 3 0 420 0 ksoftirqd/0 10:13:34 IST 8 0 10 0 migration/0 10:13:34 IST 10 0 1190 0 rcu_sched 10:13:34 IST 11 10 0 0 watchdog/0 10:13:34 IST 12 10 0 0 watchdog/1 10:13:34 IST 13 0 450 0 ksoftirqd/1
9. Display Statistics of Dependent Process in Tree Format using -t
Using option -t, you can display the output in a tree format as shown below.
# pidstat -t -C "mysql" Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ 18:47:54 PID TID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU Command 18:47:54 1646 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysql 18:47:54 - 1646 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysql 18:47:54 23132 - 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 mysqld_safe 18:47:54 - 23132 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld_safe 18:47:54 23493 - 0.06 0.02 0.00 0.08 0 mysqld 18:47:54 - 23493 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23504 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23509 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23510 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23512 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23515 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23516 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.02 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23517 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23518 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.02 0 |__mysqld 18:47:54 - 23519 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 |__mysqld ..
10. Display All Statistics Horizontally on a Single Line using -h
If you ask pidstat to report more than one statistics it displays one statistics after another statistics. In the following example, it will first display the performance statistics for option “r”, then option “u”, and finally option “d”.
# pidstat -rud
However if you want all of those statistics to be displayed in a single line for the individual process, use the option -h as shown below.
# pidstat -rud -h | head Linux 3.0.101-0.7.17-default (thegeekstuff) 07/30/14 _x86_64_ # Time PID %usr %system %guest %CPU CPU minflt/s majflt/s VSZ RSS %MEM kB_rd/s kB_wr/s kB_ccwr/s Command 1406823329 1 0.04 0.19 0.00 0.24 2 21.50 0.03 26944 2768 0.07 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 init 1406823329 3 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.03 0 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 ksoftirqd/0 1406823329 8 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 migration/0 1406823329 10 0.00 0.08 0.00 0.08 2 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 rcu_sched 1406823329 13 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.03 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 ksoftirqd/1 1406823329 14 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 migration/1 1406823329 18 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.01 2 0.00 0.00 0 0 0.00 -1.00 -1.00 -1.00 ksoftirqd/2
My name is Ramesh Natarajan. I will be posting instruction guides, how-to, troubleshooting tips and tricks on Linux, database, hardware, security and web. My focus is to write articles that will either teach you or help you resolve a problem. Read more about
Comments on this entry are closed.
like procstat at FreeBSD )
nice article. I have notice that PIDSTAT came with RHEL6 or newer
How to get all stats, i mean io, cpu etc in one go?