--- name: "pcp-pidstat" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "pcp" version: "7.2.2-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/pcp-pidstat" --- # pcp-pidstat(1) Report statistics for Linux tasks. ## NAME **pcp-pidstat** - Report statistics for Linux tasks. ## SYNOPSIS **pcp** \[*pcp options*\] **pidstat** \[**-I**\] \[**-l**\] \[**-R**\] \[**-r**\] \[**-k**\] \[**-U** \[*username*\]\] \[**-V**\] \[**-G** *processname*\] \[**-p** *pid1,pid2..*\] \[**-t** *interval*\] \[**-s** *count*\] \[**-a** *archive*\] \[**-B** *state*\] \[**-f** *format*\] \[**-Z** *timezone*\] \[**-z**\] \[**-?**\] ## DESCRIPTION The **pcp-pidstat** command is used for monitoring individual tasks running on the system. Using various options it helps a user to see useful information related to the processes. This information includes CPU percentage, memory and stack usage, scheduling and priority. By default **pcp-pidstat** reports live data for the local host. ## OPTIONS When invoked via the [**pcp**(1)](/pcp/1.md) command, the **-h**/ **--host**, **-a**/ **--archive**, **-O**/ **--origin**, **-s**/ **--samples**, **-t**/ **--interval**, **-Z**/ **--timezone** and several other *pcp options* become indirectly available; refer to [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md) for a complete description of these options. The additional command line options available for **pcp-pidstat** are: - **-I** In an SMP environment, indicates that tasks CPU usage should be divided by the total number of processors. - **-l** Display the process command name and all its arguments. - **-R** Report real-time priority and scheduling policy information. The following values may be displayed: UID\ The real user identification number of the task being monitored. USER\ The name of the real user owning the task being monitored. PID\ The identification number of the task being monitored. prio\ The real-time priority of the task being monitored. policy\ The scheduling policy of the task being monitored. Command\ The command name of the task. - **-r** Report page faults and memory utilization. The following values may be displayed: UID\ The real user identification number of the task being monitored. USER\ The name of the real user owning the task being monitored. PID\ The identification number of the task being monitored. minflt/s\ Total number of minor faults the task has made per second, those which have not required loading a memory page from disk. majflt/s\ Total number of major faults the task has made per second, those which have required loading a memory page from disk. VSZ\ Virtual Size: The virtual memory usage of entire task in kilobytes. RSS\ Resident Set Size: The non-swapped physical memory used by the task in kilobytes. %MEM\ The tasks currently used share of available physical memory. Command\ The command name of the task. - **-k** Report stack utilization. The following values may be displayed: UID\ The real user identification number of the task being monitored. USER\ The name of the real user owning the task being monitored. PID\ The identification number of the task being monitored. StkSize\ The amount of memory in kilobytes reserved for the task as stack, but not necessarily used. StkRef\ The amount of memory in kilobytes used as stack, referenced by the task. Command\ The command name of the task. - **-U** \[*username*\]**,** **--user-name***\[=username\]* Display the real user name of the tasks being monitored instead of the UID. If *username* is specified, then only tasks belonging to the specified user are displayed. - **-V****,** **--version** Print version number then exit. - **-G** *processname***,** **--process-name=***processname* Display only processes whose command name includes the string *processname*. This string can be a regular expression. - **-p** *pid1,pid2..***,** **--pid-list=***pid1,pid2..* Display only processes with the listed PIDs. - **-t** *interval***,** **--interval=***interval* Set the interval between two samples. The default is one second. - **-s** *count***,** **--samples=***count* Set the number of samples to be displayed. Since the first sample is used for the rate conversion of some of the metrics, the total number of samples reported are one less than *count*. The default is continuous. - **-a** *archive***,** **--archive=***archive* Causes **pcp-pidstat** to use the specified archive than connecting to PMCD. The argument to **-a** is a comma-separated list of names, each of which may be the base name of an archive or the name of a directory containing one or more archives. - **-B** Report process states. The argument to -B is one of the following: **detail**\ Show total time processes have spent in each of the 5 different states **all**\ Show total time processes spent in their current state \[**R**,**S**,**T**,**D**,**Z**\]\ A comma separated list of process states. For example, **-B R,S** will report processes currently in either **R** or **S** states and not report processes currently in any other states. - **-f** Use the format string for formatting the timestamp. The format will be used with the [**python**(1)](/python/1.md) datetime.strftime method which is similar to that described in [**strftime**(3)](/strftime/3.md). An empty format string (i.e, "") will remove the timestamps from the output. The default with stdout is %H:%M:%S. - **-Z** *timezone***,** **--timezone=***timezone* By default, **pcp-pidstat** reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the system where **pcp-pidstat** is run. The **-Z** option changes the timezone to *timezone* in the format of the environment variable **TZ** as described in [**environ**(7)](/environ/7.md). - **-z** , **--hostzone** Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of the performance metrics. When replaying a PCP archive that was captured in a foreign timezone, the **-z** option would almost always be used (the default reporting timezone is the local timezone, which may not be the same as the timezone of the PCP archive). - **-?** , **--help** Display usage message and exit. ## NOTES **pcp-pidstat** is inspired by the [**pidstat**(1)](/pidstat/1.md) command and aims to be command line and output compatible with it. ## PCP ENVIRONMENT Environment variables with the prefix **PCP\_** are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file */etc/pcp.conf* contains the local values for these variables. The **$PCP\_CONF** variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md). For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see [**pmGetOptions**(3)](/pmGetOptions/3.md). ## SEE ALSO [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md), [**pcp**(1)](/pcp/1.md), [**pidstat**(1)](/pidstat/1.md), [**python**(1)](/python/1.md), [**pmParseInterval**(3)](/pmParseInterval/3.md), [**strftime**(3)](/strftime/3.md) and [**environ**(7)](/environ/7.md).