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Capture a System-Wide Stall Report with spindump

Record what every process was doing during a system freeze using spindump's whole-system stack sampling.

macOSspindumpperformanceDiagnosticsMedium risk
Run sudo spindump -notarget 10 -file /tmp/spindump-report.txt to sample the entire system for 10 seconds into a report file.

01Command

Command
$ sudo spindump -notarget 10 -file /tmp/spindump-report.txt

02What it does

spindump is macOS's built-in whole-system sampler: for a chosen duration it records call stacks of all user-space processes and ranks them by CPU use, which makes it the tool of choice when the entire machine stutters or a process spins silently. The -notarget flag samples the general system rather than waiting on one unresponsive app; without it, spindump waits for and profiles a specific hang. macOS also triggers spindumps automatically on severe hangs — those reports land in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
RequirementsRequires administrator (sudo) privileges.
!Warning: spindump must run as root and samples every process, so treat the resulting file as sensitive (it can include file paths and command arguments). A 10-second sample of a busy system produces a large text file — share only the relevant process section if filing a bug.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • Technical Note TN2124: Mac OS X Debugging Magic
    Apple · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Apple's debugging guide describing spindump-style system-wide stack sampling for diagnosing stalls.
  • spindump(8) macOS man page
    unix.com · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Man page for spindump: samples the whole system and reports stack traces for user-space processes, run as root.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Developer

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