How to get total CPU Idle Time in Objective C/C on OS X?

Question

I need to get total CPU Idle Time in Objective C/C on OS X?

If possible please provide code example which do that. Here is a code I use to get these metrics. As result percentage is not the same I have in Activity Monitor. So I assume CPU time calculation is incorrect:

#include <sys/sysctl.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <mach/mach.h>
#include <mach/processor_info.h>
#include <mach/mach_host.h>

- (void)printCPUUsage
{
    processor_cpu_load_info_t cpuLoad;
    mach_msg_type_number_t processorMsgCount;
    natural_t processorCount;

    uint64_t totalSystemTime = 0, totalUserTime = 0, totalIdleTime = 0, totalCPUTime = 0;

    kern_return_t err = host_processor_info(mach_host_self(), PROCESSOR_CPU_LOAD_INFO, &processorCount, (processor_info_array_t *)&cpuLoad, &processorMsgCount);

    for (natural_t i = 0; i < processorCount; i++) {

        // Calc load types and totals, with guards against 32-bit overflow
        // (values are natural_t)
        uint64_t system = 0, user = 0, idle = 0, total = 0;

        system = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_SYSTEM];
        user = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_USER];
        idle = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_IDLE];

        total = system + user + idle;

        if (total < 1) {
            total = 1;
        }

        totalCPUTime += total;
        totalSystemTime += system;
        totalUserTime += user;
        totalIdleTime += idle;
    }


    double onePercent = totalCPUTime/100.0f;

    NSLog(@"system: %f", (double)totalSystemTime/(double)onePercent);
    NSLog(@"user: %f", (double)totalUserTime/(double)onePercent);
    NSLog(@"idle: %f", (double)totalIdleTime/(double)onePercent);
}

Answer 1

The values as returned from the process meter or top are, by default, sample delta based i.e. they calculate the CPU usage since the previous sample, rather than the absolute values.

This corresponds to the option -c n to top when called in the mode:

 top -c n -l 0 | head -5

Which is the default mode. If you want the values as returned in your code, then you need to base the values on immediate samples, using:

 top -c e -l 0 | head -5

These values will correspond to the values you're seeing.

If you want to get similar values to the process meter/top, then you need to take two samples, and display the values of the differences between them.

So for example, we create a structure containing the stats:

struct cpusample {
    uint64_t totalSystemTime;
    uint64_t totalUserTime;
    uint64_t totalIdleTime;

};

we alter the printCPUUsage call so that it performs a sample:

void sample(struct cpusample *sample)
{
    processor_cpu_load_info_t cpuLoad;
    mach_msg_type_number_t processorMsgCount;
    natural_t processorCount;

    uint64_t totalSystemTime = 0, totalUserTime = 0, totalIdleTime = 0;

    kern_return_t err = host_processor_info(mach_host_self(), PROCESSOR_CPU_LOAD_INFO, &processorCount, (processor_info_array_t *)&cpuLoad, &processorMsgCount);

    for (natural_t i = 0; i < processorCount; i++) {

        // Calc load types and totals, with guards against 32-bit overflow
        // (values are natural_t)
        uint64_t system = 0, user = 0, idle = 0;

        system = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_SYSTEM];
        user = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_USER] + cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_NICE];
        idle = cpuLoad[i].cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_IDLE];

        totalSystemTime += system;
        totalUserTime += user;
        totalIdleTime += idle;
    }
    sample->totalSystemTime = totalSystemTime;
    sample->totalUserTime = totalUserTime;
    sample->totalIdleTime = totalIdleTime;
}

Then we take two samples (1 second between samples):

struct cpusample delta;
sample(&sample1);
sleep(1);
sample(&sample2);
deltasample.totalSystemTime = sample2.totalSystemTime - sample1.totalSystemTime;
deltasample.totalUserTime = sample2.totalUserTime - sample1.totalUserTime;
deltasample.totalIdleTime = sample2.totalIdleTime - sample1.totalIdleTime;

The add a printsample code:

void printSample(struct cpusample *sample)
{
    uint64_t total = sample->totalSystemTime + sample->totalUserTime + sample->totalIdleTime;

    double onePercent = total/100.0f;

    NSLog(@"system: %f", (double)sample->totalSystemTime/(double)onePercent);
    NSLog(@"user: %f", (double)sample->totalUserTime/(double)onePercent);
    NSLog(@"idle: %f", (double)sample->totalIdleTime/(double)onePercent);
}

so when you invoke printSample(&deltasample) it prints the delta record, which gives a much more similar value to the one presented by either top or Activity Monitor.

But to be honest, I'd use host_statistics, as the code is cleaner:

void sample(struct cpusample *sample)
{
    kern_return_t kr;
    mach_msg_type_number_t count;
    host_cpu_load_info_data_t r_load;

    uint64_t totalSystemTime = 0, totalUserTime = 0, totalIdleTime = 0;

    count = HOST_CPU_LOAD_INFO_COUNT;
    kr = host_statistics(mach_host_self(), HOST_CPU_LOAD_INFO, (int *)&r_load, &count);
    if (kr != KERN_SUCCESS) {
        printf("oops: %s\n", mach_error_string(kr));
        return;
    }

    sample->totalSystemTime = r_load.cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_SYSTEM];
    sample->totalUserTime = r_load.cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_USER] + r_load.cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_NICE];
    sample->totalIdleTime = r_load.cpu_ticks[CPU_STATE_IDLE];
}