CPUeaters
Code by Marco Coïsson
Current version: 1.0
What is it?
CPUeaters is a very simple application that lists in its Processes menu all running processes, sorted by cpu usage.
Note: just a few items of a real Processes menu are shown here.
You can select any running process from the menu, and an inspector opens showing additional details on the selected process:
The inspector reports:
- the process name
- the process CPU usage
- the process memory usage
- the process owner
- the process PID
You can kill the process execution with the Kill button, or suspend its execution with the Pause button or resume its execution with the Resume button.
How does it work?
CPUeaters polls the system every 10 seconds for the list of all running processes by executing the following command:
ps -arxco %cpu,%mem,pid,command,logname
Processes are killed, paused and resumed with the following commands respectively:
kill -9 <PID>
kill -STOP <PID>
kill -CONT <PID>
Known bugs and issues
- To my knowledge, there is no way to know if a process has been paused, so it's not possible to dim the Pause or the Resume buttons according to the process state.
- You cannot kill processes you don't own. Future versions will offer standard authentication mechanisms to overcome this limitation.
Disclaimer
Playing with processes is dangerous: you have been warned. I'm not responsible for any application or system crash or any data loss or any other damage that may occur to you by using CPUeaters.
Download
Download CPUeaters as a zipped file.
Source code is commented (mainly in English), and a text file (included in the XCode project) titled Documentazione interna gives a brief description (in Italian) of how the application internally works.
License
CPUeaters is freeware. Use it and distribute it freely, even on the Internet or on CD-ROMs or DVDs attached to magazines. You cannot sell it or make money from it; you cannot distribute it if you modify it.
Contact me for any problems or suggestions about CPUeaters
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