NAME

       pidpersec - Count new processes (via fork()). Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.

SYNOPSIS

       pidpersec

DESCRIPTION

       pidpersec  shows how many new processes were created each second. There can be performance
       issues caused by many short-lived processes, which may not be visible  in  sampling  tools
       like top(1). pidpersec provides one way to investigate this behavior.

       This  works  by  tracing  the kernel sched_fork() function using dynamic tracing, and will
       need updating to match any changes to this function.

       Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.

REQUIREMENTS

       CONFIG_BPF and bcc.

EXAMPLES

       Count new processes created each second:
              # pidpersec

OVERHEAD

       This traces the kernel fork function, and maintains  an  in-kernel  count  which  is  read
       asynchronously  from  user-space.  As the rate of this is generally expected to be low (<<
       1000/s), the overhead is also expected to be negligible.

SOURCE

       This is from bcc.

              https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

       Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _examples.txt  file  containing  example
       usage, output, and commentary for this tool.

OS

       Linux

STABILITY

       Unstable - in development.

AUTHOR

       Brendan Gregg

SEE ALSO

       top(1)