Equivalent to Mac Activity Monitor's "sample"

Targets Linux
1

On the Mac, if I have a “stuck” app, I can fire up Activity Monitor and sample the process to get an idea of what it’s doing. What is the equivalent of this on Linux? (Note: I might need a step-by-step as I’ve tried to figure out perf and profile without luck.)

It’s important to note that there is no GUI available on the Linux box so I need a strictly CLI solution.

Thanks.

2

maybe conky

3

Thanks, but that appears to be a GUI app.

4

sudo apt-get install conky-cli

5

Thanks, but is there an option in there to sample a running process? I didn’t see one.

6

Maybe strace ?
The -p option will allow you to attach to another process.

7

That reports system calls only, no?

8

That is correct. That includes active file, network, and shared memory accesses.

gdb is the typical debugger, but I’ve never used it on a external binary.

9

gdb is not doing what sample does

10

systemtap might be useful if you have it - I’ve read a bit about it but not used it

11

I know very little about it, but perf might do what you’re after.