# Monitoring Polling Applications

uses systemtap/testsuite/systemtap.examples/profiling/timeout.stp

This section describes how to identify and monitor which applications are polling. Doing so allows you to track unnecessary or excessive polling, which can help you pinpoint areas for improvement in terms of CPU usage and power savings.

timeout.stp

tracks how many times each of the following system calls completed due to time expiring rather than due to an actual event occurring:

- `poll`

- `select`

- `epoll`

- `itimer`

- `futex`

- `nanosleep`

- `signal`

Sample Output

      uid |   poll  select   epoll  itimer   futex nanosle  signal| process
    28937 | 148793       0       0    4727   37288       0       0| firefox
    22945 |      0   56949       0       1       0       0       0| scim-bridge
        0 |      0       0       0   36414       0       0       0| swapper
     4275 |  23140       0       0       1       0       0       0| mixer_applet2
     4191 |      0   14405       0       0       0       0       0| scim-launcher
    22941 |   7908       1       0      62       0       0       0| gnome-terminal
     4261 |      0       0       0       2       0    7622       0| escd
     3695 |      0       0       0       0       0    7622       0| gdm-binary
     3483 |      0    7206       0       0       0       0       0| dhcdbd
     4189 |   6916       0       0       2       0       0       0| scim-panel-gtk
     1863 |   5767       0       0       0       0       0       0| iscsid
     2562 |      0    2881       0       1       0    1438       0| pcscd
     4257 |   4255       0       0       1       0       0       0| gnome-power-man
     4278 |   3876       0       0      60       0       0       0| multiload-apple
     4083 |      0    1331       0    1728       0       0       0| Xorg
     3921 |   1603       0       0       0       0       0       0| gam_server
     4248 |   1591       0       0       0       0       0       0| nm-applet
     3165 |      0    1441       0       0       0       0       0| xterm
    29548 |      0    1440       0       0       0       0       0| httpd
     1862 |      0       0       0       0       0    1438       0| iscsid

You can increase the sample time by editing the second probe (`timer.s(1)`). The output of contains the name and UID of the top 20 polling applications, along with how many times each application performed each polling system call (over time). contains an excerpt of the script. In this particular example firefox is doing an excessive amount of polling due to a plugin module.

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