psutil

psutil (process and system utilities) is a cross-platform library for retrieving information on running processes and system utilization (CPU, memory, disks, network, sensors) 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 UNIX command line tools such as: ps, top, lsof, netstat, ifconfig, who, df, kill, free, nice, ionice, iostat, iotop, uptime, pidof, tty, taskset, pmap. psutil currently supports the following platforms:

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()

[sconn(fd=115, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=48776), raddr=addr(ip='93.186.135.91', port=80), status='ESTABLISHED', pid=1254),
 sconn(fd=117, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=43761), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.100', port=80), status='CLOSING', pid=2987),
 sconn(fd=-1, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=60759), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.104', port=80), status='ESTABLISHED', pid=None),
 sconn(fd=-1, family=<AddressFamily.AF_INET: 2>, type=<SocketType.SOCK_STREAM: 1>, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=51314), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.83', port=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_fans()

{'asus': [sfan(label='cpu_fan', current=3200)]}

psutil.sensors_battery()

sbattery(percent=93, secsleft=16628, power_plugged=False)

Other system info

import psutil
psutil.users()

[suser(name='giampaolo', terminal='pts/2', host='localhost', started=1340737536.0, pid=1352),
 suser(name='giampaolo', terminal='pts/3', host='localhost', started=1340737792.0, pid=1788)]

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()

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, read_chars=456232, write_chars=517543)

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=, type=, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=48776), raddr=addr(ip='93.186.135.91', port=80), status='ESTABLISHED'), pconn(fd=117, family=, type=, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=43761), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.100', port=80), status='CLOSING'), pconn(fd=119, family=, type=, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=60759), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.104', port=80), status='ESTABLISHED'), pconn(fd=123, family=, type=, laddr=addr(ip='10.0.0.1', port=51314), raddr=addr(ip='72.14.234.83', port=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

import psutil
for proc in psutil.process_iter(attrs=['pid', 'name']):
    print(proc.info)

{'pid': 1, 'name': 'systemd'} {'pid': 2, 'name': 'kthreadd'} {'pid': 3, 'name': 'ksoftirqd/0'} ...

psutil.pid_exists(3)

True

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)

Popen wrapper:

import psutil
from subprocess import PIPE
p = psutil.Popen(["/usr/bin/python", "-c", "print('hello')"], stdout=PIPE)
p.name()

'python'

p.username()

'giampaolo'

p.communicate()

('hello\n', None)

p.wait(timeout=2)

0

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'}

Other samples See doc recipes.