Instructions to install Py-spy on HAOS

originally landed at How to install Py spy on a HA OS instance, please instruct - #44 by Mariusthvdb but this might be valuable to post as a standalone community guide. thanks to the relentless support by @bdraco, I can post the solution to original request for

instructions to install py-spy on HAOS (you need to run it on the host):

2 ways to install and run the required files:

1 The easiest way to run docker commands required for the py-spy is to install the ssh & web terminal add-on and disable protection mode then you can ( get into the host and) access the docker cli and follow the rest of the steps described below.

Important: this is the ssh add-on in the community add-ons repo, not the ssh add-on in the official add-ons repo. You cannot access the docker cli from the ssh add-on in the official add-ons repo.

2 On the other hand, you won’t be able to c&p commands (and results) from those terminal windows.
thats the main reason I run ssh in external terminal: to be able to c&p results

For that use the Debugging the Home Assistant Operating System | Home Assistant Developer Docs
method to create authorized keys and copy that to your instance via
ha os import on an attached usb

So you can shell into the Host, which is required for these readings.

ssh [email protected] -p 22222

After having settled the above, you can now continue with the actual setup process of the py-spy files:

docker exec -it homeassistant /bin/bash

next, download and install the correct image for py-spy for your hardware:

For the RPI4:

wget https://github.com/benfred/py-spy/releases/download/v0.3.12/py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl
unzip py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl

For the intel based use:

https://github.com/benfred/py-spy/releases/download/v0.3.12/py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.whl

instead.

There should be a py-spy binary once you call unzip in one of the directories it creates

top (to get pid for homeassistant)

go to the created dir in your /config folder using

cd py_spy-0.3.12.data

cd scripts

Run the next commands for the actual py-spy readings to be analyzed by dev’s:

./py-spy top --pid 60

./py-spy record --pid 60 --duration 120 --rate 100

./py-spy record --pid 60 --duration 300 --rate 200

./py-spy dump --pid 60

Thanks Nick!

1 Like
bash-5.1# wget https://github.com/benfred/py-spy/releases/download/v0.3.12/py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-non
unzip py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl
Connecting to github.com (140.82.121.4:443)
Connecting to objects.githubusercontent.com (185.199.111.133:443)
saving to 'py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl'
py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py   4% |******                                                                   py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py 100% |****************************************************| 2714k  0:00:00 ETA
'py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl' saved
Archive:  py_spy-0.3.12-py2.py3-none-manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux2014_armv7l.whl
  inflating: py_spy-0.3.12.dist-info/METADATA
  inflating: py_spy-0.3.12.dist-info/WHEEL
  inflating: py_spy-0.3.12.dist-info/license_files/LICENSE
  inflating: py_spy-0.3.12.data/scripts/py-spy
  inflating: py_spy-0.3.12.dist-info/RECORD
bash-5.1# cd py_spy-0.3.12.data
bash-5.1# cd scripts
bash-5.1# ./py-spy top --pid 63
thread '<unnamed>' panicked at 'called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: ParseIntError { kind: PosOverflow }', /root/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/proc-maps-0.2.1/src/linux_maps.rs:81:65
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
Error: receiving on a closed channel

bash-5.1#

need help

@morpheus8888 I can confirm I’m also getting this error.

Have you come across a solution?

Thanks

A few notes:

  • with the community add-ons repo it’s possible to remotely log in from an SSH client also with username: and password: if they are specified in the add-on config. To disable protection it’s not enough to just toggle the switch, you also need to restart the addon.
  • it’s worth getting the latest version of py_spy from Releases · benfred/py-spy · GitHub
  • to get the correct pid of the HA process you should run first ps or top and look for the pid of python3 -m homeassistant --config /config. In my case this was 66, so I had to use the commands above with 66 not 60.
  • if the funky-named record file 66-2023-03-02T20:37:26+01:00.svg is not visible on your smb share you should rename it to something more natural, with cp '66-2023-03-02T20:37:26+01:00.svg' 66-1.svg or better add an output filename option like -o homeassistant_$(date +"%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M").svg to the command.
  • to continuously grab data in 120s chunks while waiting for something to happen you could do something like while true; do ./py-spy record --pid 66 -o homeassistant_$(date +"%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M").svg --duration 120 --rate 100; sleep 1; done but keep in mind you need to press Ctrl+C very quickly twice in order to escape from the endless loop.

on the community add-on:

I don’t use that, as mentioned, because we can not copy and paste, which is a real nuisance. Hence my preference to use an external Terminal. Much better solution, also, if your instance might not be reachable via the frontend for some reason, you can still use the terminal window (if setup properly ofc, for port 22222, see linked instructions to do so)

thanks for your additional observations. havent run it in a long time. the pid check was already in the above guide:

top (to get pid for homeassistant)

not sure if that should be emphasized a bit more.

anyways, cheers!