KSTAT(8) Maintenance Commands and Procedures KSTAT(8)

kstat — display kernel statistics

kstat [-Cjlq] [-p [-V]] [-T u|d] [-c class] [-m module] [-i instance] [-n name] [-s statistic] [interval [count]]

kstat [-Cjlq] [-p [-V]] [-T u|d] [-c class] [module[:instance[:name[:statistic]]]]... [interval [count]]

The kstat utility examines the available kernel statistics, or kstats, on the system and reports those statistics which match the criteria specified on the command line. Each matching statistic is printed with its module, instance, and name fields, as well as its actual value.

Kernel statistics may be published by various kernel subsystems, such as drivers or loadable modules; each kstat has a module field that denotes its publisher. Since each module might have countable entities (such as multiple disks associated with the sd(4D) driver) for which it wishes to report statistics, the kstat also has an instance field to index the statistics for each entity; kstat instances are numbered starting from zero. Finally, the kstat is given a name unique within its module.

Each kstat may be a special kstat type, an array of name-value pairs, or raw data. In the name-value case, each reported value is given a label, which we refer to as the statistic. Known raw and special kstats are given statistic labels for each of their values by kstat; thus, all published values can be referenced as module:instance:name:statistic.

When invoked without any module operands or options, kstat will match all defined statistics on the system. Example invocations are provided below. All times are displayed as fractional seconds since system boot.

The tests specified by the following options are logically ANDed, and all matching kstats will be selected. A regular expression containing shell metacharacters must be protected from the shell by enclosing it with the appropriate quotes.

The argument for the -c, -i, -m, -n, and -s options may be specified as a shell glob pattern, or a regular expression enclosed in '/' characters.

Displays output in parsable format with a colon as separator.
class
Displays only kstats that match the specified class. class is a kernel-defined string which classifies the "type" of the kstat.
instance
Displays only kstats that match the specified instance.
Displays output in JSON format.
Lists matching kstat names without displaying values.
module
Displays only kstats that match the specified module.
name
Displays only kstats that match the specified name.
[-V]
Displays output in parsable format, with -V used, only values are displayed. All example output in this document is given in this format. If this option is not specified, kstat produces output in a human-readable, table format.
Displays no output, but return appropriate exit status for matches against given criteria.
statistic
Displays only kstats that match the specified statistic.
d | u
Displays a time stamp before each statistics block, either in date(1) format (d) or as an alphanumeric representation of the value returned by time(2) (u).

The following operands are supported:

module:instance:name:statistic
Alternate method of specifying module, instance, name, and statistic as described above. Each of the module, instance, name, or statistic specifiers may be a shell glob pattern or a regular expression enclosed by ‘/’ characters. It is possible to use both specifier types within a single operand. Leaving a specifier empty is equivalent to using the ‘*’ glob pattern for that specifier.
interval
The number of seconds between reports.
count
The number of reports to be printed.

kernel statistics driver

The following exit values are returned:

One or more statistics were matched.
No statistics were matched.
Invalid command line options were specified.
A fatal error occurred.

In the following examples, all the command lines in a block produce the same output, as shown immediately below. The exact statistics and values will of course vary from machine to machine.

Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p -m unix -i 0 -n system_misc -s 'avenrun*'
example$ kstat -p -s 'avenrun*'
example$ kstat -p 'unix:0:system_misc:avenrun*'
example$ kstat -p ':::avenrun*'
example$ kstat -p ':::/^avenrun_[0-9]+min$/'

unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        3
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 4
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 2
Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p -m cpu_stat -s 'intr*'
example$ kstat -p cpu_stat:::/^intr/

cpu_stat:0:cpu_stat0:intr       29682330
cpu_stat:0:cpu_stat0:intrblk    87
cpu_stat:0:cpu_stat0:intrthread 15054222
cpu_stat:1:cpu_stat1:intr       426073
cpu_stat:1:cpu_stat1:intrblk    51
cpu_stat:1:cpu_stat1:intrthread 289668
cpu_stat:2:cpu_stat2:intr       134160
cpu_stat:2:cpu_stat2:intrblk    0
cpu_stat:2:cpu_stat2:intrthread 131
cpu_stat:3:cpu_stat3:intr       196566
cpu_stat:3:cpu_stat3:intrblk    30
cpu_stat:3:cpu_stat3:intrthread 59626
Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p :::state ':::avenrun*'
example$ kstat -p :::state :::/^avenrun/

cpu_info:0:cpu_info0:state      on-line
cpu_info:1:cpu_info1:state      on-line
cpu_info:2:cpu_info2:state      on-line
cpu_info:3:cpu_info3:state      on-line
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        4
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 10
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 3
Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p 'unix:0:system_misc:avenrun*' 1 3
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        15
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 11
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 21

unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        15
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 11
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 21

unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        15
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 11
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 21
Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p -T d 'unix:0:system_misc:avenrun*' 5 2
Thu Jul 22 19:39:50 1999
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        12
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 0
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 11

Thu Jul 22 19:39:55 1999
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        12
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 0
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 11
Using the kstat Command
example$ kstat -p -T u 'unix:0:system_misc:avenrun*'
932668656
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_15min        14
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_1min 5
unix:0:system_misc:avenrun_5min 18

date(1), sh(1), time(2), gmatch(3GEN), kstat(3KSTAT), kstat(4D), sd(4D), attributes(7), regex(7), kstat(9S)

If the pattern argument contains glob or RE metacharacters which are also shell metacharacters, it will be necessary to enclose the pattern with appropriate shell quotes.

June 19, 2025 OmniOS