Stackusage
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Stackusage measures stack usage in Linux and macOS applications (main thread and native pthread child threads). The measured stack utilization data can be used to adjust the stack size allocation to provide desired margin for child threads. This is primarily useful for applications and libraries designed to work in resource-constrained environments (such as embedded systems).
Example Usage
$ stackusage ./ex001
stackusage log start ----------------------------------------------------
pid id tid requested actual maxuse max% dur funcP
23930 0 23930 8388608 8384512 4144 0 0 (nil)
23930 1 23931 16384 16384 9336 56 0 0x4009b0
23930 2 23932 20480 20480 13528 66 0 0x4009b0
23930 3 23933 24576 24576 16728 68 0 0x4009b0
23930 4 23934 32768 32768 24920 76 0 0x4009b0
23930 5 23935 49152 49152 41304 84 0 0x4009b0
stackusage log end ------------------------------------------------------
Supported Platforms
Stackusage is primarily developed and tested on Linux, but basic functionality should work in macOS / OS X as well. Current version has been tested on:
- macOS Monterey 12.1
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Limitation: On macOS / OS X this tool relies on code injection using DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES, which generally does not work with third-party applications in a standard system. Using it on (your own) applications built from source should work fine though.
Installation
Pre-requisites (Ubuntu):
sudo apt install git cmake build-essential
Download the source code:
git clone https://github.com/d99kris/stackusage && cd stackusage
Generate Makefile and build:
mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make -s
Optionally install in system:
sudo make install
Usage
General usage syntax:
stackusage [-d] [-o PATH] [-s SIG] PROG [ARGS..]
Options:
-d debug mode, running program through debugger
-o <PATH> write output to specified file path, instead of stderr
-s <SIG> enable on-demand logging when signalled SIG signal
PROG program to run and analyze
[ARGS..] optional arguments to the program
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
Example checking stack usage of test program 'ex001' with stackusage installed on system:
stackusage ./ex001
Example performing on-demand logging of program 'gedit'
stackusage -s SIGUSR1 gedit
kill -s SIGUSR1 `pidof gedit`
Output Format
Example output:
stackusage log start ----------------------------------------------------
pid id tid requested actual maxuse max% dur funcP
23930 0 23930 8388608 8384512 4144 0 0 (nil)
23930 1 23931 16384 16384 9336 56 0 0x4009b0
23930 2 23932 20480 20480 13528 66 0 0x4009b0
23930 3 23933 24576 24576 16728 68 0 0x4009b0
23930 4 23934 32768 32768 24920 76 0 0x4009b0
23930 5 23935 49152 49152 41304 84 0 0x4009b0
stackusage log end ------------------------------------------------------
Description of columns:
pid process id
id id (0 = main thread, 1 = first child thread, etc..)
tid thread id / tid (only supported on Linux, others show '0')
requested requested stack size in bytes
actual actual stack size in bytes (excl. any stack guard)
maxuse maximum stack usage in bytes
max% maximum use of requested stack size in percentage
dur thread duration in seconds
funcP (nil) for main, pointer to start_routine for child threads
The function that funcP points to can be determined for example using addr2line:
$ addr2line -f -e ./ex001 0x4009b0
thread_start
./tests/ex001.c:81
Technical Details
Stackusage intercepts calls to pthread_create and fills the thread stack with a dummy data pattern. It also registers a callback routine to be called upon thread termination. In the callback routine the amount of remaining dummy pattern in the stack is checked, in order to determine the stack usage.
Interception is only possible when stackusage is built for the same architecture as the program being analyzed. Stackusage tries to determine if there is a mismatch, if encountered it will output a warning like this:
warning: libstackusage.so architecture (ELF 64-bit) does not appear
to match <PROG> architecture (ELF 32-bit), analysis may fail.
To solve this, simply compile stackusage for the appropriate architecture, for
example by adding -m32 to CMAKE_C_FLAGS in CMakeLists.txt, example:
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -std=gnu99 -g -m32 \
License
Stackusage is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause license. See LICENSE file.
Keywords
linux, macos, os x, pthreads, stack usage, stack utilization, threads.
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