The manual page for top does not describe or provide a pointer to descriptions of STATEs such as swread, nanslp, select, piperd, etc.
On 2007-11-29 18:27, Andrew Hammond <andrew.george.hammond@gmail.com> wrote: > >Number: 118332 > >Category: docs > >Synopsis: man page for top does not describe STATE column wait events > The manual page for top does not describe or provide a pointer to > descriptions of STATEs such as swread, nanslp, select, piperd, etc. The manpage describes `STATE' with the somewhat cryptic text: STATE is the current state (one of "START", "RUN" (shown as "CPUn" on SMP systems), "SLEEP", "STOP", "ZOMB", "WAIT", "LOCK" or the event on which the process waits), Any lowercase string is the name of a kernel-related event, and it would be a very daunting task to list them *all* in the manpage. Do you think we can phrase this particular part of the manpage in a way that is more helpful? If yes, we are open to suggestions.
State Changed From-To: open->feedback Set the state to `feedback', and add myself to the `notify' list.
On Feb 10, 2008 11:51 AM, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@freebsd.org> wrote: > On 2007-11-29 18:27, Andrew Hammond <andrew.george.hammond@gmail.com> > wrote: > > >Number: 118332 > > >Category: docs > > >Synopsis: man page for top does not describe STATE column wait > events > > > The manual page for top does not describe or provide a pointer to > > descriptions of STATEs such as swread, nanslp, select, piperd, etc. > > The manpage describes `STATE' with the somewhat cryptic text: > > STATE is the current state (one of "START", "RUN" (shown as "CPUn" > on SMP systems), "SLEEP", "STOP", "ZOMB", "WAIT", "LOCK" or the > event on which the process waits), > > Any lowercase string is the name of a kernel-related event, and it would > be a very daunting task to list them *all* in the manpage. Do you think > we can phrase this particular part of the manpage in a way that is more > helpful? If yes, we are open to suggestions. How about continuing on with something like the following. "Here are some common events which can cause a process to wait and what they mean." Then list the ones that a user is most likely to see while dealing with a performance problem along with brief descriptions and finally provide a reference to the canonical documentation. A
State Changed From-To: feedback->open Feedback has been provided. If I got this right, the states are listed but manpage does not describe them. Do we need to explain process states in detail?
From an operations stance, when I'm trying to diagnose an issue, and I see from top that a process is in some state that I don't recognize or understand, I want to know what it means. I naturally go to the man page for top to find out. If it's not directly in there then I want a pointer of where I should look next. So, to clarify my prior email, it'd be nice if the man page listed some of the more common states and what they mean and then provided a pointer to the canonical documentation. Andrew
Not all states are listed. For example I have some processes spending a lot of time in state "*vm ob" but I can't find any info on what exactly this means. The man page should identify this, or point us somewhere that does. I suspect there is not currently anywhere that these states are comprehensively documented. There should be.
Responsible Changed From-To: freebsd-doc->arundel Over to me, since I'm working on this issue atm.
Reset assignee -- not working on these PRs atm.
This doesn't really have anything to do with top(1), and applies to ps(1), procstat(1), etc as well. The issue is, whenever some code tells the kernel to sleep or wait, it must provide a short text string to identify that 'wait channel'. There is no master list, or even a nomenclature for these short strings. It might be worth trying to make one, but in a separate man page 'waitchan' or something
*** Bug 130364 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***