procmeter3(1x)

NAME

procmeter3 - A user friendly system monitoring program.

SYNOPSIS

procmeter3 [-h|--help] [--rc=<filename>] [--...] [...] [X windows options]

DESCRIPTION

ProcMeter Displays one or more pieces of information about the operating system and other resources. Most of the information that is displayed comes from the /proc filesystem. The program is modular and very configurable.

OPTIONS

The command line options are described below.

-h

Provides a help message listing the available outputs. This will be different for different computers depending on the Linux kernel version that is being used and the hardware/software that is configured.

--rc=<filename>

Load the specified .procmeterrc file in stead of the searching in the usual places.

--...

A list of configuration file options that will override the values in the .procmeterrc file. The format of these options is (for example) --resources.background=grey50 which is equivalent to the entry in the .procmeterrc file of

[resources]
background = grey50

All spaces around the equal sign must be removed and if spaces are required in the value on the right hand side then quotes must be used around the entire command line option.

...

A list of names of outputs that are to be displayed. This can include any of the outputs that are available (see the -h option). For the CPU usage is in a module named Statistics with an output named CPU and there are graph, text and bar options. To display the CPU usage graph you would use the command line option Statistics.CPU-g

X windows options

The standard set of X Windows program options, see X(1) for information. These include -geometry to set the size of the window, -display to set the display and other general X window options.

USAGE

When started the program will display all of the requested information in a set of output panels (vertically aligned by default). Each output can be either a graph, text or bar, and can have a label indicating what it represents. The outputs that are displayed are those from the command line and those from the .procmeterrc configuration file.

The left mouse button will produce a menu of options that are specific to the output that is selected. The Properties option on this menu will give more detailed information about the origin and meaning of the information that is displayed. When the properties information window is displayed, clicking on another output will change the displayed information. The Move to Above and Move to Below options allow the output to be moved around in the window. Selecting one of these options will change the mouse cursor to a hand, use this to select another output. The output that was selected first will be moved to above or below the output that was selected second. The Run option on the menu (which may not be available on all outputs) will run the specified command. This may be to display a list of running processes, show the amount of free memory or disk space for example. This menu option is configurable in the .procmeterrc file.

The right mouse button will produce a set of menus that list the modules that are available and for each of them the available set of outputs. There are three types of output, text and two graphical outputs, these are indicated in the sub-menus by icons. Selecting one of the outputs from a sub-menu will cause that output to be displayed if it is not already visible. If it is currently displayed then it will be disabled. Those that are currently displayed are indicated by a marker to the left in the sub-menu. When the output is added to the window it will be placed at the bottom, use the left mouse button to move it if required.

The middle mouse button will display the sub-menu that is associated with the module for the output that is selected. This is one of sub-menus that are found with the right mouse button.

MODULES

The modules that are provided with the program are the following:

APM

Advanced Power Management information. These outputs are only available if you have configured the Linux kernel to have the APM feature and you have the appropriate hardware. The outputs can tell you the amount of time remaining and the state of charge of the battery.

Biff

Monitors the e-mail inbox (in /var/spool/mail/<username> or /var/mail/<username> ) and indicates the number of e-mails that are waiting and the size of the inbox. The options parameter in the .procmeterrc file can be used to specify an alternate filename to use for the inbox.

Date_Time

The current date and time and the amount of time since the system was last booted. Different outputs are available that allow the format of the date and time information to be changed.

DiskUsage

Shows the percentage of the disk that is used and the amount of free space for each of the local disks that it finds are mounted or can be mounted when the program starts. Extra disks can be passed as options using the options parameter in the .procmeterrc file to contain a space separated list of mount points.

LogFile

Monitors the size and number of lines and the rate of increase of the size or number of lines in a set of log files. The options parameter in the .procmeterrc file contains a space separated list of log file names.

Memory

The amount of memory that is used for programs, buffers, cache and the amount that is free. This is the same information that is available from the free program, but is available here as a graph, bar or as text.

Network

The network devices and the amount of traffic on each of them. It will automatically pick up available devices when it starts. To specify others use the options parameter in the .procmeterrc configuration file which is a space separated list of device names.

Processes

The load average and the number of processes running and starting.

ProcMeter

Information about the procmeter program itself.

Sensors

Hardware sensors for temperature and fan speed. (Requires lm78 hardware and kernel patch from http://www.netroedge.com/~lm78/).

Statistics

Low level system statistics. For example CPU usage, disk usage, swapping and paging.

Stat-CPU

More detailed statistics about individual CPU usage including support for SMP machines.

Stat-Disk

More detailed statistics about individual disk usage including support for up to 4 disks. (This limit is set by the kernel and not by procmeter.)

Stat-Intr

More detailed statistics about individual interrupts including support for up to 32 interrupts (more interrupts are available from the kernel but not displayed).

Uname

The system information, hostname and Linux kernel version, the same as the output of the uname program.

As with all X Window programs X resources can be used. For this version of

X RESOURCES

ProcMeter (compared to previous versions) this is not the default method of configuring the program. The file $HOME/.procmeterrc contains the configuration information.

SEE ALSO

X(1) procmeterrc(5)

biff(1) free(1) uname(1)

AUTHOR

Andrew M. Bishop 1998,99