Platform-Specific Notes

iops-profiler uses different measurement techniques on each platform. This page provides platform-specific details beyond the basic setup covered in Installation.

Linux

Measurement: Uses psutil to read /proc/[pid]/io for low-overhead, accurate per-process I/O statistics.

Key Features:

No special permissions required
Histogram mode available when strace is installed
Best for CI/CD and automated workflows

Considerations:

Caching: Linux’s page cache may cause repeated reads to show zero I/O. Clear caches with sync or /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches if needed.
Containers: Ensure /proc/[pid]/io is accessible (most containers allow this by default).

macOS

Measurement: Uses fs_usage system utility, which requires elevated privileges via password prompt.

Key Features:

Password prompt appears each time you run %iops or %%iops
Histogram mode provides detailed operation distributions
The extension never stores credentials

Considerations:

Automation: Password prompts make macOS unsuitable for CI/CD. Use Linux or Windows instead.
Overhead: Privilege elevation adds some performance overhead.

Windows

Measurement: Uses psutil with Windows performance counters.

Key Features:

No special permissions required
No password prompts

Limitations:

Operation counts: Windows aggregates I/O differently than Unix systems. Counts are approximate and may not match 1:1 with read/write calls.
Histogram mode: Not available (Windows counters lack operation-level detail).

Platform Comparison

Feature	Linux	macOS	Windows
Accuracy	High	High	Moderate
Histogram mode	Yes (strace)	Yes (fs_usage)	No
Special permissions	No	Yes (password)	No
CI/CD suitable	Yes	No	Yes

Recommendations

Production/Benchmarking: Use Linux for most accurate results
Development: Any platform works; use your development machine’s OS
Automated Testing: Linux or Windows (avoid macOS password prompts)
Learning: Any platform based on user familiarity

See User Guide for usage details and Troubleshooting for platform-specific issues.