loadmeter - System load/resource monitor for X

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 ]

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.

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.

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.

loadmeter is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL).

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...

xload(1).

Ben Buxton <bb@zip.com.au>