Tracking *maximum* memory usage by a Python function

Question

I want to find out what the maximum amount of RAM allocated during the call to a function is (in Python). There are other questions on SO related to tracking RAM usage:

Answer 1

This question seemed rather interesting and it gave me a reason to look into Guppy / Heapy, for that I thank you.

I tried for about 2 hours to get Heapy to do monitor a function call / process without modifying its source with zero luck.

I did find a way to accomplish your task using the built in Python library resource. Note that the documentation does not indicate what the RU_MAXRSS value returns. Another SO user noted that it was in kB. Running Mac OSX 7.3 and watching my system resources climb up during the test code below, I believe the returned values to be in Bytes, not kBytes.

A 10000ft view on how I used the resource library to monitor the library call was to launch the function in a separate (monitor-able) thread and track the system resources for that process in the main thread. Below I have the two files that you'd need to run to test it out.

Library Resource Monitor - whatever_you_want.py

import resource
import time

from stoppable_thread import StoppableThread


class MyLibrarySniffingClass(StoppableThread):
    def __init__(self, target_lib_call, arg1, arg2):
        super(MyLibrarySniffingClass, self).__init__()
        self.target_function = target_lib_call
        self.arg1 = arg1
        self.arg2 = arg2
        self.results = None

    def startup(self):
        # Overload the startup function
        print "Calling the Target Library Function..."

    def cleanup(self):
        # Overload the cleanup function
        print "Library Call Complete"

    def mainloop(self):
        # Start the library Call
        self.results = self.target_function(self.arg1, self.arg2)

        # Kill the thread when complete
        self.stop()

def SomeLongRunningLibraryCall(arg1, arg2):
    max_dict_entries = 2500
    delay_per_entry = .005

    some_large_dictionary = {}
    dict_entry_count = 0

    while(1):
        time.sleep(delay_per_entry)
        dict_entry_count += 1
        some_large_dictionary[dict_entry_count]=range(10000)

        if len(some_large_dictionary) > max_dict_entries:
            break

    print arg1 + " " +  arg2
    return "Good Bye World"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Lib Testing Code
    mythread = MyLibrarySniffingClass(SomeLongRunningLibraryCall, "Hello", "World")
    mythread.start()

    start_mem = resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_SELF).ru_maxrss
    delta_mem = 0
    max_memory = 0
    memory_usage_refresh = .005 # Seconds

    while(1):
        time.sleep(memory_usage_refresh)
        delta_mem = (resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_SELF).ru_maxrss) - start_mem
        if delta_mem > max_memory:
            max_memory = delta_mem

        # Uncomment this line to see the memory usuage during run-time 
        # print "Memory Usage During Call: %d MB" % (delta_mem / 1000000.0)

        # Check to see if the library call is complete
        if mythread.isShutdown():
            print mythread.results
            break;

    print "\nMAX Memory Usage in MB: " + str(round(max_memory / 1000.0, 3))

Stoppable Thread - stoppable_thread.py

import threading
import time

class StoppableThread(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        super(StoppableThread, self).__init__()
        self.daemon = True
        self.__monitor = threading.Event()
        self.__monitor.set()
        self.__has_shutdown = False

    def run(self):
        '''Overloads the threading.Thread.run'''
        # Call the User's Startup functions
        self.startup()

        # Loop until the thread is stopped
        while self.isRunning():
            self.mainloop()

        # Clean up
        self.cleanup()

        # Flag to the outside world that the thread has exited
        # AND that the cleanup is complete
        self.__has_shutdown = True

    def stop(self):
        self.__monitor.clear()

    def isRunning(self):
        return self.__monitor.isSet()

    def isShutdown(self):
        return self.__has_shutdown


    ###############################
    ### User Defined Functions ####
    ###############################

    def mainloop(self):
        '''
        Expected to be overwritten in a subclass!!
        Note that Stoppable while(1) is handled in the built in "run".
        '''
        pass

    def startup(self):
        '''Expected to be overwritten in a subclass!!'''
        pass

    def cleanup(self):
        '''Expected to be overwritten in a subclass!!'''
        pass