proc_interrupts(5)

💖 proc_interrupts(5) 💖

okay bestie, so this one lives in the File Formats Manual section (that's section 5, iykyk), and it's literally just about one little file that's lowkey one of the most iconic things in all of /proc. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

/proc/interrupts — number of interrupts 🌸

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

• /proc/interrupts — this file is where the kernel records the number of interrupts per CPU per IO device. that's it, that's the whole assignment. 💅

and then, since Linux 2.6.24 — for the i386 and x86-64 architectures, at least — it also started counting interrupts that are internal to the system, like, ones that are not associated with a device as such. the way it just... expanded its scope. main character behavior fr fr. 👑

those internal ones include:

• NMI — nonmaskable interrupt
• LOC — local timer interrupt
• and for SMP systems:
  • TLB — TLB flush interrupt
  • RES — rescheduling interrupt
  • CAL — remote call interrupt (remote function call interrupt, bestie)
• and possibly others 👀 (the kernel keeps secrets sometimes, we don't judge)

and the formatting? very easy to read, done in ASCII. genuinely so satisfying to look at. no weird binary soup, just clean vibes. 🎀

ngl if you've never run cat /proc/interrupts on a machine with a lot of cores, go do it, it's giving spreadsheet but make it ✨aesthetic✨. not me being obsessed with a pseudo-file. 🙈

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• proc(5) 🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie — literally short and sweet, iconic behavior. 💜 this lil rewrite came to you courtesy of Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08. go forth and cat responsibly. 💅✨🍓