View systemd cgroups hierarchy

Display control groups (cgroups) hierarchy and processes running in specific cgroups.

Procedure

  • Display the whole cgroups hierarchy on your system with the systemd-cgls command. 
    # systemd-cgls
     
    Control group /:
-.slice
├─user.slice
│ ├─user-42.slice
│ │ ├─session-c1.scope
│ │ │ ├─ 965 gdm-session-worker [pam/gdm-launch-environment]
│ │ │ ├─1040 /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session gnome-session --autostart /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
...
├─init.scope
│ └─1 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 18
└─system.slice
  ...
  ├─example.service
  │ ├─6882 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
  │ └─6902 sleep 1
  ├─systemd-journald.service
    └─629 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald
  ...

    The example output returns the entire cgroups hierarchy, where the highest level is formed by slices.

  • Display the cgroups hierarchy filtered by a resource controller with the systemd-cgls <resource_controller> command. 
    # systemd-cgls memory
     
    Controller memory; Control group /:
├─1 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 18
├─user.slice
│ ├─user-42.slice
│ │ ├─session-c1.scope
│ │ │ ├─ 965 gdm-session-worker [pam/gdm-launch-environment]
...
└─system.slice
  |
  ...
  ├─chronyd.service
  │ └─844 /usr/sbin/chronyd
  ├─example.service
  │ ├─8914 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
  │ └─8916 sleep 1
  ...

    The example output lists the services that interact with the selected controller.

  • Display detailed information about a certain unit and its part of the cgroups hierarchy with the systemctl status <system_unit> command. 
    # systemctl status example.service
     
    ● example.service - My example service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-04-16 12:12:39 CEST; 3s ago
 Main PID: 17737 (bash)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 11522)
   Memory: 496.0K (limit: 1.5M)
   CGroup: /system.slice/example.service
           ├─17737 /bin/bash /home/jdoe/example.sh
           └─17743 sleep 1
Apr 16 12:12:39 redhat systemd[1]: Started My example service.
Apr 16 12:12:39 redhat bash[17737]: The current time is Tue Apr 16 12:12:39 CEST 2019
Apr 16 12:12:40 redhat bash[17737]: The current time is Tue Apr 16 12:12:40 CEST 2019