NAME
sa - Summarizes accounting records
SYNOPSIS
sa [-abcdDfijkKlmnorstu] [-v Number] [-S SaveFile] [-U User-
File] [File]
The sa command helps you manage the large volume of account-
ing information that is generated each day when system
accounting has been enabled by the system administrator or
by the superuser.
FLAGS
-a Outputs all command names (including those con-
taining unprintable characters and commands used
only once) in the last column. In the default for-
mat, such commands are summed and the total is
written as the entry ***other.
-b Sorts cpu output column 3 according to the sum of
user and system CPU time divided by the amount of
CPU time required to execute the command entered
in the last column (6) as many times as is entered
in the first column (1).
-c Adds three percentage columns to the default for-
mat to list percentages as follows:
1. Lists the percentage of the number of times
each command was executed with respect to the
total number of times all commands were exe-
cuted (see 1a below).
2. Lists the percentage of the amount of real
time required to execute each command the
number of times entered in the first column
with respect to the total real time required
to execute the total of all commands entered
in the last column (see 2a below).
3. Lists the percentage of the amount of command
CPU time required to execute each command the
number of times entered in the first column
with respect to the total CPU time required
to execute the total of all commands entered
in the last column (see 3a below).
-d Sorts avio output column (4) in descending order
according to the average number of disk I/O opera-
tions.
-D Substitutes tio column (4a) for the avio (4)
column and sorts tio output column 4a in descend-
ing order according to the total number of disk
I/O operations.
-f Used with the -v flag to inhibit interactive
threshold comparison of commands.
-i Reads raw database file /var/adm/pacct only. Does
not include records from summary database file
/var/adm/savacct.
-j Outputs the average number of seconds per command
in default columns 2, 3, and 4 instead of the
total time in minutes for the number of calls
entered in column 1 for each command.
-k Sorts and outputs records according to the value
in the k output column 5 in descending order.
-K Substitutes k*sec column (5a) for the k (5) column
and sorts the k*sec output column in descending
order according to the value of the memory time
integral.
-l Separates cpu column 3 into two columns. The new
column entries are column 3a, which lists the s
(system) part of the CPU minutes, and column 3b,
which lists the u (user) part of the CPU minutes.
-m Outputs a 5-column file, which provides the infor-
mation in the following table. Listed below in
left-to-right order are the column identification
suffixes, or none when no suffix is used, and the
purpose of the column. Some columns are identical
to the default output format described in the
table in the DESCRIPTION section; these are marked
with *.
none Username or user ID as written in the
/etc/passwd file.
none The total number of processes executed
by the user during the accounting
period.
cpu * Same as column 3 in the default output
file.
tio * Same as column 4a in the default output
file.
k*sec * Same as column 5a in the default output
file.
-n Outputs the default format sorted in descending
order according to the number of times each com-
mand was called.
-o Substitutes, in the default output format, the
ratio of user CPU time (u) to system CPU time (s)
as u/s in column 3 in place of the total user and
system CPU time (cpu) for the number of calls
entered in the first column.
-r The default format, described under Description,
is resorted in ascending order according to the
values entered in column 3, cpu time. This sort is
the reverse of the default sort.
-s Merges information in accounting database file
/var/adm/pacct with summary files you specify with
the -U and -S flags, or merges the database file
information with information in default files
/var/adm/usracct or /var/adm/savacct. After the
merge, database file /var/adm/pacct is truncated.
The use of this flag also implies the use of the
-a flag.
-S SaveFile
Uses SaveFile as the command summary file in place
of file /var/adm/savacct.
-t Adds the re/cp column (3d) to the default format.
Entries in this column express the ratio of real
time to total (cpu) time, which is the sum of user
and system time for each command entered in the
last column.
-u Suspends all other flags and prints the user
numeric ID, the CPU time, memory usage, number of
I/O operations, and the command name for each com-
mand.
-U UserFile
Uses UserFile as the user summary file in place of
file /var/adm/usracct to record per-user statis-
tics output with the -m flag.
-v Number Prints, as a query, the name of each command used
Number times or fewer to the standard output as
follows:
command--
where command-- is the name of the command written
to the standard output by sa.
When you respond by typing y to the standard
input, the command record is omitted from a
default-formatted list at the end of the interac-
tive command queries written to the standard out-
put. The columnar values of the omitted record are
totaled in an added record whose command name is
**junk** in the last column of that list. When you
type any other character, the record for the
queried command name remains in the default output
list at the end of the interactive commands writ-
ten to the standard input.
DESCRIPTION
When you use the -s flag with the sa command, the informa-
tion in /var/adm/pacct is condensed into summary file
/var/adm/savacct, which contains a count of the number of
times each command was called and the amount of time system
resources were used.
Condensed information for each user is stored in
/var/adm/usracct. This condensed-information file conserves
storage space because on a large system the /var/adm/pacct
daily process file can grow by as many as 100 blocks per
day. Summary files are normally read before accounting
files are, so that files produced by sa include all avail-
able information.
When a filename is given as the last argument, the named
file is treated as the process accounting file. The
/var/adm/pacct file is the default process accounting file.
When the sa command is invoked with no flags, the default
output summary is an unheaded 6-column file consisting of,
in some cases, information having an identification suffix
in the column. The identification suffix may be changed from
the default (no flags specified) output format by using
various flags.
The following table lists the columns with left-to-right
reference column numbers (not included in output) for the
default format on the left, the identification suffix for
the entry when one is used (or none when one is not in the
middle), and the purpose of the information in that column
on the right.
Columns having more than one identification suffix
description (2 and 2a, for example) use the alternate suffix
designation in the same sa output printout column for each
of the listed alternate entries for the column. For exam-
ple, the second column has two possible suffix designations:
re and %. The re reference in the middle column describes
the information in the second column of the output printed
by the sa command when this suffix is used. Correspondingly,
the % reference describes the information in the sa output
when the % suffix is used.
1 none The number of times the command entered in the last column
(6) was called.
1a % When the -c flag is used, sa adds this column after column 1
to list the number of times the command was called (entered
in column 1) as a percentage of the total number of times all
commands entered in the last column were called.
2 re The number of real-time (elapsed) minutes required to execute
the command entered in the last column (6) as many times as
is entered in the first column (1).
2a % When the -c flag is used, sa also adds this column after
column 2 to list the amount of real time (entered in column
2) required to process the command entered in the last column
(6) as many time as is entered in the first column (1), as a
percentage of the total amount of real time requried to pro-
cess all of the commands listed in the last column.
3 cpu The number of CPU (user plus system) minutes used to execute
the command entered in the last column (6) as many times as
is entered in the first column (1).
3a u The number of user CPU minutes used.
3b s The number of system CPU minutes used.
3c u/s When the -o flag is used, substitutes u/s column (3c) for the
cpu (3) column and sorts the u/s output column in descending
order according to the ratio of user CPU time to system CPU
time.
3d % When the -c flag is used, sa also adds this column after
column 3 to list the amount of CPU time (entered in column 3)
requred to process the command, entered in the last column,
the number of times, entered in the first column, as a per-
centage of the total CPU time required to process all of the
commands listed in the last column.
3e re/cpu When the -t flag is used, adds the re/cpu column to the
default output format. Entries in this column express the
ratio of real CPU process time to total CPU time (cpu), which
includes user and system time. These entries appear after
entries for the cpu (3) column. The default output sort
remains unchanged.
4 avio The average number of input/output operations for each listed
command.
4a tio The total number of input/output operations for each listed
command.
5 k The average number of kiloblocks (blocks x 1024) of memory
used for each command process.
5a k*sec CPU storage-time integral in K-core seconds (seconds x 1024).
6 none The command name (a trailing * [asterisk] indicates a forked
program).
Other considerations for entries in the printed sa output
are as follows:
o All times are expressed to nearest one hundredth. The
default format is sorted in descending order according
to the values entered in column 3, cpu time.
o You should not share accounting files among nodes in a
distributed environment. Each node should have its own
copy of the various accounting files.
o When you are also using /usr/sbin/acct/* accounting
commands, do not delete accounting records in the
/var/adm/pacct process accounting source file because
these records also provide information for summary data
files when the -s option is used.
EXAMPLES
1. To summarize accounting records for all commands
entered in the /var/adm/pacct process database file,
enter:
sa -a
Commands used only once are summed with the entry
***other in the last column of the default output for-
mat.
2. To summarize accounting records according to the aver-
age number of kiloblocks of memory used for each com-
mand, enter:
sa -k
FILES
/usr/sbin/sa
Specifies the command path
/var/adm/pacct
Process accounting database file.
/var/adm/savacct
System process accounting summary file.
/var/adm/usracct
User process accounting summary file.
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: acct(8), acctcms(8), acctcom(8), acctcon(8),
acctmerg(8), acctprc(8), fwtmp(8), runacct(8)
Acknowledgement and Disclaimer