Microsoft releases Sysinternals tool Procdump for Linux

Microsoft has published Procdump as open source software for Linux. The developer has released the Sysinternals tool for monitoring CPU activity spikes under an MIT license on Github.

The arrival of the open source version of Procdump to Linux was announced by Mark Russinovich, the original developer of the Winternals and Sysinternals tools. Microsoft acquired his company Winternals Software in 2006 and Russinovich is currently CTO of Microsoft Azure.

The release is a Linux reimagining of the classic version of the Sysinternals Suite ProcDump tool. The Linux version of ProcDump is based on Gcore from the GNU Debugger, or gdb. The operation is similar to that of ProcDump; Linux developers can use the tool to generate core load dumps if it exceeds a certain percentage.

Microsoft has tested the command line program on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and sets this as the minimum requirement for operating system. The company is in the process of testing the program on other Linux distros. In addition, gdb 7.7.1 is required. It is unknown whether Microsoft plans to bring other Sysinternals tools to Linux.