From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Peter Schiffer Subject: [PATCH] proc.5: Document /proc/[pid]/io file Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 17:24:35 +0200 Message-ID: <51F7DAB3.30008@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Sender: linux-man-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org To: Michael Kerrisk Cc: linux-man List-Id: linux-man@vger.kernel.org Attempt to document fields in the /proc/[pid]/io file, based on the Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt. The text will probably need some grammar corrections. Signed-off-by: Peter Schiffer --- man5/proc.5 | 95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 91 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/man5/proc.5 b/man5/proc.5 index 375a131..6fd4543 100644 --- a/man5/proc.5 +++ b/man5/proc.5 @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ .\" to see what information could be imported from that file .\" into this file. .\" -.TH PROC 5 2013-06-27 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" +.TH PROC 5 2013-07-30 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" .SH NAME proc \- process information pseudo-file system .SH DESCRIPTION @@ -350,9 +350,96 @@ file access mode and file status flags (see .BR open (2)). The files in this directory are readable only by the owner of the process. -.\" FIXME document /proc/[pid]/io -.\" .TP -.\" .IR /proc/[pid]/io " (since kernel 2.6.20)" +.TP +.IR /proc/[pid]/io " (since kernel 2.6.20)" +This file contains IO statistics for each running process, for example: +.in +4n +.nf + +.RB "#" " cat /proc/3828/io" +rchar: 323934931 +wchar: 323929600 +syscr: 632687 +syscw: 632675 +read_bytes: 0 +write_bytes: 323932160 +cancelled_write_bytes: 0 +.fi +.in + +The fields are as follows: +.RS +.IP * 2 +.IR rchar : +chars read + +The number of bytes which this task has caused to be read from storage. +This is simply the sum of bytes which this process passed to +.BR read (2) +and +.BR pread (2). +It includes things like tty IO and it is unaffected by whether or not actual +physical disk IO was required (the read might have been satisfied from +pagecache). +.IP * +.IR wchar : +chars written + +The number of bytes which this task has caused, or shall cause to be written +to disk. +Similar caveats apply here as with +.IR rchar . +.IP * +.IR syscr : +read syscalls + +Attempt to count the number of read I/O operations, i.e. syscalls like +.BR read (2) +and +.BR pread (2). +.IP * +.IR syscw : +write syscalls + +Attempt to count the number of write I/O operations, i.e. syscalls like +.BR write (2) +and +.BR pwrite (2). +.IP * +.IR read_bytes : +bytes read + +Attempt to count the number of bytes which this process really did cause to +be fetched from the storage layer. +This is accurate for block-backed filesystems. +.IP * +.IR write_bytes : +bytes written + +Attempt to count the number of bytes which this process caused to be sent to +the storage layer. +.IP * +.IR cancelled_write_bytes : + +The big inaccuracy here is truncate. +If a process writes 1MB to a file and then deletes the file, +it will in fact perform no writeout. +But it will have been accounted as having caused 1MB of write. +In other words: this field represents number of bytes which this process +caused to not happen, by truncating pagecache. +A task can cause "negative" IO too. +If this task truncates some dirty pagecache, +some IO which another task has been accounted for +(in its write_bytes) will not be happening. +.IP +.IR Note : + +At its current implementation state, this is a bit racy on 32-bit systems: +if process A reads process B's +.I /proc/[pid]/io +while process B is updating one of those 64-bit counters, +process A could see an intermediate result. +.RE .TP .IR /proc/[pid]/limits " (since kernel 2.6.24)" This file displays the soft limit, hard limit, and units of measurement -- 1.8.3.1 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-man" in the body of a message to majordomo-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html