NAME
atopacctd - process accounting daemon
SYNOPSIS
atopacctd [-v | topdirectory]
DESCRIPTION
The
atopacctd daemon switches on the process accounting
feature in the kernel and let the process accounting records
be written to a file, called the source file from now. After
process accounting is activated, the atopacctd daemon
transfers every process accounting record that is available
in the source file to a shadow file. Client processes (like
atop processes) will read the shadow files instead of
the process accounting source file.
In this way, the atopacctd daemon operates as a
’layer’ between the process accounting file that
is written by the kernel and the shadow accounting files
that are read by atop processes.
This approach has the following advantages:
|
o |
The atopacctd daemon takes care that the source file is kept to a limited size. As soon as its maximum size is reached, it is truncated to a size of zero again (this is not noticed by the atop processes). | ||
|
o |
The atopacct daemon takes care that a shadow file is kept to a limited size. As soon as the current shadow file reaches this maximum size, the atopacctd daemon creates a new (subsequent) shadow file. While client processes still have the possibility to read the previous shadow file(s), the atopacctd daemon continues writing accounting records to the newest (current) shadow file. For this reason, the name of a shadow file consists of a 10-digit sequence number followed by the extension ’.paf’ (process acounting file). Old shadow files that are not used by client processes any more, are automatically removed by the garbage collector in the atopacctd daemon. | ||
|
o |
When no client processes are active (any more), all shadow files will be deleted and no records will be transferred to a shadow file any more. As soon as at least one client is activate again, the atopacctd daemon continues writing shadow files. |
The directory
/run is used as the default topdirectory. Below this
top-directory, the source file pacct_source is
created to which the kernel writes the process accounting
records.
Furthermore, the subdirectory pacct_shadow.d is
created as a ’container’ for the shadow files.
Apart from the shadow files, also the file current is
maintained in this subdirectory, containing the sequence
number of the current (newest) shadow file and the maximum
number of records that will be written in each shadow
file.
An alternative topdirectory can be specified as command line argument. When an alternative topdirectory is defined, also modify the configuration file /etc/atoprc to inform atop clients about this alternative location (see the atoprc man page). Such alternative topdirectory should be owned by root and may not be writable for the group or others (security reasons).
Notice that the
kernel suspends writing process accounting records when the
free space of the filesystem on which the process accounting
file resides drops below 2%. Writing is resumed when the
free space is 4% or more. These lowwater and highwater
percentages can be configured via the
/proc/sys/kernel/acct pseudo-file.
The atopacctd daemon suspends transferring process
accounting records to shadow files when the free space of
the filesystem on which the process accounting file resides
drops below 5%. Transfer is resumed when the free space is
5% or more. Log messages are generated via syslog when
writing to the current shadow file is suspended or
resumed.
The -v flag can be used to verify the version of the atopacctd daemon.
FILES
/run/pacct_source
Regular file to which the kernel writes the process accounting records. This file will be regularly truncated.
/run/pacct_shadow.d/current
Regular file containing the sequence number of the current shadow file and the maximum number of records per shadow file.
/run/pacct_shadow.d/N.paf
Regular files containing the process accounting records that have been copied transparently from the source file (N represents a 10-digit sequence number).
SEE ALSO
atop(1),
atopsar(1), atoprc(5), netatop(4), netatopd(8)
https://www.atoptool.nl
AUTHOR
Gerlof Langeveld (gerlof.langeveld [AT] atoptool.nl)