How can I see which CPU core a thread is running in?

Question

In Linux, supposing a thread\'s pid is [pid], from the directory /proc/[pid] we can get many useful information. For example, these proc files, /proc/[pid]/status,/proc/[pid

Answer 1

This can be done with top command. The default top command output does not show these details. To view this detail you will have to press f key while on top command interface and then press j(press Enter key after you pressed j). Now the output will show you details regarding a process and which processor its running. A sample output is shown below.

top - 04:24:03 up 96 days, 13:41,  1 user,  load average: 0.11, 0.14, 0.15
Tasks: 173 total,   1 running, 172 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  7.1%us,  0.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 88.4%id,  0.1%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  4.2%st
Mem:   1011048k total,   950984k used,    60064k free,     9320k buffers
Swap:   524284k total,   113160k used,   411124k free,    96420k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  P COMMAND
12426 nginx     20   0  345m  47m  29m S 77.6  4.8  40:24.92 7 php-fpm
 6685 mysql     20   0 3633m  34m 2932 S  4.3  3.5  63:12.91 4 mysqld
19014 root      20   0 15084 1188  856 R  1.3  0.1   0:01.20 4 top
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  1.0  0.0 129:42.53 1 rcu_sched
 6349 memcache  20   0  355m  12m  224 S  0.3  1.2   9:34.82 6 memcached
    1 root      20   0 19404  212   36 S  0.0  0.0   0:20.64 3 init
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:30.02 4 kthreadd
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:12.45 0 ksoftirqd/0

The P column in the output shows the processor core number where the process is currently being executed. Monitoring this for a few minutes will make you understand that a pid is switching processor cores in between. You can also verify whether your pid for which you have set affinity is running on that particular core only

top f navigation screen ^{( a live system example )} :

Fields Management for window 1:Def, whose current sort field is forest view
   Navigate with Up/Dn, Right selects for move then  or Left commits,
   'd' or  toggles display, 's' sets sort.  Use 'q' or  to end!

* PID     = Process Id
* USER    = Effective User Name
* PR      = Priority
* NI      = Nice Value
* VIRT    = Virtual Image (KiB)
* RES     = Resident Size (KiB)
* SHR     = Shared Memory (KiB)
* S       = Process Status
* %CPU    = CPU Usage
* %MEM    = Memory Usage (RES)
* TIME+   = CPU Time, hundredths
* COMMAND = Command Name/Line
  PPID    = Parent Process pid
  UID     = Effective User Id
  RUID    = Real User Id
  RUSER   = Real User Name
  SUID    = Saved User Id
  SUSER   = Saved User Name
  GID     = Group Id
  GROUP   = Group Name
  PGRP    = Process Group Id
  TTY     = Controlling Tty
  TPGID   = Tty Process Grp Id
  SID     = Session Id
  nTH     = Number of Threads
* P       = Last Used Cpu (SMP)
  TIME    = CPU Time
  SWAP    = Swapped Size (KiB)
  CODE    = Code Size (KiB)
  DATA    = Data+Stack (KiB)
  nMaj    = Major Page Faults
  nMin    = Minor Page Faults
  nDRT    = Dirty Pages Count
  WCHAN   = Sleeping in Function
  Flags   = Task Flags 
  CGROUPS = Control Groups
  SUPGIDS = Supp Groups IDs
  SUPGRPS = Supp Groups Names
  TGID    = Thread Group Id
  ENVIRON = Environment vars
  vMj     = Major Faults delta
  vMn     = Minor Faults delta
  USED    = Res+Swap Size (KiB)
  nsIPC   = IPC namespace Inode
  nsMNT   = MNT namespace Inode
  nsNET   = NET namespace Inode
  nsPID   = PID namespace Inode
  nsUSER  = USER namespace Inode
  nsUTS   = UTS namespace Inode