How to check what code is currently running on a server?

ClickHouse provides introspection tools like system.stack_trace for inspecting what code is currently running on each server thread, helping with debugging and performance monitoring.

Check what code is currently running on a server

ClickHouse has a built-in debugger and introspection capabilities.

For example, you can get the stack traces of every server’s thread at runtime by querying the system.stack_trace table:

SELECT
    count(),
    arrayStringConcat(arrayMap(x -> concat(demangle(addressToSymbol(x)), '\n    ', addressToLine(x)), trace), '\n') AS sym
FROM system.stack_trace
GROUP BY trace
ORDER BY count() DESC
LIMIT 10
FORMAT Vertical
SETTINGS allow_introspection_functions = 1;

The query result will show the locations in the ClickHouse source code where the threads are running or waiting. (You will need to set allow_introspection_functions to 1 to enable the introspection functions.) The response looks like:

Row 1:
──────
count(): 144
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

DB::BackgroundSchedulePool::threadFunction()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 2:
──────
count(): 80
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

std::__1::condition_variable::wait(std::__1::unique_lock<std::__1::mutex>&)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::MergeTreeBackgroundExecutor<DB::OrdinaryRuntimeQueue>::threadFunction()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
void std::__1::__function::__policy_invoker<void ()>::__call_impl<std::__1::__function::__default_alloc_func<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>::ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<void ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::scheduleImpl<void>(std::__1::function<void ()>, long, std::__1::optional<unsigned long>, bool)::'lambda0'()>(void&&)::'lambda'(), void ()>>(std::__1::__function::__policy_storage const*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 3:
──────
count(): 55
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
void std::__1::__function::__policy_invoker<void ()>::__call_impl<std::__1::__function::__default_alloc_func<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>::ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<void ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::scheduleImpl<void>(std::__1::function<void ()>, long, std::__1::optional<unsigned long>, bool)::'lambda0'()>(void&&)::'lambda'(), void ()>>(std::__1::__function::__policy_storage const*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 4:
──────
count(): 16
sym:

DB::AsynchronousInsertQueue::processBatchDeadlines(unsigned long)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 5:
──────
count(): 16
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

std::__1::condition_variable::wait(std::__1::unique_lock<std::__1::mutex>&)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::MergeTreeBackgroundExecutor<DB::MergeMutateRuntimeQueue>::threadFunction()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
void std::__1::__function::__policy_invoker<void ()>::__call_impl<std::__1::__function::__default_alloc_func<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>::ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<void ThreadPoolImpl<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<false>>::scheduleImpl<void>(std::__1::function<void ()>, long, std::__1::optional<unsigned long>, bool)::'lambda0'()>(void&&)::'lambda'(), void ()>>(std::__1::__function::__policy_storage const*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 6:
──────
count(): 10
sym:     poll

Poco::Net::SocketImpl::pollImpl(Poco::Timespan&, int)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::Net::SocketImpl::poll(Poco::Timespan const&, int)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::Net::TCPServer::run()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::ThreadImpl::runnableEntry(void*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 7:
──────
count(): 9
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 8:
──────
count(): 7
sym:     poll

Poco::Net::SocketImpl::pollImpl(Poco::Timespan&, int)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::Net::SocketImpl::poll(Poco::Timespan const&, int)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::ReadBufferFromPocoSocket::poll(unsigned long) const
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::TCPHandler::runImpl()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::TCPHandler::run()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::Net::TCPServerConnection::start()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::Net::TCPServerDispatcher::run()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::PooledThread::run()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
Poco::ThreadImpl::runnableEntry(void*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 9:
───────
count(): 3
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

Poco::EventImpl::waitImpl()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::DDLWorker::runCleanupThread()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
void std::__1::__function::__policy_invoker<void ()>::__call_impl<std::__1::__function::__default_alloc_func<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<true>::ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<void (DB::DDLWorker::*)(), DB::DDLWorker*>(void (DB::DDLWorker::*&&)(), DB::DDLWorker*&&)::'lambda'(), void ()>>(std::__1::__function::__policy_storage const*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

Row 10:
───────
count(): 3
sym:     pthread_cond_wait

Poco::EventImpl::waitImpl()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
DB::DDLWorker::runMainThread()
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
void std::__1::__function::__policy_invoker<void ()>::__call_impl<std::__1::__function::__default_alloc_func<ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<true>::ThreadFromGlobalPoolImpl<void (DB::DDLWorker::*)(), DB::DDLWorker*>(void (DB::DDLWorker::*&&)(), DB::DDLWorker*&&)::'lambda'(), void ()>>(std::__1::__function::__policy_storage const*)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse
ThreadPoolImpl<std::__1::thread>::worker(std::__1::__list_iterator<std::__1::thread, void*>)
    /usr/bin/clickhouse

    /usr/bin/clickhouse

clone

10 rows in set. Elapsed: 0.026 sec.

If you installed ClickHouse from a .deb/.rpm/.tgz you can also install the package with the debug info to see the line numbers from the source code:

sudo apt install clickhouse-common-static-dbg

If you’ve installed ClickHouse as a single-binary, it already contains the debug info.

For more high-level information, check out some of these other system tables:

• system.processes
• system.query_log
• system.metric_log
• system.asynchronous_metric_log
• system.trace_log
• system.processor_profile_log

And there is handy info in the other system tables also.