NAME
loadmeter - System load/resource monitor for X
SYNOPSIS
loadmeter [ -display display ] [ -geometry geometry ] [ -name name ] [
-numfont font ] [ -labelfont font ] [ -label label ] [ -popupfont font
] [ -popupbg colour ] [ -popupfg colour ] [ -warn percent ] [ -warnbg
colour ] [ -meter colour ] [ -override ] [ -sync ] [ -bh height ] [
-parent window ] [ -disk ] [ -noshrink ] [ -nogeom ]
DESCRIPTION
loadmeter is a utility to monitor various system resources. It runs
(currently) under Linux and Solaris systems running the X Window
System. It displays information about system hostname, load average,
uptime, disk usage and memory information. loadmeter uses the /proc
filesystem to gather most of this information under Linux, and under
Solaris it reads kernel symbols (What a headache!). In its normal
state it displays a window with a coloured bar graph showing the load
average for the past minute. This is also shown in digits at the top of
the window. Both are updated every second. A red notch marks the
maximum load since loadmeter was started, and can be reset by pressing
Button2 or hidden with Button3. A blue notch shows the 5 minute load
average.
By clicking with Button1, a pop-up window appears showing the uptime,
the load average for the past 1, 5 and 15 minutes, the capacity of each
filesystem, and memory/swap usage. More detailed information on each
filesystem is available by highlighting the corresponding one. The way
this window pops down is intentional, just to make it interesting. :)
(Can be disabled with -noshrink).
Any filesystems with higher usage than specified by the -warn option
(default 90%) are shown with a (default) green background in the popup
menu. If the -disk option is specified, the text ’disk’ appears on the
main window if the usage of any filesystem exceeds the value given by
-warn, or 90% if that option is not supplied. Popping up the stats
window causes this message to go away, until either another filesystem
exceeds this value, or the usage of the filesystem that filled falls
below the warning value and then subsequently exceeds it.
Press Escape within the top level window to exit.
The following bindings are in effect if either the -override or -parent
options is specified.
Ctrl-button1 lowers the window (-override only).
Ctrl-button2 raises and moves the window.
Ctrl-button3 raises and resizes the window.
A SIGUSR1 sent to the loadmeter process will also raise the top level
window. This can be used to raise a window that has been obscured by a
parent that was specified with the -parent option.
OPTIONS
The following options are available. They may be abbreviated so long as
ambiguity is not reached.
-display dpy
Specifies which X server to connect to. If unspecified, the value
of the environment variable DISPLAY is used.
-geometry geometry
Sets the initial geometry of the top level window, given in
standard XxY+W+H format. The default is 40x100.
-name name
The name of the application to present to the window manager.
-numfont font
Use the specified font for the load average digits on the top
level window. The default is 6x10. Rastermans nexus font is
highly recommended.
-labelfont font
Use the specified font for the label displayed behind the bar
graph. The default is
-schumacher-clean-medium-r-*-*-7-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-label label
Specify the string to be displayed behind the bar graph. The
default is the hostname given by uname(2).
-popupfont font
Use the specified font for the text in the popup menus. The
default is -misc-fixed-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-popupbg colour
Sets the background colour of the popup menus. Default is grey30.
-popupfg colour
Sets the foreground colour of the popup menus. Default is yellow.
-warn percent
Causes the menu entry for a particular filesystem to be
highlighted if the usage for it is greater than the given
percentage. The default is 90%.
-warnbg colour
Specify the colour to use for highlighting a filesystem whose
usage is greater than or equal to 90% or whichever is specified
with the -warn option. The default is seagreen4.
-meter colour
Specify the colour to use for the bar in the graphical
representation of filesystem usages. The default is black.
-override
Causes loadmeter to set the override_redirect bit on the top
level window. This will then cause it to bypass the window
manager and display itself undecorated on the root window. This
is useful for using it with window managers such as Enlightenment
(to DR 0.13 at least) which insist on decorating all top level
windows. With this option set, the built in move and resize
features are enabled.
-sync Causes loadmeter to call sync(2) each time it checks the disk
usages. This can slow things down on systems with busy
filesystems, but is more accurate as the filesystems are properly
synced.
-bh height
Specify the height in pixels of each of the bars (blocks) in the
main bar graph. The default is two pixels.
-parent window
This option allows you to specify a particular window for
loadmeter to use as its parent window. Normally loadmeter will
attempt to map itself onto the root window, however there may be
times when you wish to map it as a child of another window on the
screen. The author uses this to map several instances of
loadmeter onto an xclock window, making it easy to move the bank
around by just moving the xclock window. It’s left as an exercise
to the reader to think of other uses for this option.
-disk Causes a warning message on the top level window to be given when
the usage of a filesystem exceeds 90%, or the value given by
-warn. The warning goes away when the stats window is popped up,
until either another filesystem’s usage is excessive or the usage
of the filesystem that caused the warning falls below the
threshold and then subsequently exceeds it.
-noshrink
Disables the slow-popdown eye candy feature of the stats window.
This option is useful for slow network connections to the display
and/or when there is a large number of filesystems being
monitored.
-nogeom
Disables the displaying of the window geometry in the cursor as
the main window is being moved or resized.
Note that -override and -parent cannot both be given in the same
instance.
RESOURCES
loadmeter reads the X server database for several resources that can be
used to specify options for all instances of loadmeter running on the
display. The resources have the same names as each of the command line
options, thus there is no point specifying them here again.
Boolean options (i.e. those that don’t take an argument) are enabled by
setting the corresponding resource to True.
LICENSE
loadmeter is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL).
BUGS
loadmeter does no checking as to whether a colour was successfully
allocated by the X server.
Memory info in Solaris isn’t particularly correct. Patches for this
would be appreciated...
SEE ALSO
xload(1).
AUTHOR
Ben Buxton <bb@zip.com.au>