Using Java to retrieve the CPU Usage for Window's Processes

Question

Hello all,

I am looking for a Java solution to finding the CPU usage for a running process in Windows. After looking around the web, there seems to be little information on a solution in Java. Keep in mind, I am not looking to find the CPU usage for the JVM, but any process running in Windows at the time.

I am able to retrieve the memory usage in Java by using the exec("tasklist.exe ... ") to retrieve and parse process information. Although there is an aggregate CPU cycle timer for each process, I do not see a CPU usage column.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if possible, I would like to stay away from C libraries; however, if there is no other alternative, a solution by that means would be appropriate.

Thanks a lot,

Steve

Answer 1

any running process in Windows

Thus, not controlled by Java in any way?

I would like to stay away from JNI

Forget it. Java isn't platform specific. If you want to access platform specific information, you can't go around JNI.

Answer 2

Look into Jacob. It will let you call COM objects, and there are COM objects galore for this kind of information on Windows.

Answer 3

You be writing/using a separate program to dump that data somewhere and could then pick it up from Java through either network, files, or DB. In Linux you could always read /proc but not on Win, a separate proggy would be needed (without JNI).

Answer 4

Have a look at these questions:

• How to do I check CPU and Memory Usage in Java?
• Using Java to get OS-level system information
• How to monitor the computer’s cpu, memory, and disk usage in Java?
• CPU load from Java
• Efficient way of getting thread CPU time using JMX

Answer 5

If a GPL licensed API is fine for you, try out

SIGAR - System Information Gatherer And Reporter

It allows access to the info you want (and much more) and is supported on many relevant platforms

Answer 6

Try out javasysmon, BSD licensed (to be precise: the FreeBSD 2-clause license).

I used it to obtain CPU core and CPU Usage. It is much better than using tasklist.exe I think.