Recording Memory Footprint In Linux

Question

Is there a way we can record memory footprint? In a way that after the process has finish we still can have access to it.

The typical way I check memory footprint is this:

$ cat /proc/PID/status

But in no way it exist after the process has finished.

Answer 1

you can do something like:

watch 'grep VmSize /proc/PID/status >> log'

when the program ends you'll have a list of memory footprints over time in log.

Answer 2

Valgrind has a memory profiler called Massif that provides detailed information about the memory usage of your program:

Massif is a heap profiler. It performs detailed heap profiling by taking regular snapshots of a program's heap. It produces a graph showing heap usage over time, including information about which parts of the program are responsible for the most memory allocations. The graph is supplemented by a text or HTML file that includes more information for determining where the most memory is being allocated. Massif runs programs about 20x slower than normal.

Answer 3

You can record it using munin + a custom plugin.

This will allow you to monitor and save the needed process information, and graph it, easily.

Here's a related answer I gave at serverfault.com