# `!resource` --- Resource usage information

<div class="module" data-synopsis="An interface to provide resource usage information on the current process.">

resource

</div>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This module provides basic mechanisms for measuring and controlling system resources utilized by a program.

<div class="availability">

Unix, not WASI.

</div>

Symbolic constants are used to specify particular system resources and to request usage information about either the current process or its children.

An `OSError` is raised on syscall failure.

<div class="exception">

error

A deprecated alias of `OSError`.

<div class="versionchanged">

3.3 Following `3151`, this class was made an alias of `OSError`.

</div>

</div>

## Resource Limits

Resources usage can be limited using the `setrlimit` function described below. Each resource is controlled by a pair of limits: a soft limit and a hard limit. The soft limit is the current limit, and may be lowered or raised by a process over time. The soft limit can never exceed the hard limit. The hard limit can be lowered to any value greater than the soft limit, but not raised. (Only processes with the effective UID of the super-user can raise a hard limit.)

The specific resources that can be limited are system dependent. They are described in the `getrlimit(2)` man page. The resources listed below are supported when the underlying operating system supports them; resources which cannot be checked or controlled by the operating system are not defined in this module for those platforms.

<div class="data">

RLIM_INFINITY

Constant used to represent the limit for an unlimited resource.

<div class="versionchanged">

3.15 It is now always positive. Previously, it could be negative, such as -1 or -3.

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIM_SAVED_CUR

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIM_SAVED_MAX

Constants used to represent the soft and hard limit values if they cannot be represented in the `rlim_t` value in C. Can be equal to `RLIM_INFINITY`.

<div class="versionadded">

3.15

</div>

</div>

<div class="function">

getrlimit(resource)

Returns a tuple `(soft, hard)` with the current soft and hard limits of *resource*. Raises `ValueError` if an invalid resource is specified, or `error` if the underlying system call fails unexpectedly.

</div>

<div class="function">

setrlimit(resource, limits)

Sets new limits of consumption of *resource*. The *limits* argument must be a tuple `(soft, hard)` of two integers describing the new limits. A value of `~resource.RLIM_INFINITY` can be used to request a limit that is unlimited.

Raises `ValueError` if an invalid resource is specified, if the new soft limit exceeds the hard limit, or if a process tries to raise its hard limit. Specifying a limit of `~resource.RLIM_INFINITY` when the hard or system limit for that resource is not unlimited will result in a `ValueError`. A process with the effective UID of super-user can request any valid limit value, including unlimited, but `ValueError` will still be raised if the requested limit exceeds the system imposed limit.

`setrlimit` may also raise `error` if the underlying system call fails.

VxWorks only supports setting `RLIMIT_NOFILE`.

<div class="audit-event">

resource.setrlimit resource,limits resource.setrlimit

</div>

</div>

<div class="function">

prlimit(pid, resource\[, limits\])

Combines `setrlimit` and `getrlimit` in one function and supports to get and set the resources limits of an arbitrary process. If *pid* is 0, then the call applies to the current process. *resource* and *limits* have the same meaning as in `setrlimit`, except that *limits* is optional.

When *limits* is not given the function returns the *resource* limit of the process *pid*. When *limits* is given the *resource* limit of the process is set and the former resource limit is returned.

Raises `ProcessLookupError` when *pid* can't be found and `PermissionError` when the user doesn't have `CAP_SYS_RESOURCE` for the process.

<div class="audit-event">

resource.prlimit pid,resource,limits resource.prlimit

</div>

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.36 with glibc \>= 2.13.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

These symbols define resources whose consumption can be controlled using the `setrlimit` and `getrlimit` functions described below. The values of these symbols are exactly the constants used by C programs.

The Unix man page for `getrlimit(2)` lists the available resources. Note that not all systems use the same symbol or same value to denote the same resource. This module does not attempt to mask platform differences --- symbols not defined for a platform will not be available from this module on that platform.

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_CORE

The maximum size (in bytes) of a core file that the current process can create. This may result in the creation of a partial core file if a larger core would be required to contain the entire process image.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_CPU

The maximum amount of processor time (in seconds) that a process can use. If this limit is exceeded, a `~signal.SIGXCPU` signal is sent to the process. (See the `signal` module documentation for information about how to catch this signal and do something useful, e.g. flush open files to disk.)

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_FSIZE

The maximum size of a file which the process may create.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_DATA

The maximum size (in bytes) of the process's heap.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_STACK

The maximum size (in bytes) of the call stack for the current process. This only affects the stack of the main thread in a multi-threaded process.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_RSS

The maximum resident set size that should be made available to the process.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_NPROC

The maximum number of processes the current process may create.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_NOFILE

The maximum number of open file descriptors for the current process.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_OFILE

The BSD name for `RLIMIT_NOFILE`.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_MEMLOCK

The maximum address space which may be locked in memory.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_VMEM

The largest area of mapped memory which the process may occupy. Usually an alias of `RLIMIT_AS`.

<div class="availability">

Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD.

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_AS

The maximum area (in bytes) of address space which may be taken by the process.

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_MSGQUEUE

The number of bytes that can be allocated for POSIX message queues.

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.8.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_NICE

The ceiling for the process's nice level (calculated as 20 - rlim_cur).

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.12.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_RTPRIO

The ceiling of the real-time priority.

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.12.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_RTTIME

The time limit (in microseconds) on CPU time that a process can spend under real-time scheduling without making a blocking syscall.

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.25.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_SIGPENDING

The number of signals which the process may queue.

<div class="availability">

Linux \>= 2.6.8.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_SBSIZE

The maximum size (in bytes) of socket buffer usage for this user. This limits the amount of network memory, and hence the amount of mbufs, that this user may hold at any time.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD, NetBSD.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_SWAP

The maximum size (in bytes) of the swap space that may be reserved or used by all of this user id's processes. This limit is enforced only if bit 1 of the vm.overcommit sysctl is set. Please see [tuning(7)](https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tuning&sektion=7) for a complete description of this sysctl.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD \>= 8.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_NPTS

The maximum number of pseudo-terminals created by this user id.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD \>= 8.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.4

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_KQUEUES

The maximum number of kqueues this user id is allowed to create.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD \>= 11.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.10

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_NTHR

The maximum number of threads for this user id, not counting the main and kernel threads.

<div class="availability">

NetBSD \>= 7.0.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.15

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_PIPEBUF

The maximum total size of in-kernel buffers for bi-directional pipes/fifos that this user id is allowed to consume.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD \>= 14.2.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.15

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_THREADS

The maximum number of threads each process can create.

<div class="availability">

AIX.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.15

</div>

</div>

<div class="data">

RLIMIT_UMTXP

The limit of the number of process-shared Posix thread library objects allocated by user id.

<div class="availability">

FreeBSD \>= 11.

</div>

<div class="versionadded">

3.15

</div>

</div>

## Resource Usage

These functions are used to retrieve resource usage information:

<div class="function">

getrusage(who)

This function returns an object that describes the resources consumed by either the current process or its children, as specified by the *who* parameter. The *who* parameter should be specified using one of the `!RUSAGE_\*` constants described below.

A simple example:

    from resource import *
    import time

    # a non CPU-bound task
    time.sleep(3)
    print(getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF))

    # a CPU-bound task
    for i in range(10 ** 8):
       _ = 1 + 1
    print(getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF))

The fields of the return value each describe how a particular system resource has been used, e.g. amount of time spent running in user mode or number of times the process was swapped out of main memory. Some values are dependent on the clock tick interval, e.g. the amount of memory the process is using.

For backward compatibility, the return value is also accessible as a tuple of 16 elements.

The fields `!ru_utime` and `!ru_stime` of the return value are floating-point values representing the amount of time spent executing in user mode and the amount of time spent executing in system mode, respectively. The remaining values are integers. Consult the `getrusage(2)` man page for detailed information about these values. A brief summary is presented here:

| Index | Field          | Resource                            |
|-------|----------------|-------------------------------------|
| `0`   | `!ru_utime`    | time in user mode (float seconds)   |
| `1`   | `!ru_stime`    | time in system mode (float seconds) |
| `2`   | `!ru_maxrss`   | maximum resident set size           |
| `3`   | `!ru_ixrss`    | shared memory size                  |
| `4`   | `!ru_idrss`    | unshared memory size                |
| `5`   | `!ru_isrss`    | unshared stack size                 |
| `6`   | `!ru_minflt`   | page faults not requiring I/O       |
| `7`   | `!ru_majflt`   | page faults requiring I/O           |
| `8`   | `!ru_nswap`    | number of swap outs                 |
| `9`   | `!ru_inblock`  | block input operations              |
| `10`  | `!ru_oublock`  | block output operations             |
| `11`  | `!ru_msgsnd`   | messages sent                       |
| `12`  | `!ru_msgrcv`   | messages received                   |
| `13`  | `!ru_nsignals` | signals received                    |
| `14`  | `!ru_nvcsw`    | voluntary context switches          |
| `15`  | `!ru_nivcsw`   | involuntary context switches        |

This function will raise a `ValueError` if an invalid *who* parameter is specified. It may also raise `error` exception in unusual circumstances.

</div>

<div class="function">

getpagesize()

Returns the number of bytes in a system page. (This need not be the same as the hardware page size.)

</div>

The following `!RUSAGE_\*` symbols are passed to the `getrusage` function to specify which processes information should be provided for.

<div class="data">

RUSAGE_SELF

Pass to `getrusage` to request resources consumed by the calling process, which is the sum of resources used by all threads in the process.

</div>

<div class="data">

RUSAGE_CHILDREN

Pass to `getrusage` to request resources consumed by child processes of the calling process which have been terminated and waited for.

</div>

<div class="data">

RUSAGE_BOTH

Pass to `getrusage` to request resources consumed by both the current process and child processes. May not be available on all systems.

</div>

<div class="data">

RUSAGE_THREAD

Pass to `getrusage` to request resources consumed by the current thread. May not be available on all systems.

<div class="versionadded">

3.2

</div>

</div>