xref: /netbsd-src/external/bsd/top/dist/machine/m_linuxthr.man (revision 10dd2532a5fc0a73e461275cb9fca28fc3013d32)
1*10dd2532Schristos.SH "LINUX NOTES"
2*10dd2532SchristosThe Linux port was written by Richard Henderson <rth@tamu.edu>.
3*10dd2532SchristosThe CPU% calculation was brazenly stolen from the Solaris 2
4*10dd2532Schristosport and should be attributed to one of the many names listed
5*10dd2532Schristosin its man page.
6*10dd2532Schristos
7*10dd2532SchristosThe order support was stolen from the SunOS 5 port by
8*10dd2532SchristosAlexey Klimkin <kad@klon.tme.mcst.ru>
9*10dd2532Schristos
10*10dd2532SchristosMade to work under 2.4 by William LeFebvre.
11*10dd2532Schristos
12*10dd2532SchristosThis version of the Linux port includes automatic thread "eliding".
13*10dd2532SchristosIn Linux, a thread is treated as another process sharing the memory
14*10dd2532Schristosspace (as well as file table and other resources).  Thus
15*10dd2532Schristosmultiple threads appear as separate processes in most system
16*10dd2532Schristosutilities (see
17*10dd2532Schristos.IR clone (2)).
18*10dd2532SchristosThis version of top detects child thread processes and does not
19*10dd2532Schristosdisplay them separately.  Instead of displaying threads individually,
20*10dd2532Schristosan extra column "THR" shows the number of thread processes for a
21*10dd2532Schristosparent process.  The cpu time and percentages are added to the
22*10dd2532Schristosparent.  This gives a display much closer to other thread-capable Unix
23*10dd2532Schristossystems.  However, threads are still counted as separate processes in
24*10dd2532Schristosthe process summary line.
25*10dd2532SchristosA process is considered a thread of its parent if the
26*10dd2532Schristosfollowing values are identical to its parent: address space size,
27*10dd2532Schristosresident set size, code start and end program counters, and stack
28*10dd2532Schristosstart.  This heuristic can mistake a recently forked child as a thread,
29*10dd2532Schristosuntil the child has either called exec or allocated space on its own.
30*10dd2532Schristos
31