.net – Memory profiler for .NET Compact Framework

Windows

Some of the above values are easily available from the appropriate Win32 API, I just list them here for completeness. Others, however, need to be obtained from the Performance Data Helper library (PDH), which is a bit "unintuitive" and takes a lot of painful trial and error to get to work. (At least it took me quite a while, perhaps I've been only a bit stupid...)

Note: for clarity all error checking has been omitted from the following code. Do check the return codes...!

• Total Virtual Memory:

  #include "windows.h"
  
  MEMORYSTATUSEX memInfo;
  memInfo.dwLength = sizeof(MEMORYSTATUSEX);
  GlobalMemoryStatusEx(&memInfo);
  DWORDLONG totalVirtualMem = memInfo.ullTotalPageFile;
  

  Note: The name "TotalPageFile" is a bit misleading here. In reality this parameter gives the "Virtual Memory Size", which is size of swap file plus installed RAM.

• Virtual Memory currently used:

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

   DWORDLONG virtualMemUsed = memInfo.ullTotalPageFile - memInfo.ullAvailPageFile;
  

• Virtual Memory currently used by current process:

  #include "windows.h"
  #include "psapi.h"
  
  PROCESS_MEMORY_COUNTERS_EX pmc;
  GetProcessMemoryInfo(GetCurrentProcess(), (PROCESS_MEMORY_COUNTERS*)&pmc, sizeof(pmc));
  SIZE_T virtualMemUsedByMe = pmc.PrivateUsage;
  

• Total Physical Memory (RAM):

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

  DWORDLONG totalPhysMem = memInfo.ullTotalPhys;
  

• Physical Memory currently used:

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

  DWORDLONG physMemUsed = memInfo.ullTotalPhys - memInfo.ullAvailPhys;
  

• Physical Memory currently used by current process:

  Same code as in "Virtual Memory currently used by current process" and then

  SIZE_T physMemUsedByMe = pmc.WorkingSetSize;
  

• CPU currently used:

  #include "TCHAR.h"
  #include "pdh.h"
  
  static PDH_HQUERY cpuQuery;
  static PDH_HCOUNTER cpuTotal;
  
  void init(){
      PdhOpenQuery(NULL, NULL, &cpuQuery);
      // You can also use L"\\Processor(*)\\% Processor Time" and get individual CPU values with PdhGetFormattedCounterArray()
      PdhAddEnglishCounter(cpuQuery, L"\\Processor(_Total)\\% Processor Time", NULL, &cpuTotal);
      PdhCollectQueryData(cpuQuery);
  }
  
  double getCurrentValue(){
      PDH_FMT_COUNTERVALUE counterVal;
  
      PdhCollectQueryData(cpuQuery);
      PdhGetFormattedCounterValue(cpuTotal, PDH_FMT_DOUBLE, NULL, &counterVal);
      return counterVal.doubleValue;
  }
  

• CPU currently used by current process:

  #include "windows.h"
  
  static ULARGE_INTEGER lastCPU, lastSysCPU, lastUserCPU;
  static int numProcessors;
  static HANDLE self;
  
  void init(){
      SYSTEM_INFO sysInfo;
      FILETIME ftime, fsys, fuser;
  
      GetSystemInfo(&sysInfo);
      numProcessors = sysInfo.dwNumberOfProcessors;
  
      GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&ftime);
      memcpy(&lastCPU, &ftime, sizeof(FILETIME));
  
      self = GetCurrentProcess();
      GetProcessTimes(self, &ftime, &ftime, &fsys, &fuser);
      memcpy(&lastSysCPU, &fsys, sizeof(FILETIME));
      memcpy(&lastUserCPU, &fuser, sizeof(FILETIME));
  }
  
  double getCurrentValue(){
      FILETIME ftime, fsys, fuser;
      ULARGE_INTEGER now, sys, user;
      double percent;
  
      GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&ftime);
      memcpy(&now, &ftime, sizeof(FILETIME));
  
      GetProcessTimes(self, &ftime, &ftime, &fsys, &fuser);
      memcpy(&sys, &fsys, sizeof(FILETIME));
      memcpy(&user, &fuser, sizeof(FILETIME));
      percent = (sys.QuadPart - lastSysCPU.QuadPart) +
          (user.QuadPart - lastUserCPU.QuadPart);
      percent /= (now.QuadPart - lastCPU.QuadPart);
      percent /= numProcessors;
      lastCPU = now;
      lastUserCPU = user;
      lastSysCPU = sys;
  
      return percent * 100;
  }
  

Linux

On Linux the choice that seemed obvious at first was to use the POSIX APIs like getrusage() etc. I spent some time trying to get this to work, but never got meaningful values. When I finally checked the kernel sources themselves, I found out that apparently these APIs are not yet completely implemented as of Linux kernel 2.6!?

In the end I got all values via a combination of reading the pseudo-filesystem /proc and kernel calls.

• Total Virtual Memory:

  #include "sys/types.h"
  #include "sys/sysinfo.h"
  
  struct sysinfo memInfo;
  
  sysinfo (&memInfo);
  long long totalVirtualMem = memInfo.totalram;
  //Add other values in next statement to avoid int overflow on right hand side...
  totalVirtualMem += memInfo.totalswap;
  totalVirtualMem *= memInfo.mem_unit;
  

• Virtual Memory currently used:

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

  long long virtualMemUsed = memInfo.totalram - memInfo.freeram;
  //Add other values in next statement to avoid int overflow on right hand side...
  virtualMemUsed += memInfo.totalswap - memInfo.freeswap;
  virtualMemUsed *= memInfo.mem_unit;
  

• Virtual Memory currently used by current process:

  #include "stdlib.h"
  #include "stdio.h"
  #include "string.h"
  
  int parseLine(char* line){
      // This assumes that a digit will be found and the line ends in " Kb".
      int i = strlen(line);
      const char* p = line;
      while (*p <'0' || *p > '9') p++;
      line[i-3] = '\0';
      i = atoi(p);
      return i;
  }
  
  int getValue(){ //Note: this value is in KB!
      FILE* file = fopen("/proc/self/status", "r");
      int result = -1;
      char line[128];
  
      while (fgets(line, 128, file) != NULL){
          if (strncmp(line, "VmSize:", 7) == 0){
              result = parseLine(line);
              break;
          }
      }
      fclose(file);
      return result;
  }
  

• Total Physical Memory (RAM):

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

  long long totalPhysMem = memInfo.totalram;
  //Multiply in next statement to avoid int overflow on right hand side...
  totalPhysMem *= memInfo.mem_unit;
  

• Physical Memory currently used:

  Same code as in "Total Virtual Memory" and then

  long long physMemUsed = memInfo.totalram - memInfo.freeram;
  //Multiply in next statement to avoid int overflow on right hand side...
  physMemUsed *= memInfo.mem_unit;
  

• Physical Memory currently used by current process:

  Change getValue() in "Virtual Memory currently used by current process" as follows:

  int getValue(){ //Note: this value is in KB!
      FILE* file = fopen("/proc/self/status", "r");
      int result = -1;
      char line[128];
  
      while (fgets(line, 128, file) != NULL){
          if (strncmp(line, "VmRSS:", 6) == 0){
              result = parseLine(line);
              break;
          }
      }
      fclose(file);
      return result;
  }
  

• CPU currently used:

  #include "stdlib.h"
  #include "stdio.h"
  #include "string.h"
  
  static unsigned long long lastTotalUser, lastTotalUserLow, lastTotalSys, lastTotalIdle;
  
  void init(){
      FILE* file = fopen("/proc/stat", "r");
      fscanf(file, "cpu %llu %llu %llu %llu", &lastTotalUser, &lastTotalUserLow,
          &lastTotalSys, &lastTotalIdle);
      fclose(file);
  }
  
  double getCurrentValue(){
      double percent;
      FILE* file;
      unsigned long long totalUser, totalUserLow, totalSys, totalIdle, total;
  
      file = fopen("/proc/stat", "r");
      fscanf(file, "cpu %llu %llu %llu %llu", &totalUser, &totalUserLow,
          &totalSys, &totalIdle);
      fclose(file);
  
      if (totalUser < lastTotalUser || totalUserLow < lastTotalUserLow ||
          totalSys < lastTotalSys || totalIdle < lastTotalIdle){
          //Overflow detection. Just skip this value.
          percent = -1.0;
      }
      else{
          total = (totalUser - lastTotalUser) + (totalUserLow - lastTotalUserLow) +
              (totalSys - lastTotalSys);
          percent = total;
          total += (totalIdle - lastTotalIdle);
          percent /= total;
          percent *= 100;
      }
  
      lastTotalUser = totalUser;
      lastTotalUserLow = totalUserLow;
      lastTotalSys = totalSys;
      lastTotalIdle = totalIdle;
  
      return percent;
  }
  

• CPU currently used by current process:

  #include "stdlib.h"
  #include "stdio.h"
  #include "string.h"
  #include "sys/times.h"
  #include "sys/vtimes.h"
  
  static clock_t lastCPU, lastSysCPU, lastUserCPU;
  static int numProcessors;
  
  void init(){
      FILE* file;
      struct tms timeSample;
      char line[128];
  
      lastCPU = times(&timeSample);
      lastSysCPU = timeSample.tms_stime;
      lastUserCPU = timeSample.tms_utime;
  
      file = fopen("/proc/cpuinfo", "r");
      numProcessors = 0;
      while(fgets(line, 128, file) != NULL){
          if (strncmp(line, "processor", 9) == 0) numProcessors++;
      }
      fclose(file);
  }
  
  double getCurrentValue(){
      struct tms timeSample;
      clock_t now;
      double percent;
  
      now = times(&timeSample);
      if (now <= lastCPU || timeSample.tms_stime < lastSysCPU ||
          timeSample.tms_utime < lastUserCPU){
          //Overflow detection. Just skip this value.
          percent = -1.0;
      }
      else{
          percent = (timeSample.tms_stime - lastSysCPU) +
              (timeSample.tms_utime - lastUserCPU);
          percent /= (now - lastCPU);
          percent /= numProcessors;
          percent *= 100;
      }
      lastCPU = now;
      lastSysCPU = timeSample.tms_stime;
      lastUserCPU = timeSample.tms_utime;
  
      return percent;
  }
  

TODO: Other Platforms

I would assume, that some of the Linux code also works for the Unixes, except for the parts that read the /proc pseudo-filesystem. Perhaps on Unix these parts can be replaced by getrusage() and similar functions?

With ps or similar tools you will only get the amount of memory pages allocated by that process. This number is correct, but:

• does not reflect the actual amount of memory used by the application, only the amount of memory reserved for it

• can be misleading if pages are shared, for example by several threads or by using dynamically linked libraries

If you really want to know what amount of memory your application actually uses, you need to run it within a profiler. For example, Valgrind can give you insights about the amount of memory used, and, more importantly, about possible memory leaks in your program. The heap profiler tool of Valgrind is called 'massif':

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.

As explained in the Valgrind documentation, you need to run the program through Valgrind:

valgrind --tool=massif <executable> <arguments>

Massif writes a dump of memory usage snapshots (e.g. massif.out.12345). These provide, (1) a timeline of memory usage, (2) for each snapshot, a record of where in your program memory was allocated. A great graphical tool for analyzing these files is massif-visualizer. But I found ms_print, a simple text-based tool shipped with Valgrind, to be of great help already.

To find memory leaks, use the (default) memcheck tool of valgrind.