How to get the active processes running in iOS

Question

How do I programmatically get the active processes running in the background, CPU and RAM usage for iOS?

Use sysctl. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4312613/can-we-retrieve-the-applications-currently-running-in-iphone-and-ipad — EricS, Feb 18 '12 at 21:49

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 04 '15 at 09:43

The code self-explain :)

#import <mach/mach.h>
#import <mach/mach_host.h>
#import <sys/sysctl.h>
- (NSArray *)runningProcesses {

    int mib[4] = {CTL_KERN, KERN_PROC, KERN_PROC_ALL, 0};
    size_t miblen = 4;

    size_t size;
    int st = sysctl(mib, miblen, NULL, &size, NULL, 0);

    struct kinfo_proc * process = NULL;
    struct kinfo_proc * newprocess = NULL;

    do {

        size += size / 10;
        newprocess = realloc(process, size);

        if (!newprocess){

            if (process){
                free(process);
            }

            return nil;
        }

        process = newprocess;
        st = sysctl(mib, miblen, process, &size, NULL, 0);

    } while (st == -1 && errno == ENOMEM);

    if (st == 0){

        if (size % sizeof(struct kinfo_proc) == 0){
            int nprocess = size / sizeof(struct kinfo_proc);

            if (nprocess){

                NSMutableArray * array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

                for (int i = nprocess - 1; i >= 0; i--){

                    NSString * processID = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"%d", process[i].kp_proc.p_pid];
                    NSString * processName = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"%s", process[i].kp_proc.p_comm];

                    NSDictionary * dict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjects:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:processID, processName, nil]
                                                                        forKeys:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"ProcessID", @"ProcessName", nil]];
                    [array addObject:dict];
                }

                free(process);
                return array;
            }
        }
    }

    return nil;
}

sysctl is always return 0 in iOS9. – Stalin Pusparaj Jul 14 '16 at 12:42 — Stalin Pusparaj, Jul 14 '16 at 12:42

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

CPU usage was retrieved here: iOS - Get CPU usage from application

RAM usage seems to be addressed here: Available memory for iPhone OS app

Edit:

Like EricS has pointed out in comments, there seems to be a way to get background tasks: Can we retrieve the applications currently running in iPhone and iPad and How to get information about free memory and running processes in an App Store approved app? (Yes, there is one!)

How to get the active processes running in iOS

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