How to find Heap memory of a running process?

Question

I would like to know how to find the heap memory of a process that is running in the background. Is there any command that allows such?

Check /proc/$PID/maps, wher $PID is the pid of the process you want to examine. — Kotte, Apr 25 '13 at 08:12

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 17 '21 at 18:16

12

If you want to look at a particular process named e.g. wing_ide, then

ps a | fgrep wing_ide | fgrep -v fgrep

gives you a number at the beginning of the line (in my case 29837) use this number as follows:

fgrep '[heap]' /proc/29837/maps

The output look like:

01d56000-07026000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0                       [heap]

If you do this on a regular basis you might want to use the following python program:

import sys
import psutil
for p in psutil.process_iter():
    if p.name == sys.argv[1]:
        print(pid)
        for map in p.get_memory_maps(grouped=False):
            if '[heap]' in map.path:
                print(map.addr)

To which program you provide the name of the process you want to search as an argument:

python findheap.py wing_ide

edited Dec 17 '21 at 18:16

OverShifted

105

answered Apr 25 '13 at 14:26

Anthon

79,293

Anton, How you made wing_ide in process list. I use as well and it shows as python, confusing with my own programs. – Gerard Apr 26 '13 at 11:07
@Gerard patched the startup script. If you make that into a question I will provide you with details. – Anthon Apr 26 '13 at 11:16
@Gerard I did put a question and answer here – Anthon Apr 26 '13 at 18:59
how to understand the output? – Chop Labalagun Jun 18 '20 at 16:14
@ChopLabalagun use man proc and search for maps that section has a detailed explanation, Preferably though you shouldn't abuse comments for questions like this, but post your question as a Question on this site instead. – Anthon Jun 19 '20 at 04:07
oh ok, thanks for the info. – Chop Labalagun Jun 20 '20 at 06:00

How to find Heap memory of a running process?

1 Answers1