First I would pickup the process with the smem. For example, you could use smem -tas uss to have an overview.
-t... shows totals-a... auto adjusts the column width-s uss... sorts the result based on the uss column
To see details per process the best way is to use pmap. To get detailed information you should use -X switch. To get all information that kernel provides you can use -XX which usually is an overkill.
To get a 2 seconds refresh monitoring for a pid 3120:
watch -n 2 pmap -X 3120
Edit: To actually get a peak The above helps in monitoring, but it does not show an actual peak. Slipped my mind.
I would personally use valgrind with the massif tool.
valgrind --tool=massif --pages-as-heap=yes --massif-out-file=evolution_massif.out evolution; grep mem_heap_B evolution_massif.out | sed -e 's/mem_heap_B=\(.*\)/\1/' | sort -g | tail -n 1
Explanation:
--page-as-heap=yes... tells massif that it should take all memory instead of just heap--massif-out-file... the output file for the massif tool- evolution ... the application that should be monitored
The next part is there to find out the maximum number recorded.
The grep searches for mem_heap_B occurrences. sed -e gets rid of the string mem_heap_B so we get only numeric result. The we sort it via sort -g which is generic numeric sort and take the biggest number with tail -n 1 which returns the first line of the sorted numbers.
After the application is terminated valgrid will printout one number, which is the memory peak in [B]ytes.
To display the output file evolution_massif.out, you can use ms_print post-processing tool for Massif.
It is simply:
ms_print evolution_massif.out
The output should look like this (this is first page of the output), where you can see which snapshot was a peak - 10 (peak):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Command: evolution
Massif arguments: --pages-as-heap=yes --massif-out-file=massif.out
ms_print arguments: massif.out
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GB
10.09^ #
| #
| #
| #
| #
| #
| # @:::::@::::::::::::::::@@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| # @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::::@:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| @ #::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
| :::@::#::::: @:::::@: :::::::: :::: @@:::::@:::::@::::::@::::@:::::@::
0 +----------------------------------------------------------------------->Gi
0 8.927
Number of snapshots: 97
Detailed snapshots: [7, 10 (peak), 17, 24, 43, 44, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
n time(i) total(B) useful-heap(B) extra-heap(B) stacks(B)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 16,384 16,384 0 0
1 149,772,704 393,547,776 393,547,776 0 0
2 243,902,287 398,592,800 398,592,800 0 0
3 396,613,298 558,157,704 558,157,704 0 0
4 504,752,503 638,138,760 638,138,760 0 0
5 604,812,936 639,894,808 639,894,808 0 0
...
Edit to add all children:
To add all descendants (children) you can add the --trace-children=yes option to the valgrind command.