ascpu(1) ascpu(1)
NAME
ascpu - the AfterStep CPU load monitor
SYNOPSIS
ascpu [-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[-iconic] [-withdrawn] [-standout]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 distinctive 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 col
ors) 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
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Version control. Prints out the version of the pro
gram.
-position [+|-]x[+|-]y
Displays the window at the specified location on
the screen. This works as standard X Windows geome
try option.
-iconic
Starts the ascpu application in the iconized mode.
The icon has the same appearance with the main win
dow. 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-withdrawn
Starts the ascpu application in the withdrawn mode.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 with
drawn 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 informa
tion. The default location of the this device on
Linux systems is /proc/stat.
-cpu <number>
Without this parameter the ascpu displays statis
tics 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 num
ber 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).
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-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 pro
duced 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 aver
age value is calculated statistically over the last
"<number>" of samples.
-history <number>
The number of samples that go into one value dis
played in the running history window. The CPU load
is sampled for the specified 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.
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-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 appear
ance 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 over
rides the color specified with the -fg option.
-nice <color>
The color to use for the nice CPU time. It over
rides the color specified with the -fg option.
-user <color>
The color to use for the user CPU time. It over
rides the color specified with the -fg option.
-idle <color>
The color to use for the idle CPU time. It over
rides the color specified with the -bg option.
INVOCATION
ascpu 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 configuration directory will cause ascpu to be a
button on the Wharf (1) button bar under the afterstep (1)
window manager.
If you have an SMP machine with two CPUs you can watch
both CPUs separately 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.
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If you run WindowMaker then you should use the "-with
drawn" 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, display 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 characters.
I had to limit the number of the CPUs in the SMP system
you are using (lucky you :). Currently up to the CPU num
ber 15 can be shown (that's 16 of them). If you want more
you will have to edit the header file state.h and recom
pile.
The SMP support is not available for FreeBSD at the
moment. Any volunteers to submit the necessary info and
lend a hand with development and testing?
FILES
/proc/stat
SEE ALSO
top(1),proc(5)
COPYRIGHTS
Copyright (c) 1998-99 Albert Dorofeev
<Albert@mail.dma.be>
Distributed under GNU General Public License v2 ; see
LICENSE file for more informations.
AUTHORS
Albert Dorofeev <Albert@mail.dma.be>
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