{s,u}time values of a process wrongly decrease in /proc/<PID>/stat when a thread exits.

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • top command displayed a 4500% CPU utilization on a 16-CPU system.
  • pidstat shows bogus values
    When the system is running on high load, pidstat will report bogus values for process:
05:45:26 PM     29057    1.00    0.00    0.00    1.00     4  ssmagent.bin
05:45:27 PM     29057    0.00    1.00    0.00    1.00     4  ssmagent.bin
05:45:28 PM     29057    0.00 18446744073709551616.00    0.00 18446744073709551616.00     4  ssmagent.bin
05:45:29 PM     29057    0.00    1.00    0.00    1.00     4  ssmagent.bin
05:45:30 PM     29057    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00     4  ssmagent.bin

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • kernel-2.6.32-131.6.1.el6
  • kernel-2.6.32-220.el6

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