getrusage(2) System Calls Manual getrusage(2)
NAME
getrusage - get resource usage
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/resource.h>
int getrusage(int who, struct rusage *usage);
DESCRIPTION
getrusage() returns resource usage measures for who, which can be one of the following:
RUSAGE_SELF
Return resource usage statistics for the calling process, which is the sum of resources used by all threads in the
process.
RUSAGE_CHILDREN
Return resource usage statistics for all children of the calling process that have terminated and been waited for.
These statistics will include the resources used by grandchildren, and further removed descendants, if all of the in‐
tervening descendants waited on their terminated children.
RUSAGE_THREAD (since Linux 2.6.26)
Return resource usage statistics for the calling thread. The _GNU_SOURCE feature test macro must be defined (before
including any header file) in order to obtain the definition of this constant from <sys/resource.h>.
The resource usages are returned in the structure pointed to by usage, which has the following form:
struct rusage {
struct timeval ru_utime; /* user CPU time used */
struct timeval ru_stime; /* system CPU time used */
long ru_maxrss; /* maximum resident set size */
long ru_ixrss; /* integral shared memory size */
long ru_idrss; /* integral unshared data size */
long ru_isrss; /* integral unshared stack size */
long ru_minflt; /* page reclaims (soft page faults) */
long ru_majflt; /* page faults (hard page faults) */
long ru_nswap; /* swaps */
long ru_inblock; /* block input operations */
long ru_oublock; /* block output operations */
long ru_msgsnd; /* IPC messages sent */
long ru_msgrcv; /* IPC messages received */
long ru_nsignals; /* signals received */
long ru_nvcsw; /* voluntary context switches */
long ru_nivcsw; /* involuntary context switches */
};
Not all fields are completed; unmaintained fields are set to zero by the kernel. (The unmaintained fields are provided for
compatibility with other systems, and because they may one day be supported on Linux.) The fields are interpreted as fol‐
lows:
ru_utime
This is the total amount of time spent executing in user mode, expressed in a timeval structure (seconds plus mi‐
croseconds).
ru_stime
This is the total amount of time spent executing in kernel mode, expressed in a timeval structure (seconds plus mi‐
croseconds).
ru_maxrss (since Linux 2.6.32)
This is the maximum resident set size used (in kilobytes). For RUSAGE_CHILDREN, this is the resident set size of the
largest child, not the maximum resident set size of the process tree.
ru_ixrss (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_idrss (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_isrss (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_minflt
The number of page faults serviced without any I/O activity; here I/O activity is avoided by “reclaiming” a page
frame from the list of pages awaiting reallocation.
ru_majflt
The number of page faults serviced that required I/O activity.
ru_nswap (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_inblock (since Linux 2.6.22)
The number of times the filesystem had to perform input.
ru_oublock (since Linux 2.6.22)
The number of times the filesystem had to perform output.
ru_msgsnd (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_msgrcv (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_nsignals (unmaintained)
This field is currently unused on Linux.
ru_nvcsw (since Linux 2.6)
The number of times a context switch resulted due to a process voluntarily giving up the processor before its time
slice was completed (usually to await availability of a resource).
ru_nivcsw (since Linux 2.6)
The number of times a context switch resulted due to a higher priority process becoming runnable or because the cur‐
rent process exceeded its time slice.
RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
EFAULT usage points outside the accessible address space.
EINVAL who is invalid.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│getrusage() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD. POSIX.1 specifies getrusage(), but specifies only the fields ru_utime and
ru_stime.
RUSAGE_THREAD is Linux-specific.
NOTES
Resource usage metrics are preserved across an execve(2).
Before Linux 2.6.9, if the disposition of SIGCHLD is set to SIG_IGN then the resource usages of child processes are automat‐
ically included in the value returned by RUSAGE_CHILDREN, although POSIX.1-2001 explicitly prohibits this. This nonconfor‐
mance is rectified in Linux 2.6.9 and later.
The structure definition shown at the start of this page was taken from 4.3BSD Reno.
Ancient systems provided a vtimes() function with a similar purpose to getrusage(). For backward compatibility, glibc (up
until Linux 2.32) also provides vtimes(). All new applications should be written using getrusage(). (Since Linux 2.33,
glibc no longer provides an vtimes() implementation.)
See also the description of /proc/pid/stat in proc(5).
SEE ALSO
clock_gettime(2), getrlimit(2), times(2), wait(2), wait4(2), clock(3)
Linux man-pages 6.03 2022-12-15 getrusage(2)