Question

This is from man getrusage

struct rusage {
    struct timeval ru_utime; /* user time used */
    struct timeval ru_stime; /* system time used */
    long   ru_maxrss;        /* maximum resident set size */
    long   ru_ixrss;         /* integral shared memory size */
    long   ru_idrss;         /* integral unshared data size */
    long   ru_isrss;         /* integral unshared stack size */
    long   ru_minflt;        /* page reclaims */
    long   ru_majflt;        /* page faults */
    long   ru_nswap;         /* swaps */
    long   ru_inblock;       /* block input operations */
    long   ru_oublock;       /* block output operations */
    long   ru_msgsnd;        /* messages sent */
    long   ru_msgrcv;        /* messages received */
    long   ru_nsignals;      /* signals received */
    long   ru_nvcsw;         /* voluntary context switches */
    long   ru_nivcsw;        /* involuntary context switches */
};

However it’s not specified what’s the unit.

I saw FreeBSD’s documentation which says it’s in kilobytes, but I’m not sure about what unit it is on Linux.

Answer 1

It’s not a standard field for the rusage structure so POSIX doesn’t mandate anything about it. But on Linux

ru_maxrss (since Linux 2.6.32)

This is the maximum resident set size used (in kilobytes). For
RUSAGE_CHILDREN, this is the resident set size of the largest child,
not the maximum resident set size of the process tree.