How to check the CPU and memory usage of an executable?

Question

I want to see the resources an executable uses when I run it from a command prompt/powershell.

Ideally it would be great to have a tool that does something like this straight from the command prompt:

./myexecutable -arg1 -arg2 --trackperformance
cpu usage: 12%
memory usage: 1MB

I did read stuff about performance monitor but it doesn't seem to be able to track what I want (CPU usage, memory usage overall for the specific executable that I will run).

Any ideas of a tool or command built into the command line that does this for the Windows OS?

Answer 1

Process Lasso

From their site:

Process Lasso is Windows process automation and optimization software. From tuning algorithms like ProBalance to user-created rules and persistent settings such as CPU affinities and priority classes, Process Lasso gives you complete control over running applications!

Homepage: https://bitsum.com/

Answer 2

On Windows, it might help to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL, or install Process Explorer and Process Monitor from the Microsoft Sysinternals toolsuite.

On Linux, you can use pidstat (from the sysstat package) to track cpu- and memory usage of specific processes.

• For instance, open an ebook in an ebook reader. (this is a long-running, single-instance process)
• open a terminal window and type pidstat -p $(pgrep -f .epub) 1
• scroll the ebook little bit to give the cpu some work to do

I get this output

pidstat -p $(pgrep -f .epub) 1 

Linux 4.15.0-66-generic (xx)    11/14/2019  _x86_64_    (4 CPU)  

12:18:10 PM   UID       PID    %usr %system  %guest   %wait    %CPU   CPU  Command
12:18:11 PM  1000     36636    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00     3  ebook-viewer
12:18:12 PM  1000     36636    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00     3  ebook-viewer
12:18:13 PM  1000     36636    2.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    2.00     1  ebook-viewer
12:18:14 PM  1000     36636    2.00    2.00    0.00    2.00    4.00     3  ebook-viewer
12:18:15 PM  1000     36636   14.00    1.00    0.00    1.00   15.00     3  ebook-viewer
12:18:16 PM  1000     36636   35.00    2.00    0.00    2.00   37.00     0  ebook-viewer
12:18:17 PM  1000     36636    2.00    0.00    0.00    1.00    2.00     0  ebook-viewer
12:18:18 PM  1000     36636    5.00    1.00    0.00    1.00    6.00     3  ebook-viewer
12:18:19 PM  1000     36636    1.00    0.00    0.00    1.00    1.00     0  ebook-viewer

Average:     1000     36636    5.82    0.55    0.00    0.91    6.36     -  ebook-viewer

For short-running processes, and for displaying memory consumption, issue this command:

pidstat -r 1 -e /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/ebook-viewer /home/knb/Dropbox/books/howlinuxworks.epub

This gives you this output (note %MEM column) :

12:29:01 PM   UID       PID  minflt/s  majflt/s     VSZ     RSS   %MEM  Command
12:29:02 PM  1000     43888  23400.00      0.00 2220516  151964   0.62  python2.7
12:29:03 PM  1000     43888  12027.00      0.00 2397208  193584   0.78  python2.7
12:29:04 PM  1000     43888   4562.00      0.00 2478048  197148   0.80  python2.7
12:29:05 PM  1000     43888   3808.00      0.00 2496188  211120   0.86  python2.7
12:29:06 PM  1000     43888    186.00      0.00 2496264  212072   0.86  python2.7
12:29:07 PM  1000     43888      0.00      0.00 2496264  211752   0.86  python2.7
12:29:08 PM  1000     43888     16.00      0.00 2496264  211908   0.86  python2.7
12:29:09 PM  1000     43888     29.00      0.00 2496264  211440   0.86  python2.7

Answer 3

If on Windows, Process Monitor is the way to go for something that provides a UI

https://learn.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such as session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.