prometheus / prometheus/client_js

process_heap_bytes

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Description

Hello @SimenB,
in https://github.com/siimon/prom-client/blob/master/lib/metrics/osMemoryHeapLinux.js prom-client exports metrics - process_heap_bytes.
This value collected from VmData value of /proc/self/status file.

VmData - is a data segment size, not the size of process heap. From one side - it does not include large objects heap because large objects allocated through mmap sys call, on the other side it does include statically allocated data structures (global data).

So its looks like "process_heap_bytes" is a misleading name for the metric. We should call it "process_data_segment_size" or something like that.

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Research direction

Start with lib/metrics/osMemoryHeapLinux.js and inspect how process_heap_bytes is collected from /proc/self/status. Decide on a name that accurately reflects VmData's data-segment meaning, then update the exported metric so its name is no longer misleading and verify the module remains consistent.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, node.js
Domain
observability
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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