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7702

answers:

7

What's your preferred way of getting current system status (current CPU, RAM, free disk space, etc.) in Python? Bonus points for *nix and Windows platforms.

There seems to be a few possible ways of extracting that from my search:

  1. Using a library such as PSI (http://www.psychofx.com/psi/trac/wiki/ -- that currently seems not actively developed and not supported on multiple platform) or something like pystatgrab (http://www.i-scream.org/pystatgrab/ -- again no activity since 2007 it seems and no support for Windows)

  2. Using platform specific code such as using a os.popen("ps") or similar for the *nix systems and MEMORYSTATUS in ctypes.windll.kernel32 (see http://code.activestate.com/recipes/511491/) for the Windows platform. One could put a Python class together with all those code snippets.

It's not that those methods are bad but is there already a well-supported, multi-platform way of doing the same thing?

+1  A: 

All things about logical disks you can get using win32com module, code example here. I'm sure that this module can give you all info about machine.

Kirill Titov
+1  A: 

I don't believe that there is a well-supported multi-platform library available. Remember that Python itself is written in C so any library is simply going to make a smart decision about which OS-specific code snippet to run, as you suggested above.

+2  A: 

"... current system status (current CPU, RAM, free disk space, etc.)" And "*nix and Windows platforms" can be a difficult combination to achieve.

The operating systems are fundamentally different in the way they manage these resources. Indeed, they differ in core concepts like defining what counts as system and what counts as application time.

"Free disk space"? What counts as "disk space?" All partitions of all devices? What about foreign partitions in a multi-boot environment?

I don't think there's a clear enough consensus between Windows and *nix that makes this possible. Indeed, there may not even be any consensus between the various operating systems called Windows. Is there a single Windows API that works for both XP and Vista?

S.Lott
`df -h` answers the "disk space" question both on Windows and *nix.
J.F. Sebastian
@J.F.Sebastian: Which Windows? I get a 'df' is not recognized... error message from Windows XP Pro. What am I missing?
S.Lott
+2  A: 

Here's something I put together a while ago, it's windows only but may help you get part of what you need done.

Derived from: "for sys available mem" http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa455130.aspx

"individual process information and python script examples" http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx?mfr=true

NOTE: the WMI interface/process is also available for performing similar tasks I'm not using it here because the current method covers my needs, but if someday it's needed to extend or improve this, then may want to investigate the WMI tools a vailable.

WMI for python:

http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/wmi.html

The code:

'''
Monitor window processes

derived from:
>for sys available mem
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa455130.aspx

> individual process information and python script examples
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx?mfr=true

NOTE: the WMI interface/process is also available for performing similar tasks
        I'm not using it here because the current method covers my needs, but if someday it's needed
        to extend or improve this module, then may want to investigate the WMI tools available.
        WMI for python:
        http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/wmi.html
'''

__revision__ = 3

import win32com.client
from ctypes import *
from ctypes.wintypes import *
import pythoncom
import pywintypes
import datetime


class MEMORYSTATUS(Structure):
    _fields_ = [
                ('dwLength', DWORD),
                ('dwMemoryLoad', DWORD),
                ('dwTotalPhys', DWORD),
                ('dwAvailPhys', DWORD),
                ('dwTotalPageFile', DWORD),
                ('dwAvailPageFile', DWORD),
                ('dwTotalVirtual', DWORD),
                ('dwAvailVirtual', DWORD),
                ]


def winmem():
    x = MEMORYSTATUS() # create the structure
    windll.kernel32.GlobalMemoryStatus(byref(x)) # from cytypes.wintypes
    return x    


class process_stats:
    '''process_stats is able to provide counters of (all?) the items available in perfmon.
    Refer to the self.supported_types keys for the currently supported 'Performance Objects'

    To add logging support for other data you can derive the necessary data from perfmon:
    ---------
    perfmon can be run from windows 'run' menu by entering 'perfmon' and enter.
    Clicking on the '+' will open the 'add counters' menu,
    From the 'Add Counters' dialog, the 'Performance object' is the self.support_types key.
    --> Where spaces are removed and symbols are entered as text (Ex. # == Number, % == Percent)
    For the items you wish to log add the proper attribute name in the list in the self.supported_types dictionary,
    keyed by the 'Performance Object' name as mentioned above.
    ---------

    NOTE: The 'NETFramework_NETCLRMemory' key does not seem to log dotnet 2.0 properly.

    Initially the python implementation was derived from:
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx?mfr=true
    '''
    def __init__(self,process_name_list=[],perf_object_list=[],filter_list=[]):
        '''process_names_list == the list of all processes to log (if empty log all)
        perf_object_list == list of process counters to log
        filter_list == list of text to filter
        print_results == boolean, output to stdout
        '''
        pythoncom.CoInitialize() # Needed when run by the same process in a thread

        self.process_name_list = process_name_list
        self.perf_object_list = perf_object_list
        self.filter_list = filter_list

        self.win32_perf_base = 'Win32_PerfFormattedData_'

        # Define new datatypes here!
        self.supported_types = {
                                    'NETFramework_NETCLRMemory':    [
                                                                        'Name',
                                                                        'NumberTotalCommittedBytes',
                                                                        'NumberTotalReservedBytes',
                                                                        'NumberInducedGC',    
                                                                        'NumberGen0Collections',
                                                                        'NumberGen1Collections',
                                                                        'NumberGen2Collections',
                                                                        'PromotedMemoryFromGen0',
                                                                        'PromotedMemoryFromGen1',
                                                                        'PercentTimeInGC',
                                                                        'LargeObjectHeapSize'
                                                                     ],

                                    'PerfProc_Process':              [
                                                                          'Name',
                                                                          'PrivateBytes',
                                                                          'ElapsedTime',
                                                                          'IDProcess',# pid
                                                                          'Caption',
                                                                          'CreatingProcessID',
                                                                          'Description',
                                                                          'IODataBytesPersec',
                                                                          'IODataOperationsPersec',
                                                                          'IOOtherBytesPersec',
                                                                          'IOOtherOperationsPersec',
                                                                          'IOReadBytesPersec',
                                                                          'IOReadOperationsPersec',
                                                                          'IOWriteBytesPersec',
                                                                          'IOWriteOperationsPersec'     
                                                                      ]
                                }

    def get_pid_stats(self, pid):
        this_proc_dict = {}

        pythoncom.CoInitialize() # Needed when run by the same process in a thread
        if not self.perf_object_list:
            perf_object_list = self.supported_types.keys()

        for counter_type in perf_object_list:
            strComputer = "."
            objWMIService = win32com.client.Dispatch("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")
            objSWbemServices = objWMIService.ConnectServer(strComputer,"root\cimv2")

            query_str = '''Select * from %s%s''' % (self.win32_perf_base,counter_type)
            colItems = objSWbemServices.ExecQuery(query_str) # "Select * from Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process")# changed from Win32_Thread        

            if len(colItems) > 0:        
                for objItem in colItems:
                    if hasattr(objItem, 'IDProcess') and pid == objItem.IDProcess:

                            for attribute in self.supported_types[counter_type]:
                                eval_str = 'objItem.%s' % (attribute)
                                this_proc_dict[attribute] = eval(eval_str)

                            this_proc_dict['TimeStamp'] = datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.') + str(datetime.datetime.now().microsecond)[:3]
                            break

        return this_proc_dict      


    def get_stats(self):
        '''
        Show process stats for all processes in given list, if none given return all processes   
        If filter list is defined return only the items that match or contained in the list
        Returns a list of result dictionaries
        '''    
        pythoncom.CoInitialize() # Needed when run by the same process in a thread
        proc_results_list = []
        if not self.perf_object_list:
            perf_object_list = self.supported_types.keys()

        for counter_type in perf_object_list:
            strComputer = "."
            objWMIService = win32com.client.Dispatch("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")
            objSWbemServices = objWMIService.ConnectServer(strComputer,"root\cimv2")

            query_str = '''Select * from %s%s''' % (self.win32_perf_base,counter_type)
            colItems = objSWbemServices.ExecQuery(query_str) # "Select * from Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process")# changed from Win32_Thread

            try:  
                if len(colItems) > 0:
                    for objItem in colItems:
                        found_flag = False
                        this_proc_dict = {}

                        if not self.process_name_list:
                            found_flag = True
                        else:
                            # Check if process name is in the process name list, allow print if it is
                            for proc_name in self.process_name_list:
                                obj_name = objItem.Name
                                if proc_name.lower() in obj_name.lower(): # will log if contains name
                                    found_flag = True
                                    break

                        if found_flag:
                            for attribute in self.supported_types[counter_type]:
                                eval_str = 'objItem.%s' % (attribute)
                                this_proc_dict[attribute] = eval(eval_str)

                            this_proc_dict['TimeStamp'] = datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.') + str(datetime.datetime.now().microsecond)[:3]
                            proc_results_list.append(this_proc_dict)

            except pywintypes.com_error, err_msg:
                # Ignore and continue (proc_mem_logger calls this function once per second)
                continue
        return proc_results_list     


def get_sys_stats():
    ''' Returns a dictionary of the system stats'''
    pythoncom.CoInitialize() # Needed when run by the same process in a thread
    x = winmem()

    sys_dict = { 
                    'dwAvailPhys': x.dwAvailPhys,
                    'dwAvailVirtual':x.dwAvailVirtual
                }
    return sys_dict


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # This area used for testing only
    sys_dict = get_sys_stats()

    stats_processor = process_stats(process_name_list=['process2watch'],perf_object_list=[],filter_list=[])
    proc_results = stats_processor.get_stats()

    for result_dict in proc_results:
        print result_dict

    import os
    this_pid = os.getpid()
    this_proc_results = stats_processor.get_pid_stats(this_pid)

    print 'this proc results:'
    print this_proc_results

http://monkut.webfactional.com/blog/archive/2009/1/21/windows-process-memory-logging-python

monkut
Your link is broken.
Jon Cage
yep. the link is broken now.
Ahmet Alp Balkan
+6  A: 

Here's a class for memory usage on UNIX machines:

"""Simple module for getting amount of memory used by a specified user's
processes on a UNIX system.
It uses UNIX ps utility to get the memory usage for a specified username and
pipe it to awk for summing up per application memory usage and return the total.
Python's Popen() from subprocess module is used for spawning ps and awk.

"""

import subprocess

class MemoryMonitor(object):

    def __init__(self, username):
        """Create new MemoryMonitor instance."""
        self.username = username

    def usage(self):
        """Return int containing memory used by user's processes."""
        self.process = subprocess.Popen("ps -u %s -o rss | awk '{sum+=$1} END {print sum}'" % self.username,
                                        shell=True,
                                        stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
                                        )
        self.stdout_list = self.process.communicate()[0].split('\n')
        return int(self.stdout_list[0])

And here's an example of usage:

from memorymonitor import MemoryMonitor

memory_mon = MemoryMonitor('username')
used_memory = memory_mon.usage()

If you want to get memory usage for all users you can easily modify this.

Robert Smith
+5  A: 

The psutil library will give you some system information (CPU / Memory usage) on a variety of platforms:

psutil is a module providing an interface for retrieving information on running processes and system utilization (CPU, memory) in a portable way by using Python, implementing many functionalities offered by tools like ps, top and Windows task manager.

It currently supports Linux, OS X, FreeBSD and Windows with Python versions from 2.4 to 3.1 by using a unique code base.

Jon Cage
this library seems nice and useful, thanks
riviera
+1  A: 

Hi,

I tried psutil from http://code.google.com/p/psutil/ and found it really helpful.

krb