ascpu(1)ascpu(1)NAMEascpu - the AfterStep CPU load monitor
SYNOPSISascpu [-h] [-H] [-V]
[-iconic] [-withdrawn] [-standout]
[-position [+|-]x[+|-]y]
[-dev device]
[-cpu number]
[-u update rate]
[-samples number]
[-history number]
[-nonice]
[-display display]
[-title name]
[-exe command]
[-bg color]
[-fg color]
[-sys color]
[-nice color]
[-user color]
[-idle color]
DESCRIPTION
The ascpu is a X11 application that acts as an a CPU load monitor for
computers running Linux, FreeBSD or HP-UX. The ascpu provides a dis‐
tinctive Afterstep window manager look and feel and features multiple
options to allow the customization.
The right (big) area displays the running history of the CPU load. With
the default update period of 1 second it shows the current CPU load. It
can be made to show average CPU load in bigger steps.
On the left side you have an indicator that shows the same values taken
average over a number of samples. The default number of samples is 60.
This means with the default setting of update rate you see the average
CPU load during the last minute. If you change it to 1 second you'll
see the current CPU load there.
The load indicators are divided (by using different colors) into three
parts: system CPU time (bright), nice CPU time (medium), and the user
CPU time (dark). The consumed CPU time is displayed in percents of
total (plus idle time that is) CPU time passed.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS-h or -H
prints a short description and usage message.
-V
Version control. Prints out the version of the program.
-position [+|-]x[+|-]y
Displays the window at the specified location on the screen.
This works as standard X Windows geometry option.
-iconic
Starts the ascpu application in the iconized mode. The icon has
the same appearance with the main window. When this option is
given, the -position refers to the position of the icon window
as well as the main window.
-withdrawn
Starts the ascpu application in the withdrawn mode. This option
is necessary to be able to dock the ascpu in the WindowMaker
dock. When this option is given, the -position refers to the
position of the icon window as well as the main window. ascpu
ignores the -iconic option when started in withdrawn mode.
-standout
This changes the appearance of the ascpu display from "pushed-
in" to "popped-out". The first is the default look. According
to some the second looks much better in WindowMaker's dock.
Give it a try in any case.
-dev <device>
Using this option you can specify the location of the file that
serves the CPU statistics information. The default location of
the this device on Linux systems is /proc/stat.
-cpu <number>
Without this parameter the ascpu displays statistics for the
overall system usage on both single-CPU and SMP machines. On SMP
machines, however, it is possible to obtain statistics per CPU.
Using this parameter you give the CPU number (counted from zero)
that you wish to watch.
If you give a CPU number which is bigger than any you actually
have on your machine (or any CPU number on a single-CPU machine)
ascpu will not show anything in its window and start complaining
about "invalid character while reading /proc/stat" on the
stnadard output.
This works only on Linux machines at the moment (I do not have a
FreeBSD machine myself).
-u <update rate>
Changes the polling rate for accessing the CPU statistics data.
The "-samples" and "-history" are specified in units of this
polling rate. The update rate is specified in seconds. The
value of 1 is the minimum. Default value is 1 second.
This is useful to change when you use value of 1 for neither
-samples nor -history. For example, if you want to use "-samples
2 -history 60" (the bar on the left shows average load over two
seconds and the running history shows load update every one
minute) you should better use "-u 2 -samples 1 -history 30" to
decrease the load on the CPU produced by the CPU monitor itself.
-samples <number>
The number of samples that should be taken for the calculations
of the average load on the CPU (the bar on the left). The
default value is 60. The minimum number of samples that can be
specified is 1. At the sample rate of 1 you turn it into the
current load indicator. While it it used as an average load
indicator (sample rate > 1) the average value is calculated sta‐
tistically over the last "<number>" of samples.
-history <number>
The number of samples that go into one value displayed in the
running history window. The CPU load is sampled for the speci‐
fied number of cycles and the value is displayed. The default
value is 1.
-nonice
Force ascpu to show the nice CPU time as idle. This may become
handy if you run some task "niced" in the background and you do
not want to see the CPU indicator to show 100% load all the
time. If this switch is specified the nice CPU time is simply
added to the idle CPU time and you see CPU load only if
user/system CPU cycles are consumed.
-display <name>
The name of the display to start the window in. It works just
as X Windows display option.
-title <name>
Set the window title and the icon title to the specified name.
-exe <command>
Execute the given command when the applet is clicked with the
mouse.
-fg <color>
The color for the "foreground". This color is used to draw the
system CPU time. It is darkened by 1.2 to draw the nice CPU
time. It is darkened by 1.4 to draw the user CPU time. See
options -sys, -nice, -user to use different colors.
-bg <color>
The color for the background of the meter. It is used to draw
the idle CPU time and it is lightened a bit and darkened a bit
to create the 3D appearance of the ground plate. See -idle
option to draw idle time in a different color.
-sys <color>
The color to use for the system CPU time. It overrides the color
specified with the -fg option.
-nice <color>
The color to use for the nice CPU time. It overrides the color
specified with the -fg option.
-user <color>
The color to use for the user CPU time. It overrides the color
specified with the -fg option.
-idle <color>
The color to use for the idle CPU time. It overrides the color
specified with the -bg option.
INVOCATIONascpu can be called in different ways. The most common invocation is
the command line:
user@host[1]% ascpu-history 15 -samples 1 -fg "#d04040" &
Another way to call ascpu is from the window manager:
*Wharf "ascpu" nil Swallow "ascpu" ascpu-u 2 -samples 15 &
This line, when placed in the wharf file in the users Afterstep config‐
uration directory will cause ascpu to be a button on the Wharf (1) but‐
ton bar under the afterstep (1) window manager.
If you have an SMP machine with two CPUs you can watch both CPUs sepa‐
rately and the overall statistics at the same time:
*Wharf "ascpu" nil Swallow "ascpu" ascpu &
*Wharf "ascpu-0" nil Swallow "ascpu-0" ascpu-cpu 0 -title ascpu-0 &
*Wharf "ascpu-1" nil Swallow "ascpu-1" ascpu-cpu 1 -title ascpu-1 &
This will result in three ascpu windows in your Wharf each showing the
respective statistics.
If you run WindowMaker then you should use the "-withdrawn" option:
user@host[1]% ascpu-withdrawn -standout &
and then drag the icon to the dock.
BUGS
My programs do not have bugs, they just develop random features ;-)
Well, there are limitations. All the strings for the color names, dis‐
play name, and the geometry have the length limit of 50 characters
(terminating zero included). The string copying routine cuts the names
that are longer. The limit on the statistics file name is 256 charac‐
ters.
I had to limit the number of the CPUs in the SMP system you are using
(lucky you :). Currently up to the CPU number 15 can be shown (that's
16 of them). If you want more you will have to edit the header file
state.h and recompile.
The SMP support is not available for FreeBSD at the moment. Any volun‐
teers to submit the necessary info and lend a hand with development and
testing?
FILES
/proc/stat
SEE ALSOtop(1),proc(5)COPYRIGHTS
Copyright (c) 1998-2005 Albert Dorofeev <albert@tigr.net>
Distributed under GNU General Public License v2 ; see LICENSE file for
more informations.
AUTHORS
Albert Dorofeev <albert@tigr.net>
See README file for credits.
3rd Berkeley Distribution 10 October 2005 ascpu(1)
