Development Status
- 5 - Production/Stable
Environment
- Console
- Win32 (MS Windows)
Intended Audience
- Developers
- Information Technology
- System Administrators
License
- OSI Approved :: BSD License
Operating System
- MacOS :: MacOS X
- Microsoft :: Windows :: Windows NT/2000
- Microsoft
- OS Independent
- POSIX :: BSD :: FreeBSD
- POSIX :: BSD :: NetBSD
- POSIX :: BSD :: OpenBSD
- POSIX :: BSD
- POSIX :: Linux
- POSIX :: SunOS/Solaris
- POSIX
Programming Language
- C
- Python :: 2
- Python :: 2.6
- Python :: 2.7
- Python :: 3
- Python :: 3.0
- Python :: 3.1
- Python :: 3.2
- Python :: 3.3
- Python :: 3.4
- Python :: 3.5
- Python :: 3.6
- Python :: Implementation :: CPython
- Python :: Implementation :: PyPy
- Python
Topic
- Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules
- Software Development :: Libraries
- System :: Benchmark
- System :: Hardware
- System :: Monitoring
- System :: Networking :: Monitoring
- System :: Networking
- System :: Operating System
- System :: Systems Administration
- Utilities
Quick links
Summary
psutil (process and system utilities) is a cross-platform library for retrieving information on running processes and system utilization (CPU, memory, disks, network) in Python. It is useful mainly for system monitoring, profiling and limiting process resources and management of running processes. It implements many functionalities offered by command line tools such as: ps, top, lsof, netstat, ifconfig, who, df, kill, free, nice, ionice, iostat, iotop, uptime, pidof, tty, taskset, pmap. It currently supports Linux, Windows, OSX, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD, both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, with Python versions from 2.6 to 3.5 (users of Python 2.4 and 2.5 may use 2.1.3 version). PyPy is also known to work.
Example applications
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Also see https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/tree/master/scripts.
Projects using psutil
At the time of writing there are over 4200 open source projects on github which depend from psutil. Here’s some I find particularly interesting:
Example usages
CPU
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.cpu_times()
scputimes(user=3961.46, nice=169.729, system=2150.659, idle=16900.540, iowait=629.59, irq=0.0, softirq=19.42, steal=0.0, guest=0, nice=0.0)
>>>
>>> for x in range(3):
... psutil.cpu_percent(interval=1)
...
4.0
5.9
3.8
>>>
>>> for x in range(3):
... psutil.cpu_percent(interval=1, percpu=True)
...
[4.0, 6.9, 3.7, 9.2]
[7.0, 8.5, 2.4, 2.1]
[1.2, 9.0, 9.9, 7.2]
>>>
>>> for x in range(3):
... psutil.cpu_times_percent(interval=1, percpu=False)
...
scputimes(user=1.5, nice=0.0, system=0.5, idle=96.5, iowait=1.5, irq=0.0, softirq=0.0, steal=0.0, guest=0.0, guest_nice=0.0)
scputimes(user=1.0, nice=0.0, system=0.0, idle=99.0, iowait=0.0, irq=0.0, softirq=0.0, steal=0.0, guest=0.0, guest_nice=0.0)
scputimes(user=2.0, nice=0.0, system=0.0, idle=98.0, iowait=0.0, irq=0.0, softirq=0.0, steal=0.0, guest=0.0, guest_nice=0.0)
>>>
>>> psutil.cpu_count()
4
>>> psutil.cpu_count(logical=False)
2
>>>
>>> psutil.cpu_stats()
scpustats(ctx_switches=20455687, interrupts=6598984, soft_interrupts=2134212, syscalls=0)
>>>
>>> psutil.cpu_freq()
scpufreq(current=931.42925, min=800.0, max=3500.0)
>>>
Memory
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.virtual_memory()
svmem(total=10367352832, available=6472179712, percent=37.6, used=8186245120, free=2181107712, active=4748992512, inactive=2758115328, buffers=790724608, cached=3500347392, shared=787554304)
>>> psutil.swap_memory()
sswap(total=2097147904, used=296128512, free=1801019392, percent=14.1, sin=304193536, sout=677842944)
>>>
Disks
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.disk_partitions()
[sdiskpart(device='/dev/sda1', mountpoint='/', fstype='ext4', opts='rw,nosuid'),
sdiskpart(device='/dev/sda2', mountpoint='/home', fstype='ext, opts='rw')]
>>>
>>> psutil.disk_usage('/')
sdiskusage(total=21378641920, used=4809781248, free=15482871808, percent=22.5)
>>>
>>> psutil.disk_io_counters(perdisk=False)
sdiskio(read_count=719566, write_count=1082197, read_bytes=18626220032, write_bytes=24081764352, read_time=5023392, write_time=63199568, read_merged_count=619166, write_merged_count=812396, busy_time=4523412)
>>>
Network
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.net_io_counters(pernic=True)
{'eth0': netio(bytes_sent=485291293, bytes_recv=6004858642, packets_sent=3251564, packets_recv=4787798, errin=0, errout=0, dropin=0, dropout=0),
'lo': netio(bytes_sent=2838627, bytes_recv=2838627, packets_sent=30567, packets_recv=30567, errin=0, errout=0, dropin=0, dropout=0)}
>>>
>>> psutil.net_connections()
[pconn(fd=115, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 48776), raddr=('93.186.135.91', 80), status='ESTABLISHED', pid=1254),
pconn(fd=117, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 43761), raddr=('72.14.234.100', 80), status='CLOSING', pid=2987),
pconn(fd=-1, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 60759), raddr=('72.14.234.104', 80), status='ESTABLISHED', pid=None),
pconn(fd=-1, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 51314), raddr=('72.14.234.83', 443), status='SYN_SENT', pid=None)
...]
>>>
>>> psutil.net_if_addrs()
{'lo': [snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, address='127.0.0.1', netmask='255.0.0.0', broadcast='127.0.0.1', ptp=None),
snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET6: 10>, address='::1', netmask='ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff', broadcast=None, ptp=None),
snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_LINK: 17>, address='00:00:00:00:00:00', netmask=None, broadcast='00:00:00:00:00:00', ptp=None)],
'wlan0': [snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, address='192.168.1.3', netmask='255.255.255.0', broadcast='192.168.1.255', ptp=None),
snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET6: 10>, address='fe80::c685:8ff:fe45:641%wlan0', netmask='ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::', broadcast=None, ptp=None),
snic(family=<AddressFamily.AF_LINK: 17>, address='c4:85:08:45:06:41', netmask=None, broadcast='ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff', ptp=None)]}
>>>
>>> psutil.net_if_stats()
{'eth0': snicstats(isup=True, duplex=<NicDuplex.NIC_DUPLEX_FULL: 2>, speed=100, mtu=1500),
'lo': snicstats(isup=True, duplex=<NicDuplex.NIC_DUPLEX_UNKNOWN: 0>, speed=0, mtu=65536)}
>>>
Sensors
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.sensors_temperatures()
{'acpitz': [shwtemp(label='', current=47.0, high=103.0, critical=103.0)],
'asus': [shwtemp(label='', current=47.0, high=None, critical=None)],
'coretemp': [shwtemp(label='Physical id 0', current=52.0, high=100.0, critical=100.0),
shwtemp(label='Core 0', current=45.0, high=100.0, critical=100.0),
shwtemp(label='Core 1', current=52.0, high=100.0, critical=100.0),
shwtemp(label='Core 2', current=45.0, high=100.0, critical=100.0),
shwtemp(label='Core 3', current=47.0, high=100.0, critical=100.0)]}
>>>
>>> psutil.sensors_battery()
sbattery(percent=93, secsleft=16628, power_plugged=False)
>>>
Other system info
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.users()
[user(name='giampaolo', terminal='pts/2', host='localhost', started=1340737536.0),
user(name='giampaolo', terminal='pts/3', host='localhost', started=1340737792.0)]
>>>
>>> psutil.boot_time()
1365519115.0
>>>
Process management
>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.pids()
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 46, 48, 50, 51, 178, 182, 222, 223, 224, 268, 1215, 1216, 1220, 1221, 1243, 1244,
1301, 1601, 2237, 2355, 2637, 2774, 3932, 4176, 4177, 4185, 4187, 4189, 4225, 4243, 4245, 4263, 4282,
4306, 4311, 4312, 4313, 4314, 4337, 4339, 4357, 4358, 4363, 4383, 4395, 4408, 4433, 4443, 4445, 4446,
5167, 5234, 5235, 5252, 5318, 5424, 5644, 6987, 7054, 7055, 7071]
>>>
>>> p = psutil.Process(7055)
>>> p.name()
'python'
>>> p.exe()
'/usr/bin/python'
>>> p.cwd()
'/home/giampaolo'
>>> p.cmdline()
['/usr/bin/python', 'main.py']
>>>
>>> p.pid
7055
>>> p.ppid()
7054
>>> p.parent()
<psutil.Process(pid=7054, name='bash') at 140008329539408>
>>> p.children()
[<psutil.Process(pid=8031, name='python') at 14020832451977>,
<psutil.Process(pid=8044, name='python') at 19229444921932>]
>>>
>>> p.status()
'running'
>>> p.username()
'giampaolo'
>>> p.create_time()
1267551141.5019531
>>> p.terminal()
'/dev/pts/0'
>>>
>>> p.uids()
puids(real=1000, effective=1000, saved=1000)
>>> p.gids()
pgids(real=1000, effective=1000, saved=1000)
>>>
>>> p.cpu_times()
pcputimes(user=1.02, system=0.31, children_user=0.32, children_system=0.1)
>>> p.cpu_percent(interval=1.0)
12.1
>>> p.cpu_affinity()
[0, 1, 2, 3]
>>> p.cpu_affinity([0, 1]) # set
>>> p.cpu_num()
1
>>>
>>> p.memory_info()
pmem(rss=10915840, vms=67608576, shared=3313664, text=2310144, lib=0, data=7262208, dirty=0)
>>> p.memory_full_info() # "real" USS memory usage (Linux, OSX, Win only)
pfullmem(rss=10199040, vms=52133888, shared=3887104, text=2867200, lib=0, data=5967872, dirty=0, uss=6545408, pss=6872064, swap=0)
>>> p.memory_percent()
0.7823
>>> p.memory_maps()
[pmmap_grouped(path='/lib/x8664-linux-gnu/libutil-2.15.so', rss=32768, size=2125824, pss=32768, shared_clean=0, shared_dirty=0, private_clean=20480, private_dirty=12288, referenced=32768, anonymous=12288, swap=0),
pmmap_grouped(path='/lib/x8664-linux-gnu/libc-2.15.so', rss=3821568, size=3842048, pss=3821568, shared_clean=0, shared_dirty=0, private_clean=0, private_dirty=3821568, referenced=3575808, anonymous=3821568, swap=0),
pmmap_grouped(path='/lib/x8664-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.0.1', rss=34124, rss=32768, size=2134016, pss=15360, shared_clean=24576, shared_dirty=0, private_clean=0, private_dirty=8192, referenced=24576, anonymous=8192, swap=0),
pmmap_grouped(path='[heap]', rss=32768, size=139264, pss=32768, shared_clean=0, shared_dirty=0, private_clean=0, private_dirty=32768, referenced=32768, anonymous=32768, swap=0),
pmmap_grouped(path='[stack]', rss=2465792, size=2494464, pss=2465792, shared_clean=0, shared_dirty=0, private_clean=0, private_dirty=2465792, referenced=2277376, anonymous=2465792, swap=0),
...]
>>>
>>> p.io_counters()
pio(read_count=478001, write_count=59371, read_bytes=700416, write_bytes=69632)
>>>
>>> p.open_files()
[popenfile(path='/home/giampaolo/svn/psutil/setup.py', fd=3, position=0, mode='r', flags=32768),
popenfile(path='/var/log/monitd', fd=4, position=235542, mode='a', flags=33793)]
>>>
>>> p.connections()
[pconn(fd=115, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 48776), raddr=('93.186.135.91', 80), status='ESTABLISHED'),
pconn(fd=117, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 43761), raddr=('72.14.234.100', 80), status='CLOSING'),
pconn(fd=119, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 60759), raddr=('72.14.234.104', 80), status='ESTABLISHED'),
pconn(fd=123, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=('10.0.0.1', 51314), raddr=('72.14.234.83', 443), status='SYN_SENT')]
>>>
>>> p.num_threads()
4
>>> p.num_fds()
8
>>> p.threads()
[pthread(id=5234, user_time=22.5, system_time=9.2891),
pthread(id=5235, user_time=0.0, system_time=0.0),
pthread(id=5236, user_time=0.0, system_time=0.0),
pthread(id=5237, user_time=0.0707, system_time=1.1)]
>>>
>>> p.num_ctx_switches()
pctxsw(voluntary=78, involuntary=19)
>>>
>>> p.nice()
0
>>> p.nice(10) # set
>>>
>>> p.ionice(psutil.IOPRIO_CLASS_IDLE) # IO priority (Win and Linux only)
>>> p.ionice()
pionice(ioclass=<IOPriority.IOPRIO_CLASS_IDLE: 3>, value=0)
>>>
>>> p.rlimit(psutil.RLIMIT_NOFILE, (5, 5)) # set resource limits (Linux only)
>>> p.rlimit(psutil.RLIMIT_NOFILE)
(5, 5)
>>>
>>> p.environ()
{'LC_PAPER': 'it_IT.UTF-8', 'SHELL': '/bin/bash', 'GREP_OPTIONS': '--color=auto',
'XDG_CONFIG_DIRS': '/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg', 'COLORTERM': 'gnome-terminal',
...}
>>>
>>> p.as_dict()
{'status': 'running', 'num_ctx_switches': pctxsw(voluntary=63, involuntary=1), 'pid': 5457, ...}
>>> p.is_running()
True
>>> p.suspend()
>>> p.resume()
>>>
>>> p.terminate()
>>> p.wait(timeout=3)
0
>>>
>>> psutil.test()
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY START TIME COMMAND
root 1 0.0 0.0 24584 2240 Jun17 00:00 init
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 Jun17 00:00 kthreadd
root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 Jun17 00:05 ksoftirqd/0
...
giampaolo 31475 0.0 0.0 20760 3024 /dev/pts/0 Jun19 00:00 python2.4
giampaolo 31721 0.0 2.2 773060 181896 00:04 10:30 chrome
root 31763 0.0 0.0 0 0 00:05 00:00 kworker/0:1
>>>
Further process APIs
>>> for p in psutil.process_iter():
... print(p)
...
psutil.Process(pid=1, name='init')
psutil.Process(pid=2, name='kthreadd')
psutil.Process(pid=3, name='ksoftirqd/0')
...
>>>
>>> def on_terminate(proc):
... print("process {} terminated".format(proc))
...
>>> # waits for multiple processes to terminate
>>> gone, alive = psutil.wait_procs(procs_list, timeout=3, callback=on_terminate)
>>>
Windows services
>>> list(psutil.win_service_iter())
[<WindowsService(name='AeLookupSvc', display_name='Application Experience') at 38850096>,
<WindowsService(name='ALG', display_name='Application Layer Gateway Service') at 38850128>,
<WindowsService(name='APNMCP', display_name='Ask Update Service') at 38850160>,
<WindowsService(name='AppIDSvc', display_name='Application Identity') at 38850192>,
...]
>>> s = psutil.win_service_get('alg')
>>> s.as_dict()
{'binpath': 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\alg.exe',
'description': 'Provides support for 3rd party protocol plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing',
'display_name': 'Application Layer Gateway Service',
'name': 'alg',
'pid': None,
'start_type': 'manual',
'status': 'stopped',
'username': 'NT AUTHORITY\\LocalService'}