1pidpersec(8) System Manager's Manual pidpersec(8)
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6 pidpersec - Count new processes (via fork()). Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.
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9 pidpersec
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12 pidpersec shows how many new processes were created each second. There
13 can be performance issues caused by many short-lived processes, which
14 may not be visible in sampling tools like top(1). pidpersec provides
15 one way to investigate this behavior.
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17 This works by tracing the kernel sched_fork() function using dynamic
18 tracing, and will need updating to match any changes to this function.
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20 Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.
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23 CONFIG_BPF and bcc.
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26 Count new processes created each second:
27 # pidpersec
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30 This traces the kernel fork function, and maintains an in-kernel count
31 which is read asynchronously from user-space. As the rate of this is
32 generally expected to be low (<< 1000/s), the overhead is also expected
33 to be negligible.
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36 This is from bcc.
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38 https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
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40 Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _examples.txt file
41 containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.
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44 Linux
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47 Unstable - in development.
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50 Brendan Gregg
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53 top(1)
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57USER COMMANDS 2015-08-18 pidpersec(8)