A question of debugging/testing for when memory goes from shared to unshared

Hello Everyone,

After reading Practical mod_perl's section on Improving Performance with Shared Memory  and proper forking a bit, I'm wondering if I can setup a means for testing what is shared and when it becomes unshared in my memory usage.

I can't seem to currently get GTop installed on my OS X box (I'm sure that will get resolved shortly.)

So, I was wondering if anyone has come up with an alternative to determine a way of testing or debugging when memory goes from shared to unshared in the mod_perl environment?

I notice in my processes (using top) that there are several processes that look like they have the same memory maps with regards to shared vs. unshared memory, then there is the root, and one child that has it's one shared and unshared memory allotment. It usually starts with less shared memory than the rest, but on every restart the memory usages change so that the shared amounts change with each restart, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.

I'm wondering if there is a way to see under the hood so to speak to determine what is being shared and what is not in each child process.
Obviously, single user mode type debugging is out.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,
 Boysenberry Payne