sa
summarizes information about previously executed commands as
recorded in the
acct
file. In addition, it condenses this data into a summary file named
savacct
which contains the number of times the command was called and the system
resources used. The information can also be summarized on a per-user
basis;
sa
will save this information into a file named
usracct.
If no arguments are specified,
sa
will print information about all of the commands in the
acct
file.
If called with a file name as the last argument,
sa
will use that file instead of the system's default
acct
file.
By default,
sa
will sort the output by sum of user and system time.
If command names have unprintable characters, or are only called once,
sa
will sort them into a group called `***other'.
If more than one sorting option is specified, the list will
be sorted by the one specified last on the command line.
The output fields are labeled as follows:
cpu
sum of system and user time in cpu seconds
re
"real time" in cpu seconds
k
cpu-time averaged core usage, in 1k units
k*sec
cpu storage integral (kilo-core seconds)
u
user cpu time in cpu seconds
s
system time in cpu seconds
An asterisk will appear after the name of commands that forked but didn't call
exec.
GNU
sa
takes care to implement a number of features not found in other versions.
For example, most versions of
sa
don't pay attention to flags like `--print-seconds' and
`--sort-num-calls' when printing out commands when combined with
the `--user-summary' or `--print-users' flags. GNU
sa
pays attention to these flags if they are applicable.
Also, MIPS'
sa
stores the average memory use as a short rather than a double, resulting
in some round-off errors. GNU
sa
uses double the whole way through.
OPTIONS
-a, --list-all-names
Force
sa
not to sort those command names with unprintable characters and those
used only once into the
***other
group.
-b, --sort-sys-user-div-calls
Sort the output by the sum of user and system time divided by the
number of calls.
-c, --percentages
Print percentages of total time for the command's user, system,
and real time values.
-f, --not-interactive
When using the `--threshold' option, assume that all answers to
interactive queries will be affirmative.
-i, --dont-read-summary-file
Don't read the information in the system's default
savacct
file.
-j, --print-seconds
Instead of printing total minutes for each category, print seconds per call.
-k, --sort-cpu-avmem
Sort the output by cpu time average memory usage.
-K, --sort-ksec
Print and sort the output by the cpu-storage integral.
-l, --separate-times
Print separate columns for system and user time; usually the two
are added together and listed as `cpu'.
-m, --user-summary
Print the number of processes and number of CPU minutes on a
per-user basis.
-n, --sort-num-calls
Sort the output by the number of calls. This is the default sorting method.
-r, --reverse-sort
Sort output items in reverse order.
-s, --merge
Merge the summarized accounting data into the summary files
savacct
and
usracct.
-t, --print-ratio
For each entry, print the ratio of real time to the sum of system
and user times. If the sum of system and user times is too small
to report--the sum is zero--`*ignore*' will appear in this field.
-u, --print-users
For each command in the accounting file, print the userid and
command name. After printing all entries, quit. *Note*: this flag
supersedes all others.
-v num --threshold num
Print commands which were executed
num
times or fewer and await a
reply from the terminal. If the response begins with `y', add the
command to the `**junk**' group.
--separate-forks
It really doesn't make any sense to me that the stock version of
sa
separates statistics for a particular executable depending on
whether or not that command forked. Therefore, GNU
sa
lumps this information together unless this option is specified.
--debug
Print verbose internal information.
-V, --version
Print the version number of
sa.
-h, --help
Prints the usage string and default locations of system files to
standard output and exits.
--sort-real-time
Sort the output by the "real time" field.
--other-usracct-file filename
Write summaries by user ID to
filename
rather than the system's default
usracct
file.
--other-savacct-file filename
Write summaries by command name to
filename
rather than the system's default
SAVACCT
file.
--other-file filename
Read from the file
filename
instead of the system's default
ACCT
file.
FILES
acct
The raw system wide process accounting file. See
acct(5)
(or
pacct(5))
for further details.
savacct
A summary of system process accounting sorted by command.
usracct
A summary of system process accounting sorted by user ID.
BUGS
There is not yet a wide experience base for comparing the output of GNU
sa
with versions of
sa
in many other systems. The problem is that the data files grow big in a short
time and therefore require a lot of disk space.
AUTHOR
The GNU accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg
<noel@gnu.ai.mit.edu>. The man page was adapted from the accounting
texinfo page by Susan Kleinmann <sgk@sgk.tiac.net>.
