Python : Get List of all running processes and sort by highest memory usage

In this article we will discuss a cross platform way to get a list of all running processes in system and then sort them by memory usage.

Python provides a cross platform library psutil to fetch sunning system details like process and system details.

How to install psutil python library

To install psutil using pip execute following command,

pip install psutil

It will install the psutil. To use that in code import the module i.e.

import psutil

Create a list of all running process by Iterating over them

psutil provides a function to iterate over all the running process i.e.

psutil.process_iter(attrs=None, ad_value=None)

It will yield an Process class Iterator for all running processes and we can fetch other details from that Process object iterator.
For example, let’s iterate over all the running process and fetch Process Name and Process ID i.e.

import psutil

# Iterate over all running process
for proc in psutil.process_iter():
    try:
        # Get process name & pid from process object.
        processName = proc.name()
        processID = proc.pid
        print(processName , ' ::: ', processID)
    except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
        pass

Output will be like,

svchost.exe  :::  420
smss.exe  :::  448
notepad.exe  :::  488
WUDFHost.exe  :::  520
svchost.exe  :::  544
fontdrvhost.exe  :::  612
....
....

Output will vary system to system based on current running process.

Each process object yielded by process_iter() has information about that running process like, id , name, user name, parent id, memory usage and cpu usage etc.

Process object also provides a function to get the process detail as dictionary,

as_dict(attrs=None, ad_value=None)

It will return the value of process attribute passed as dict i.e.

pInfoDict = processObj.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'cpu_percent'])

Let’s use this function on process object of each running process and generate list of dictionaries i,e,

import psutil

listOfProcessNames = list()
# Iterate over all running processes
for proc in psutil.process_iter():
   # Get process detail as dictionary
   pInfoDict = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'cpu_percent'])
   # Append dict of process detail in list
   listOfProcessNames.append(pInfoDict)

Contents of list listOfProcessNames are as follows,

{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 4, 'name': 'System'}
{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 120, 'name': 'Registry'}
{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 420, 'name': 'svchost.exe'}
{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 448, 'name': 'smss.exe'}
{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 488, 'name': 'notepad.exe'}
{'cpu_percent': 0.0, 'pid': 520, 'name': 'WUDFHost.exe'}
....
....

We can pass other important attributes too in as_dict() like,

'pid', 'memory_percent', 'name', 'cpu_times', 'create_time', 'memory_info'

Check library documentation for more attributes.

Get List of all running process sorted by Highest Memory Usage

import psutil

def getListOfProcessSortedByMemory():
    '''
    Get list of running process sorted by Memory Usage
    '''
    listOfProcObjects = []
    # Iterate over the list
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
       try:
           # Fetch process details as dict
           pinfo = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'username'])
           pinfo['vms'] = proc.memory_info().vms / (1024 * 1024)
           # Append dict to list
           listOfProcObjects.append(pinfo);
       except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
           pass

    # Sort list of dict by key vms i.e. memory usage
    listOfProcObjects = sorted(listOfProcObjects, key=lambda procObj: procObj['vms'], reverse=True)

    return listOfProcObjects

It will iterate over the list of all running process and fetch memory usage along with id and name as dict.

Process class provides the memory info of process, it fetches the virtual memory usage from it, then appends the dict for each process to a list. In the end sort the list of dictionary by key vms, so list of process will be sorted by memory usage.

Let’s call this function and print top 5 process by memory usage i.e.

listOfRunningProcess = getListOfProcessSortedByMemory()

for elem in listOfRunningProcess[:5] :
    print(elem)

Output:

{'name': 'pycharm64.exe', 'username': 'varun', 'pid': 2092, 'vms': 662.62109375}
{'name': 'chrome.exe', 'username': 'varun', 'pid': 4276, 'vms': 230.421875}
{'name': 'SearchUI.exe', 'username': 'varun', 'pid': 11996, 'vms': 94.2890625}
{'name': 'chrome.exe', 'username': 'varun', 'pid': 2604, 'vms': 89.8828125}
{'name': 'chrome.exe', 'username': 'varun', 'pid': 9616, 'vms': 83.5546875}

Complete code is as follows,

import psutil



def getListOfProcessSortedByMemory():
    '''
    Get list of running process sorted by Memory Usage
    '''
    listOfProcObjects = []
    # Iterate over the list
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
       try:
           # Fetch process details as dict
           pinfo = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'username'])
           pinfo['vms'] = proc.memory_info().vms / (1024 * 1024)
           # Append dict to list
           listOfProcObjects.append(pinfo);
       except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
           pass

    # Sort list of dict by key vms i.e. memory usage
    listOfProcObjects = sorted(listOfProcObjects, key=lambda procObj: procObj['vms'], reverse=True)

    return listOfProcObjects

def main():

    print("*** Iterate over all running process and print process ID & Name ***")
    # Iterate over all running process
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        try:
            # Get process name & pid from process object.
            processName = proc.name()
            processID = proc.pid
            print(processName , ' ::: ', processID)
        except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
            pass

    print('*** Create a list of all running processes ***')

    listOfProcessNames = list()
    # Iterate over all running processes
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
       # Get process detail as dictionary
       pInfoDict = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'cpu_percent'])
       # Append dict of process detail in list
       listOfProcessNames.append(pInfoDict)

    # Iterate over the list of dictionary and print each elem
    for elem in listOfProcessNames:
        print(elem)

    print('*** Top 5 process with highest memory usage ***')

    listOfRunningProcess = getListOfProcessSortedByMemory()

    for elem in listOfRunningProcess[:5] :
        print(elem)

if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()