mlco2 / mlco2/codecarbon

Inconsistent behaviour for RAM and CPU Monitoring

Open
#976 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

bug
Dominant language
Python
Stars
1.9k
Forks
323
Avg merge
1d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
12

Description

Describe the bug
The Hardware CPU Module and the RAM Module show inconsistent behavior how the handle child processes.

While RAM uses the Memory of all child process
https://github.com/mlco2/codecarbon/blob/66cc37220f4c2c7b67d0424945d6a13c1b309b23/codecarbon/external/ram.py#L288-L298

CPU Limits itself to the main process https://github.com/mlco2/codecarbon/blob/66cc37220f4c2c7b67d0424945d6a13c1b309b23/codecarbon/external/hardware.py#L247-L253

Expected behavior
Similar behavior for booth, I would be in favor of having "process" and "process_tree" as option

Solution

Adding a "process_tree" option or exchanging the CPU Part with something similar to this:

elif self._tracking_mode == "process_tree":
            # Sum CPU percent for process and its children
            total_cpu_load = self._process.cpu_percent(interval=0.5)
            for child in self._process.children(recursive=True):
                try:
                    total_cpu_load += child.cpu_percent(interval=0.0)
                except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied):
                    continue
            cpu_load = total_cpu_load / self._cpu_count
            power = self._tdp * cpu_load / 100
            logger.debug(
                f"CPU load {self._tdp} W and {cpu_load * 100:.1f}% => estimation of {power} W for process tree {self._pid}."
            )

Cheers
Dominik

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by comparing the child-process handling in external/ram.py at lines 288-298 with the CPU logic in external/hardware.py at lines 247-253. Review how tracking modes are represented, then determine whether both modules should support process and process_tree consistently; the work is done when CPU and RAM apply the agreed behavior to child processes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.