How Many Logical Processors Used By Current Process in Golang


In modern computing, multi-core processors are ubiquitous, which can execute multiple tasks simultaneously. In Golang, we can take advantage of this by using concurrency to perform tasks in parallel. However, how can we determine the number of logical processors used by the current process? In this article, we will discuss how to find out the number of logical processors used by the current process in Golang.

Using the Runtime Package

The Go programming language provides the runtime package, which includes functions that allow us to control and interact with the Go runtime environment. One of these functions is runtime.NumCPU(), which returns the number of logical processors available to the current process.

Example

Here's an example program that demonstrates the use of runtime.NumCPU() −

package main

import (
   "fmt"
   "runtime"
)

func main() {
   numCPU := runtime.NumCPU()
   fmt.Printf("Number of logical processors used by current process: %d\n", numCPU)
}

In this program, we import the fmt and runtime packages. We then call the runtime.NumCPU() function to get the number of logical processors used by the current process. We use fmt.Printf() to print the result to the console.

Running this program on a system with four logical processors will produce the following output −

Output

Number of logical processors used by current process: 32

Using the Environment Variable

In addition to using the runtime package, we can also determine the number of logical processors used by the current process using an environment variable called GOMAXPROCS. This variable specifies the maximum number of logical processors that the Go scheduler can use.

To retrieve the value of the GOMAXPROCS environment variable, we can use the os.Getenv() function.

Here's an example program that demonstrates this approach −

Example

package main

import (
   "fmt"
   "os"
   "runtime"
   "strconv"
)

func main() {
   gomaxprocsStr := os.Getenv("GOMAXPROCS")
   gomaxprocs, err := strconv.Atoi(gomaxprocsStr)

   if err != nil {
      gomaxprocs = runtime.NumCPU()
   }

   fmt.Printf("Number of logical processors used by current process: %d\n", gomaxprocs)
}

Output

Number of logical processors used by current process: 32

In this program, we import the fmt, os, runtime, and strconv packages. We first call the os.Getenv() function to retrieve the value of the GOMAXPROCS environment variable. We then use the strconv.Atoi() function to convert the string value to an integer. If an error occurs during conversion, we set the number of logical processors to the value returned by runtime.NumCPU(). Finally, we use fmt.Printf() to print the result to the console.

Conclusion

In Golang, we can determine the number of logical processors used by the current process using the runtime.NumCPU() function or the GOMAXPROCS environment variable. By using these approaches, we can optimize our programs to take advantage of the available processing power, which can lead to improved performance and efficiency.

Updated on: 19-Apr-2023

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